Nothing has changed me as much as being friends with gay people has. The theory, the doctrine, the dogma: it all disappears in the face of friendship and love.
Claudia Rankine’s 'Citizen' and Jeffery Renard Allen’s 'Song of the Shank' both take up the issue of race in America in jagged and beautiful poetry and prose.
While my husband snapped photos of the flag, I stood in silent debate with Big Ed. And then I spied another Confederate flag; an unwelcome sensation came over me.
Laura Swan does a good job of explaining both the beguines’ spiritual practices in the context of their own times and how their continuing legacy affects us today.
Brooks thinks character is what’s missing in our self-centered society, yet has written a self-help book for an age he believes values the self much too highly.
Bolivia's gift to Francis of a hammer-and-sickle crucifix implied its artist was a secret Marxist. I was disconcerted: This was not at all the Luis Espinal I knew.
'Laudato si’' develops a notion of solidarity within and between generations, not only with fellow human beings but with the whole earth and all its creatures.
Whether or not U.S. support for LGBT rights goes beyond the rhetorical, societies still viewing themselves as “under God” will bridle at this sudden turn about.
The African-American Christian tradition has been vital in our history for reasons of the spirit but also as a reminder that the Bible is a subversive book.
Will Republicans be able to admit that enforcing "conservative" values about the honor of work might require what are seen as "progressive" measures by government?
As Francis plans to overhaul the Holy See's media management, a bishop-psychotherapist is assigned to help remove "playboy priests" from an infamous Italian diocese.
My four-year-old son's questions make me smile. But they can also make me sweat: This is it, Mommy, a chance to set the kid straight or send him down the wrong road.
Chicago, 1932. The night before he would knock Ernie Schaaf unconscious, the second time a fighter would die from one of Max’s blows. We were standing at the bar.
The core liberal conviction about the Supreme Court still rings true: it is most constructive when power is used to vindicate the rights of beleaguered minorities.
Amusing and engaging, Barney Frank's stories (from sixteen terms in Congress) tell what kinds of “inside politicking” informed the presidencies of LBJ through Obama.
Paul Moses's history of Irish-Italian relations in 19th century New York delves into the causes for "race war" between the immigrant groups and how they overcame it.
Readers continue the conversation on the morality of contraception in 2015 and how Europe is handling its two most important crises and America its defunct railways.
Synod officials released an "underwhelming" working document for October's assembly while Italian Catholics gathered to protest gay marriage and gender theory.
Any who claim Francis is ignoring the Catholic past and inventing radical new doctrines has to reckon with the care he takes in paying homage to his predecessors.
What Beau Biden's funeral brought home is that the feelings nearly all of us -- left, right, and center -- have about family bonds transcend day-to-day arguments.
Francis's week: talking church reform with cardinals and peace with Vladimir Putin. And saints' bodies are en route to Rome. Is Francis reviving medieval devotions?
A preview of upcoming papal visits at home, abroad and with Italian protestants. And the press turns Francis's list of "attacks on life" into an abortion debate.
The pattern of income inequality is more than a social problem, Robert Putnam says; it's a social tragedy, most devastating in the lives of poor American children.
Readers "angered at the tortured logic of the editors" respond to the removal of Bishop Finn, Francis's failures, the value of "big history," and how to know Jesus.
Cardinal Parolin calls Ireland's gay marriage victory a "defeat for humanity"; progressives and traditionalists hold secret meetings to discuss Synod on the Family.
Oscar Romero will be declared a martyr, Francis tells bishops to stop "trying to tell Catholics what to do all the time," and cardinals deny the pope has enemies.
Andrew Cockburn's 'Kill Chain' examines the disastrous political effects of the U.S. military's targeted assassination practices--and the true motives behind them.
Unlike past Eurocentric taxonomies of world religions, the latest Norton anthology aims to let six major, living, international religions speak...in their own words.
Iranian author Azar Nafiri defends the value of canonical American literature—its imagination and humanity—against Common Core, market analyses, and Babbitt.
At the 126-year old Catholic Church in Freddie Gray's neighborhood, where structural sin can be fatal, parishioners find ways to work for justice, not just charity.
What implicates morality more than how we as a society and individuals treat those who are cut off from the ladders of advancement and the treasures of prosperity?
Argentine Archbishop predicts "the people of God" will support Francis's changes long after he's dead—and traditionalists cry schism while non-Catholics convert.
In Indiana there are plenty of service-sector jobs. But they don't pay nearly as well as the manufacturing jobs Indiana has lost. Can organizing address that?
