Do We Need a Data-Driven Church?
Celebrity pastor Rick Warren argues for doctrinal and disciplinal innovations based on polling data. Catholics would do well to be suspicious of following his lead.
Controversy over Heaven
The Red Hook section of Brooklyn recently renamed a street “Seven in Heaven Way” to honor seven firefighters who died trying to rescue victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks at the World Trade Center. The street was given this new name because the men who died — Joseph Gullickson, Brian Cannizzaro, Salvatore Calabro, Thomas … Read more
How My First Catholic Mentors Taught Me Spirituality
When I arrived at Emory University for my doctoral studies in 1974, I had just finished three years at Princeton Theological Seminary as an aspiring Southern Baptist minister. Despite being a Southern Baptist from Texas, and having pursued Reformation studies — Calvin, Luther, and the Anabaptists — at Princeton, I was more than just intellectually … Read more
A Convert Remembers Her First Lent
Brenda Steele, writing at Catholic Advocate, remembers her first Lent after her conversion. As a convert, I remember every minute of the Easter Vigil when I, too, could at long last, partake in the sacrament of the Eucharist for the very first time. If you are a convert, and you’re reading this, you know exactly … Read more
The Perils of Preaching
Listening to sermons at Mass, one often thinks, like the professor in the Narnia Chronicles, "What do they teach in school?" Not that the sermons are necessarily all that bad, but they are rarely as good as they would be had the priest been better taught. It’s like listening to a fiddler who hits most … Read more