St. Augustine was probably not the first, and he was certainly not the last to remark that even pagans believe that Jesus died. It is only Christians who believe that after death he rose to a new life. The joy that is awakened by this belief in the Resurrection is not supposed to be just a seasonal

A woman is hidden behind the white shower curtain. Judging by the sounds, I assume she’s soaping herself. Today is my first day volunteering at the Gift of Grace, a home where Mother Teresa’s nuns and volunteers care for poor women with AIDS. When I arrived earlier this morning, I asked

The most challenging, the most distressing and yet the most strangely consoling book I have read this year is Annie Dillard’s For the Time Being. It is many things: a string of knotty episodes, a litany of loss, a catalogue of catastrophe, a cry for meaning. Crisscrossing the stories of wise r

The day after returning from a conference in Washington, D.C., in late February on the persistence of hunger in the United States, I took the subway to the upper west side of Manhattan to hear Mario Cuomo speak on a similar theme. His address was part of a forum called "The Intransigence of Pov

Not AutomatonsRobert Hudnut's article on Pelagianism (2/26) begins well but soon lapses into error. The analogy that likens having faith to falling in love is seriously flawed. Hudnut's claim that we do not have to accept the gift of faith, just as we do not accept the other person's lov

Oakland Diocesan Service Offers Apology for Clergy Sex AbusePain, anger and healing surged through an Oakland gathering as Bishop John S. Cummins and other leaders of the Diocese of Oakland publicly apologized to victims of clergy sexual abuse. More than 130 people, including survivors, their famili

In a series of very readable books over the last two decades John F Haught a professor of theology at Georgetown University Washington D C has established himself as one of the most intelligent voices in the whole science-religion debate Unfortunately for him and the rest of us Haught rsquo

The right to name Supreme Court justices clearly among the most far-reaching of presidential powers has received surprisingly little analysis by historians Though the influence of a John Marshall a Roger Taney or an Earl Warren on history is vast the motives and goals of presidents in choosing