Dale M. Coulter

About three miles northeast of the Hagia Sophia on the Golden Horn one will find the Phanar, home to the Ecumenical Patriarchate and site of the recent pan-Orthodox assembly, or “Synaxis” of the primates of the Autocephalous Orthodox Churches (not including the Oriental Orthodox). Called . . . . Continue Reading »

The founder of one of Sweden’s largest Protestant congregations is converting to Catholicism. This past Sunday Ulf Ekman announced to the Word of Life church he founded that he and his wife would swim the Tiber. Major news even in secular Sweden, the Dagens Nyheter, Sweden’s largest . . . . Continue Reading »

Greg: Charles Taylor believes humans are naturally ordered toward the good, which means they will always feel a religious impulse. Yet partly due to the influence of what he calls “Reform” he believes the social imaginary has become so secularized that our fundamental religious impulse . . . . Continue Reading »

Although published in 2007, Charles Taylor’s tome A Secular Age continues to generate debate. Last year David Brooks offered a summary of the work while currently Ross Douhat and Damon Linker have reflected on whether or not Taylor’s idea of the late-modern self as . . . . Continue Reading »

As my wife and I pulled up to a fast-food restaurant one year during Lent, our daughter quickly noticed a sign advertising vegetarian options. Given that she had decided to join the millions of Christians fasting during Lent, she was all too happy to know that market forces were at work . . . . Continue Reading »

Pope Francis’ recent address to a conference of prosperity-preaching ministers sponsored by Kenneth Copeland has many people talking. On the one hand, there are those who have expressed deep concern and dismay about this event. They wonder what ecclesial status Tony Palmer—a longtime . . . . Continue Reading »

A recent meeting of ministers associated with the prosperity-preaching Word of Faith branch of charismatic Christianity received a surprise announcement: Pope Francis had sent a message to the conference. It was something of a historic moment. Beginning around the thirty-minute mark of the above . . . . Continue Reading »

As a child of adoption I have lived most of my life around those with whom I share no physical characteristics. This was never really an issue for me: My adoptive parents—both of whom are around a foot shorter—gave me all the love any child requires. I have always had a profound sense of . . . . Continue Reading »

In a collection of essays entitled The Sanctified Church, Zora Neale Hurston described the traditions of the African American holiness and Pentecostal churches as a “revitalizing element” in black music and religion. As someone deeply invested in African American folk culture, . . . . Continue Reading »

The issue of populism in the Evangelical ethos raises a concern for the need to differentiate between pop culture as folk culture and pop culture as mass culture. At its best, Evangelicalism seeks to preserve and foster folk culture and the critics of Evangelical piety need to recognize this . . . . Continue Reading »