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Lent
Lent marks a 40-day period on the church calendar leading up to the celebration of Easter. During Lent, Christians have traditionally engaged in practices of self-denial, like fasting, meant to orient their hearts and minds to the sufferings of Christ, who spent 40 days in the desert fasting and enduring temptations from Satan. While many evangelicals reject Lenten disciplines for their associations with Catholicism, in recent years a greater number have experimented with practices like giving up a favorite indulgence or abstaining from meat on Fridays.
Giving Up Self-Discipline for Lent
There is really only one 'lesson' I've learned in the penitential season.
February 22, 2012
Let's Lengthen Lent
The season can be a beautiful and deeply moving experience of walking with Jesus to the cross.
March 1, 2000
More on Lent
What Neuroscience Tells Us about Lenten Disciplines 
Don't fast for a cause, but to shape your soul.
March 29, 2012
The 'Above All' Commandment of the Sabbath
The one divine 'law' that tells us to stop striving for transformation.
March 16, 2012
Why Ash Wednesday Belongs out of the Church and out on the Streets
We suspect that penitence is usually done best when one joins in a community.
February 22, 2012
Giving Up Self-Discipline for Lent
There is really only one 'lesson' I've learned in the penitential season.
February 22, 2012
Mercifully Forsaken
There is a reason Good Friday is called good, and why we can be thankful when God forsakes us.
April 21, 2011
The Problem with Christus Victor
An increasingly popular view of the atonement forces the question: What are we saved from?
April 7, 2011
Priest Pressured to Give Up Muslim Lent
The Rev. Steve Lawler faced being defrocked if he continued to practice Islamic rituals for Lent.
March 21, 2011
Lent in Narnia
Would C.S. Lewis have renounced Turkish Delight from Ash Wednesday to Easter?
March 10, 2011
A Resurrection That Matters
If we are completely saved from our sins through the Cross, what's the point of the empty tomb?
April 1, 2010
A Crescendo of Wonder
Why Good Friday services are not designed to be funerals for Jesus or exercises in guilt.
March 31, 2010
More Important Than Christmas?
Why pro-life Protestants don't say much about the Annunciation—or the unborn Jesus.
March 25, 2010
The Resurrection Changes Everything
'Raised With Christ' highlights the neglected central event of our faith.
March 22, 2010
A Victory in Vietnam
Officials permit massive outdoor Easter gathering for house churches.
May 18, 2009
Serving a Two-Handed God
How we love our neighbor depends on what we think divine power looks like.
April 15, 2009
Easter, Unedited
N. T. Wright says the Gospels' Resurrection accounts are odd because they are fresh.
April 9, 2009
The Empty Tomb and the Emptied Urn
What the wounds of Jesus can — and can't — tell us about our resurrection bodies.
April 7, 2009
When Hope Feels Like a Fool's Errand
What the Cross and Resurrection teach us about forgiveness.
April 6, 2009
Heaven Is Not Our Home
The bodily resurrection is the good news of the gospel—and thus our social and political mandate.
March 24, 2008
Stations of the Cross — Without the Cross
Episcopalian liturgy for Stations of the Millennium Development Goals truncates the gospel, critics say.
March 6, 2008
Opening a Door into Prayer
A reflection on solitude during Lent, excerpted from Small Surrenders: A Lenten Journey.
February 6, 2008
Is Life Worth Living Before Death?
Dwelling in the Holy Land has become a curse for many of its inhabitants.
January 7, 2008
Raw Material Holy Week Overload Edition
The week's religion news, not yet entirely organized.
April 5, 2007
A Manifold Resurrection
Why the risen Jesus met people in five different ways--and still does.
April 5, 2007
