Sightings Articles
Calvin, for a Change
Recovering, as many of us will and must, from massive doses of Lutherana—after media, scholars, and the pious both among them and beyond their range are doing following October 31 observances—we at Sightings do our scanning of headlines, twisting of ...
November 13, 2017
Deus ex Machina
Editor's Note: This is the second essay in our series on relationships between religion and science fiction. Read the first issue, Audrey Thompson's "'Cross'-examining the Biblical Witness in War for the Planet of the Apes," and look for more in the ...
November 9, 2017
Luther Goes Global
This week most Lutherans, many Protestants, and not a few “general public” participants will turn the page from observances of the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation. Some church figures—pastors, choir directors, tour leaders, etc.—confess...
November 6, 2017
Martin Luther and Ethiopian Christianity: Historical Traces
How might Ethiopian Christianity have influenced the Protestant Reformation? Did Martin Luther make connections between his reforms and the Orthodox Church in Ethiopia, and could Ethiopian Christianity, as understood by Luther, be considered a “forer...
November 2, 2017
Repent!
Last Monday the Sightings editor republished a “classic” column from a previous century, specifically from 1999. What was I doing that kept me from writing and presenting a fresh item? One answer could be: I was sinning, so I would have something tha...
October 30, 2017
In Search of a Rectification of Names
After eighty years, the college fellowship that I attended as an undergraduate at Princeton has altered its name. “Princeton Evangelical Fellowship” is gone, replaced by “Princeton Christian Fellowship.” I was not surprised or annoyed. The original t...
October 26, 2017
“Cross”-examining the Biblical Witness in War for the Planet of the Apes
Editor's Note: With today's issue, Sightings launches a new thematic series on the relationships between religion and science fiction—both terms broadly understood. Our first installment in this series comes from returning Sightings contributor Audre...
October 19, 2017
Killing Religion?
“College Professors Aren’t Killing Religion” reads a recent headline, whose claim is qualified by its subhead: “But college degrees certainly aren’t helping.” Daniel Cox “[f]iled under Religion” at FiveThirtyEight (October 10, 2017) to tell us this. ...
October 16, 2017
Styron’s Nat Turner Turns 50, Gets Religion
Fifty years ago this month, William Styron published The Confessions of Nat Turner—an historical novel that became a flashpoint for arguments about race and representation during a particularly trying period of U.S. history. Styron, a white Virginian...
October 12, 2017
Souls and the Guns of America
“Guns and the Soul of America” is the title of an important recent column by David Brooks (The New York Times, October 6th). Sightings writers do not claim to be experts on guns, but something or other about “souls” shows up in most of our semiweekly...