In an adapted excerpt from his upcoming new book, Pete Ward discusses how celebrity culture is a “kind of” religion which carries theological ideas as part of popular communication.

See Part I of this essay series, in which Swanson begins her analysis of evanglical responses to the Twilightseries by examining Twilight‘s false message of abstinence. Here in Part II, Swanson critiques New Moon’s portrayal of men as “protectors” and women as “perpetual, self-sacrificing victims.” Twilight has become the synecdochic term for Stephenie Meyer’s book, film, and pop […]

In this conversation, distinguished professors James K. A. Smith and James Davison Hunter discuss Hunter’s newest book, TO CHANGE THE WORLD.

An essay that uses two recent Seattle Art Museum exhibits to compare Andy Warhol, Marilyn Monroe, and Kurt Cobain and to reflect on the nature of celebrity.

Brian McLaren has been asking important questions about Christian practice for decades, stirring needed debate within the world of evangelicalism and beyond. His newest book, A New Kind of Christianity, continues McLaren’s project of assessing and reassessing our assumptions concerning the foundations of modern Christian practice by asking ten important questions about the pillars of the Christian faith: narrative, […]

Brian McLaren has been asking important questions about Christian practice for decades, stirring needed debate within the world of evangelicalism and beyond. His newest book, A New Kind of Christianity, continues McLaren’s project of assessing and reassessing our assumptions concerning the foundations of modern Christian practice by asking ten important questions about the pillars of the Christian faith: narrative, […]

Ron Hansen’s fiction is tight and rich. Each of Hansen’s writings carries a certain arc: the plains of the American West, the sanctuary of a hushed convent, and the frenzied deck of theDeutschland are both terse and beautiful, places where redemption is particularly fitted to each character’s peculiar, compelling humanity. In this interview, Hansen talks […]

After resurrection, Jesus acted strange, materializing through solid wood, even though he didn’t look that different. The gashes seeped still, varnishing the tentative hand, the fingers that needed to know him new. Let me say how strange I feel, trusting this to be true—that a body can be both mortally wounded and whole enough to […]

Real love happens between two people of value, not between a girl who thinks she is nothing and the boy is everything. —Beth Felker Jones, Touched by a Vampire   Since the publication of Twilight in 2005, Stephenie Meyer’s teen vampire romance saga has rapidly gained ground as a pop culture phenomenon to rival that of Harry Potter. […]