EJ: As a woman and mother how do you think of your personal theology and practice? Is it more down to earth and practical? Does academics only go so far?

KCI: I must confess that I actually like academics. I have a spirituality of the library, you might say. I meet God most often in books and words and ideas. This gets tricky when you've got little kids asking questions about death (our beloved cat died last summer) and Heaven. How to take those beautiful academic ideas and translate them for a four-year-old? ... more

Thoughts from Beckie Garrison

As I toured the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, I was struck by the sight of so many monks giving me the eagle eye. How did the site of the crucifixion and resurrection become so serious and scary? Don't these holy men realize that the gilded crucifixes they display on their chest peacock style symbolize that through Christ I am deemed equal in his eyes? They seem to have forgotten how Jesus redeemed those who were created human in the book of Genesis but were now being treated in the first century as chattel. ... more

by Kris Anne Swartley

Last year, as part of myrequirements for a seminary class on gender and leadership, I wasassigned to read Carol Gilligan's book In a Different Voice.¹In that book she highlights the differences in the moral developmentof men and women, from childhood through midlife. I immediatelybegan to wonder if, just as there are differences in the way men andwomen process questions of morality, there may be differences in theway we approach and process theology. ... more

by Elizabeth D. Sands Wise

I was driving alone in the dark, both hands on the wheel. A car turned onto my road and passed me, its headlights flashing into my windshield. That's when I saw it. ... more

by Rev. Dorcas George

Jesus answered and said to her, "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire." And her daughter was healed from that very hour. ... more

by Elisa Benson

She was the first tender sprout
among these
and gave forth fragrance
like a bright white flower
that blossoms in the springtime,

and she shone like a radiant star.¹

... more

Kinberlee Conway Ireton's book on the church calendar is a refreshingly practical look at how ancient practices can find new relevance within our contemporary way of life. Where many books on the church calendar are nostalgically romantic portrayals of tradition Conway Ireton allows the church calendar to breathe freely in our modern way of doing things, and thereby giving the ebb and flow of the church calendar particular meaning (and sometimes new meaning) in the lives of modern believers. ... more

Tickle's The Great Emergence is a captivating look at how the Western church is shifting and the possibilities of change and division that are bubbling on the surface of turbulent times within various denominations, movements, and traditions. ... more

Intersecting strands of feminist, post-colonial, and post-modern theory together with ritual theory and a practical theology of the Eucharist, Bieler and Schottroff have produced a stunning work that disperses the wonder and power of the Eucharist as crumbs to the hillsides of life. ... more