Download PDF: Menhinick, Searching, not Leaving For the first time in recorded history, religious membership in the United States has dropped below 50%. Earlier this year, in March 2021, Gallop released this finding in its most recent poll, which tracks
Download PDF: Lambelet, Becoming Allies Abstract: When hundreds of clergy gathered at Camp Oceti Sakowin on November 3, 2016, they did so not as allies or friends, but first as enemies. This site of social movement uprising against settler
Download PDF: Theoharis, You Who Have Neglected Abstract Although a plethora of biblical texts preach good news to the poor, other texts are used to justify inequality and to blame the poor, or different religious groups, for the misery and oppression
Download PDF: Labrecque, Creationism of Another Kind Editor’s note: This piece was first presented at a conference on religion and ecology at Emory University titled “The Sacred Mundane” on September 10 and 11, 2015. Practical Matters is pleased to feature some of the
Download PDF: RV Slade Local Worship, Global Church By Mark R. Francis, CSV Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2014. 181 pages. $19.95. In this compact volume, Mark Francis adds a historical perspective to the ongoing conversation around matters of inculturation and liturgical
Download PDF: McCray, Sweating Spitting Cursing Abstract Holiness does not always manifest itself in pristine ways. Sometimes profane vehicles open us to the holy. This essay explores three such occasions that surface in preaching. First, I consider the sweating preacher. Drawing
Download PDF: Pape, Preaching about Stewardship ABSTRACT In an earlier essay, I offered some reflections on preaching about stewardship from the Synoptic gospels along with a brief specimen of practice. That essay spoke to a particular homiletical scenario, but it opened
Download PDF: RV Anthony Preaching at the Crossroads By David Lose Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2013. 112 pages. $19.00 The sense that preaching is in crisis has long shaped the homiletician’s work. The promise of refined technique has been the frequent response.
Download PDF: RV Dani Invasion of the Dead By Brian K. Blount Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2014. 156 pages. $16.00. Can one engage pop culture’s literary and cinematic renditions of zombie invasions, vampire slayings, and devastating natural disasters with the
Download PDF: RV Copeland, Blessed are the Consumers By Sallie McFague Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2013. 225 pages. $24. In Blessed Are the Consumers, Sallie McFague takes up the challenge that the “twin planetary crisis of climate change and unjust financial distribution”
Download PDF: RV Neal, Preaching After God By Phil Snider Eugene: Cascade Books, 2012. 227 pages. $20.80 Preaching After God begins with a true story about a roomful of Christian preachers who cannot come up with a concrete instance of God’s
Download PDF: RV Brooks, Staging Faith By Craig Prentiss New York: New York University Press, 2013. 167 pages. $25.00 Craig R. Prentiss offers a refreshing text exploring the intersection of religion and artistic production in African American culture. Operating under the
Download PDF: Helsel, Definitional Ceremonies Abstract Therapeutic case conferences often take place without clients’ full knowledge and thus disempower them. By contrast, narrative therapy’s definitional ceremonies-drawn from the work of anthropologist Barbara Myerhoff-heighten transparency. The article offers an example of the
Download PDF: Hearlson, The Promise of Pierre Bourdieu Abstract The relationship between the field of homiletics and the practice of preaching is complex. This paper explores how Pierre Bourdieu’s social theories of practice might shine light upon the work of homileticians
Download PDF: Hotz, Food and Faith Norman Wirzba New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011. 264 pages. $24.99. In Food and Faith: A Theology of Eating, Norman Wirzba issues an invitation to the Christian community to reimagine its relationship with food. His proposal
Download PDF: Wigg-Stevenson, Reflexive Theology Abstract The ethnographic theologian’s subject position in relation to the Christian communities she studies is fundamentally different from that of an anthropologist or sociologist in relation to his fields of study. Therefore, social science understandings
Download PDF: Scharen and Vigen, Roundtable on Ethnography Conveners: Christian A. Scharen, Luther Seminary and Aana Marie Vigen, Loyola University Chicago Emily Reimer-Barry, University of San Diego, link Mary McClintock Fulkerson, Duke Divinity School, link Ted A. Smith, Candler School of Theology, link Christian
Download PDF: Bielo, Doing Religious Studies Dialogically * Editors’ Note: This essay is part of the Roundtable on Ethnography and Religion. As a die-hard ethnographer, I could not be more sympathetic with the kind of religious studies Robert Orsi articulates. The