From Oremus: Polycarp [A.D. 69-155] was Bishop of Smyrna (today known as Izmir), a city on the west coast of Turkey. The letters to the “seven churches in Asia” at the beginning of the book of Revelation include a letter to the church in Smyrna, identifying it as a church undergoing persecution. Polycarp is said…

In his essay “The Presence of Mary in the Mystery of the Church” (found in the book Mary: Mother of God, edited by Carl Braaten and Robert Jenson), Lutheran theologian David Yeago argues for a re-appropriation by Protestants of Mary’s role as both paradigm or prototype in the life of faith and discipleship and as…

Edward Schroeder of the Crossings Community reviews the book Beyond the Passion: Rethinking the Death and Life of Jesus by Stephen Patterson. Patterson’s argument seems to be the familiar one that the important thing about Jesus was not his death and resurrection, but his vision of a just society that challenged the hegemony of the…

I assume, and hope, that you have better things to do, dear readers, than following internal ideological debates on the political Right, so you may not be familiar with Rod Dreher’s 2002 National Review article on “Granola Conservatives.” In Mr. Dreher’s telling, a granola conservative – or “crunchy con” – is someone who is politically…

This is pretty cool: Make yours here.

This article says that Frank Miller – author of Sin City, but also perhaps better known for rejuvenating the Batman franchise with The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One in the late 80s – is working on a new graphic novel in which Batman takes on al-Qaeda: “Not to put too fine a point…

Good George Will column (via Conservative Green) on the domestic spying and how broad assertion of executive power threatens to upset the already quite precarious balance between the three branches of the federal government. Also, it’s nice to see someone writing about something other than VP Cheney’s hunting follies.

Proponents of “trade justice” as part of a comprehensive approach to fighting global poverty often point to rich countries’ agricultural subsidies as a big part of the problem because they create unfair competition for farmers in the developing world. This article offers six reasons that slashing subsidies and trade barriers would be good for people…

For many Protestants the Rosary encapsulates everything that is wrong with Roman Catholicism – an excessive (and perhaps idolatrous) focus on Mary, rote mechanical prayers, and legalism. But is this a fair characterization? And might the Rosary have something to offer Protestants? The “Praying to Mary” Objection: Since the Rosary consists largely of “Hail Mary”s…

Jennifer points to a surprisingly good statement on the trinitarian name, particularly as it’s used in Baptism, from the bishops of the ELCA: The Gospel is at stake in the name of God. “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” is the eternal ground for the Church’s evangelical message. God’s revelation takes place in human history. It…