A Muslim’s Search for Meaning
The author starts from his own narrative to explore what it means to be part of a community (ummah) that engages the Qur’an as a living text. By Zain Abdullah
Featured
Harvesting Souls for Christ
Black Pentecostal women’s altar work is physical and spiritual labor that yields individual and communal rewards. By Judith Casselberry
A Picture Worth a Thousand Tears
This story of an extended family reunited decades after a tragic separation frames the larger story of a world still struggling with the memory of the Holocaust. By Jonathan R. Herman
Reflections on Pope Francis
Pope Francis has already set a very different tone, but do these differences in lifestyle and message signal a significant transformation within the Roman Catholic Church? By Francis Schüssler Fiorenza
Dialogue
Can We Talk (about Animal Rights)?
We tend to hold strong, opposing moral intuitions on animal rights issues, but perhaps we can agree on areas to make partial improvements. By Roger S. Gottlieb
Egypt: Notes from the Ground
What led to the dramatic changes in Egypt in 2013, and how should these events be characterized? By Ahmed Ragab
I’m with Jack
As a person with autism, the author’s son has experienced tzedakah (giving) both as beneficiary and as benefactor. By Michele Madigan Somerville
Children First
To focus effectively on children’s needs, community development efforts need to be tenderhearted but tough-minded. By T. Robinson Ahlstrom
In Review
Books
Religion in the Age of Kant and Bacteria
Two books on the Axial Age: Robert N. Bellah’s Religion in Human Evolution and The Axial Age and Its Consequences, edited by Robert N. Bellah and Hans Joas. By Suzanne Smith
Books
Poetry and Opacity
Adrie Kusserow’s latest volume of poetry, Refuge. By Michael Jackson
Books
What Is “Health”?
Elizabeth H. Bradley and Lauren A. Taylor’s The American Health Care Paradox: Why Spending More Is Getting Us Less. By Tamara Mann
Film
A Biblical Theology Illuminated
Gatsby: The Cinematic Illumination of a Biblical Theology. By Daniel Ross Goodman
Poetry
Echo
By Frannie Lindsay
Three Poems
By Bijan Jalali; translated from the Persian by Hamed Kashani and Gary Gach
Perspective
The Poetry of Pragmatism
The authors address issues, events, and groups about which we often find ourselves unable to dialogue—because acts of violence or deprivation can render us speechless, slip us into denial, or drive us into opposing camps. By Wendy McDowell
