Joe Carter

Bishops Say Rules on Gay Parents Limit Freedom of Religion New York Times , Laurie Goodstein Top 10 Theology Stories of 2011 The Gospel Coalition , Collin Hansen Top 10 News Stories of 2011 Christianity Today Increasing diversity redefining America’s Jewry CNN , Stephanie Siek Why and How to . . . . Continue Reading »

Someday our grandchildren’s grandchildren are going to sitting in college classroom learning about the early 21st century and wonder how a society so seemingly advanced could have such primitive ideas about mental health.They will no doubt be shocked and appalled that our major diagnostic tool . . . . Continue Reading »

This is both the funniest and most depressing Christmas-related news item I’ve read all week: Clergy from two Christian sects came to blows in the Church of the Nativity on Wednesday morning, prompting police to storm the Bethlehem holy site. Several dozen Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests . . . . Continue Reading »

Literacy Matters—In Church Comment , Deborah Van Duinen God, Government and Roger Williams’ Big Idea Smithsonian , John M. Barry Charismatic movement growing quickly worldwide CNN , Stacey Samuel African American children in Mennonite families bridge two worlds The Philadelphia Inquirer . . . . Continue Reading »

Why is the sun setting on the West? Vishal Mangalwadi argues that is is due to one factor: the brand Christianity. In November 2011, I visited two classes at a Christian university in North America. I asked both: “How many of you would still believe Christianity if you found out tomorrow that . . . . Continue Reading »

If you want an article length rebuttal to Steven Pinker’s “decline of violence” thesis, you can’t do better than David Bentley Hart’s recent takedown in the latest issue of First Things . But if you only want an paragraph length rebuttal, you can’t do better than . . . . Continue Reading »

Harvard Magazine on the latest stage in the “American conquest of the Middle Ages” : The great literary scholar Ernst Robert Curtius reflected on this absence in his 1948 magnum opus,  European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages . “What strikes me most is this: The American . . . . Continue Reading »

“The real dirty little secret of religiosity in America,” says Mark Silk, a professor of religion and public life, “is that there are so many people for whom spiritual interest, thinking about ultimate questions, is minimal.” As USA Today notes , research is beginning to . . . . Continue Reading »

Poll: Some worshipers took a holiday on Christmas Washington Post , Michelle Boorstein 2011: The year Mormonism went mainstream National Post , Charles Lewis Cheated Out of Christmas Middlebrow , John Mark Reynolds Exchanging the Natural for the Unnatural Challies.com , Tim Challies Christmas . . . . Continue Reading »

Last month I stirred up a bit of ill will by poking fun at advocates of distributism (see: Who Gets To Be the Czar of Aesthetic Consumption? ). As I said at the time, I like and admire them but get annoyed by their habit of taking their philosophy very, very seriously. What I didn’t explain . . . . Continue Reading »