Sightings Articles
Territory Is Not Mind -- Jonathan H. Ebel
As if to remind us that in every victory there is also defeat, another airplane fell from the sky on Monday, killing all on board, and an undetermined number on the ground. Pushed from largest-font status in the headlines Tuesday morning was what cou...
November 15, 2001
Staying at the Table in Boston and Israel -- Martin E. Marty
Sightings does not usually "do" international politics. We report on domestic implications, but the two come together more frequently these days. During a late October trip to Boston, these four headlines appeared in The Boston Globe: "Bishops Join P...
November 12, 2001
Preliminary Thoughts on Irrevocable Punishment -- J. Budziszewski
In January, we will meet to consider whether criminals may be killed. The Christian faith recognizes two sources for reflection on such questions: One is the Bible, the record of God's self-disclosure to the community of faith. The other is natural l...
November 8, 2001
Testing Faith in the Market God -- Martin E. Marty
Theologian Harvey Cox's article "The Market as God" (The Atlantic Monthly, March, 1999) puckishly and pointedly showed how much "market talk" matched theological talk, how often " the market" was being given attributes that usually were given to God,...
November 5, 2001
The Wisdom of Serpents: Religion and American Foreign Policy -- Roland Homet
The events of September eleventh illuminate starkly the distortions that hatred can bring to religious expression. Osama bin Laden and his colleagues have twisted Islam into into forms and for ends that mainstream Muslims do not support. If we want o...
November 1, 2001
Listening to Lactantius -- Martin E. Marty
Most whose lives are devoted to something other than the study of ancient Christianity have never heard of Lactantius. I had not since my Ph.D. exams forty-five years ago, and had little occasion to remember him or find him relevant since then. Schol...
October 29, 2001
The Intellectual's Responsibility and the Ambiguity of Religions of the Book, part III
In response to the events of the eleventh of September, the University of Chicago has sponsored a series of lectures and discussions titled "9/11: Its Causes and Consequences." The following issue of Sightings is the third in a series of three articl...
October 26, 2001
The Intellectual's Responsibility and the Ambiguity of the Religions of the Book, part II
The Intellectual's Responsibility and the Ambiguity of the Religions of the Book, part II: A Shared Pattern of Moral Conviction In response to the events of the eleventh of September, the University of Chicago has sponsored a series of lectures an...
October 24, 2001
The Intellectual's Responsibility and the Ambiguity of Religions of the Book, part I: The Clash of Civilizations and/or Global Reflexivity
In response to the events of the eleventh of September, the University of Chicago has sponsored a series of lectures and discussions titled "9/11: Its Causes and Consequences." The following issue of Sightings is the first in a series of three adapte...
October 22, 2001
Pat Robertson and the Rhetoric of Decline -- Andrew R. Murphy
Commenting on the September 11 terrorist attacks on America, Pat Robertson warned that "[t]he Lord is getting ready to shake this nation....God Almighty is lifting his protection from us." Citing abortion and pornography as just two practices that ha...