As I opened my previous Patheos treatment of Critical Race Theory (CRT), I noted that we have a problem due to misinformation or perhaps even disinformation.[1] In a recent New Yorker article on the topic, Jelani Cobb observes how conservatives are “waging war on a wide-ranging set of claims that they wrongly ascribe to critical race theory, while barely mentioning the body of scholarship behind it.” [Jelani Cobb, “Limits of Liberalism,” New Yorker (September 20, 2021) 20-26, at… Read more

“To be? Or, not to be?” asks Hamlet in his Shakespearian soliloquy. If Hamlet were to receive a religious exemption from vaccination or mask wearing and become infected by SARS-CoV-2, he might not live much longer. He would drop from being into nonbeing. What might we learn from Hamlet about religious exemptions to Covid 19 masking? Our version of Hamlet’s question is this: “To mask? Or, not to mask?” when in school, church, or other assemblies? “To Mask” is the… Read more

Tertullian (c.160-c.225) asked rhetorically: “What has Athens to do with Jerusalem? Or, the Academy with the Church?” (Tertullian, vii). I answer: lots! Our gracious God gifted Jerusalem with the gospel of new creation through Jesus Christ. God also gifted Athens with a cultivation of the mind that could benefit all pilgrims seeking truth. Today’s public theologian walks with one foot in Jerusalem and the other in Athens. There is a new kid on the block: Public Theology. We are already… Read more