Heavenly sounds, humble tool
“I relish the experience of playing for Sunday services,” said Natalia Paruz. That isn’t unusual coming from a Lutheran professional musician, but Paruz plays an unusual instrument—the musical saw. The…
“I relish the experience of playing for Sunday services,” said Natalia Paruz. That isn’t unusual coming from a Lutheran professional musician, but Paruz plays an unusual instrument—the musical saw. The…
It was a Thursday afternoon after the leaves had turned color on the trees that punctuate the concrete plaza in front of the student union at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln….
When I was a young seminary professor just starting out in teaching church history, I would often get some variation on the question “What’s a nice girl like you doing…
During a sabbatical several years ago, I did research for what became a book on pastoral truth-telling and came across an intriguing idea authored by Sissela Bok, an ethicist and…
Aretha Franklin could make people cry with her voice. In the concert documentary Amazing Grace—filmed by director Sydney Pollack in Los Angeles over two January nights in 1972 and finally…
Imagine if the name you were given were taken away from you. Or if the personality that makes you unique were denied. Imagine if the voice that was given to…
Editor’s note: In her book One Coin Found: How God’s Love Stretches to the Margins (Fortress Press, 2019), Emmy Kegler remembers falling in love with Scripture while wrestling with the…
Tanque Verde Lutheran Church, Tucson, Ariz. Sophomore at Sabino High School, Tucson I believe God subtly tries to push me to do things. While it’s not a force that controls…
As the title suggests, Avengers: Endgame is a movie about endings. Not only does the film complete the story begun last year in Avengers: Infinity War, in which our heroes…
“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1) I walked…
A married woman without children, remarks a character in Jane Austen’s Persuasion, is the “very best preserver of furniture in the world.” We might never state our feelings so clearly,…
Editor’s note: In this five-part series, former ELCA Presiding Bishop Herbert Chilstrom examines the authority and interpretation of the Bible. Part one explored how we understand the Bible’s purpose and how…
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