One of the most important concepts that guides and motivates my work as a theological educator is the nature of a call from God. I believe everyone has them, everyone gets them continuously throughout their lives, and they cause me to believe in an actively engaged God unlike anything else. …

Last weekend, this weekend, and next weekend, it’s likely that many of you readers will be attending a graduation ceremony. I’ll attend three and preside over one. Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School, where I serve as Founding Dean, will celebrate our graduates tomorrow. I love graduation ceremonies but…

Claire Dederer’s new book, Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma (Deckle Edge, 2023), explores the question of how a consumer reconciles appreciation of art with moral consternation with the artist. She asks, Are we allowed to boogie when the DJ plays Michael Jackson, and he asks us to give him one more…

I’m working on a book that promotes the idea that we should lead with “wonder and wherewithal,” rather than “answers and abdication.” When will it be finished? I don’t have an “answer” for that quite yet. But because ideas have been rolling around in my head since I proposed the…

I might have seemed okay over the past couple of days to those who’ve seen me from a distance, but I haven’t been. My teacher has died, and I’m sad. You might think to yourself, “Sarah surely had dozens of teachers,” and that’s quantitatively true. But Andy Lowe was my…

You Already Speak the Same Language The concept of a metaverse is the best thing that’s happened to religion in a long time. So how it is that religious leaders seem largely oblivious to its adoption on the part of popular culture, from personal computing to the Marvel Cinematic Universe? The church’s inattention to a growing…

The mission field that interests me most is that of the nominal Christian. …

My colleague Ned preaches regularly at a church in Norwalk, CT. The community there knows him well enough that, when he does something in worship leadership that they don’t expect, they tell him. They aren’t pissy about it; they just notice. This past Sunday, Ned was the one who did…

The principal of a charter school in Michigan resigned under pressure over a controversy involving a sixth-grade art history lesson. In that lesson, a teacher showed students photographs of Michelangelo’s David, who is naked. Parents complained that the teacher exposed the students to pornography. In past years, parents had been…