Most readers of this column have been in a position of authority at some time I rsquo m sure and some of us this writer included enjoy a constancy of authority because of education ordination position or wealth Though we might not speak of it often even quietly to ourselves it is a delight

The common understanding of the relationship between Onesimus and Philemon in Paul rsquo s letter to Philemon is that Onesimus was a slave of Philemon Though it remains a debated issue Onesimus had either run away from Philemon or had been sent by him to render service to Paul while he was impriso

John W. Martens asks readers for essential Bible passages for Christian-Muslim dialogue.

The whole nature of kingship can be confusing At least it is confusing to me raised as I was in Canada a democracy that nevertheless retains a monarch as head of state It does not necessarily get clearer in the United States whose founding as an independent nation goes back to the casting off o

There is a bittersweet gentleness to Otis Redding rsquo s classic song ldquo Sitting on the Dock of the Bay rdquo as the singer looks homeward to Georgia while ldquo wastin rsquo time rdquo on the San Francisco docks Everyone has experienced a longing for home whether at summer camp as a chi

There is an inherent tension in Christianity between the indicative and the imperative what we are and what we are intended to be between the present and the future the life we are now living and the world to come If we focus only on this world or only on the world to come the Christian life is

When you rsquo re lost it rsquo s good to be missed it rsquo s even better to be found At the heart of spiritual lostness though is our collusion in our own absence People are not inanimate objects like coins things that can fall unwittingly into corners nor are they like sheep animals with

Family life in antiquity was a life of insecurity though families in many parts of the world still know this insecurity well even today The warm pictures we might concoct of ancient families mdash though certainly the ancients loved their children and spouses loved each other just as families do

There is an inherent tension in Christianity between the indicative and the imperative what we are and what we are intended to be between the present and the future the life we are now living and the world to come If we focus only on this world or only on the world to come the Christian life is

The Greek word that refers to Jesus rsquo arrival most often translated as ldquo second coming rdquo is parousia The term was adopted by Christians from the common Greek usage and imperial Roman ideology of the day in which a city prepared for and eagerly anticipated the arrival of a major po