Shouts & Murmurs
Are You There Margaret? It’s Me, God
You repeatedly asked Me to give you boobs, which I hope you’ve figured out is kind of below My pay grade.
Culture Desk
How Mathematics Changed Me
If one is inclined toward mysteries, mathematics can lead one to the conclusion that behind the veil of life there is a structure and an order.
Shouts & Murmurs
God’s Grant Proposal
I’m writing to request a one-time grant of fifty thousand dollars to aid in the creation of a new bipedal, mostly hairless, fairly bad-smelling mammal.
Books
The Church of Jonathan Franzen
In “Crossroads,” bad decisions and bad faith weigh down the characters—and propel the novel to startling heights.
Shouts & Murmurs
The Seven Days of Creation Under Capitalism
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Then God’s boss asked Him to stay late and make the sky, too.
Books
What Thomas Jefferson Could Never Understand About Jesus
Jefferson revised the Gospels to make Jesus more reasonable, and lost the power of his story.
Shouts & Murmurs
Martin Luther’s Ninety-five Theses, as E-mailed by Your Passive-Aggressive Co-Worker
Not to be that guy, and most of this is totally not a big deal, but I just wanted to take a moment to communicate my disappointment with a few things I’ve noticed occurring at the Church lately.
Books
Does Knowing God Just Take Practice?
For both the faithful and the doubtful, the source of religious experience can seem mysterious. One anthropologist explores belief in more mundane terms—as a form of expertise.
On Television
Starring Steve Buscemi as God, “Miracle Workers” Is Sappy, Juvenile, and Sharp All at Once
The seven-episode comedy presents a vision of eternity as drudge work and office politics.
Shouts & Murmurs
Commandments of the Lord Who Created Meryl Streep
Do not steal money. Do not steal cattle. Do not steal focus from Amy Adams the way that Meryl did in “Doubt” and “Julie & Julia.”
Daily Comment
Reading Into Albert Einstein’s God Letter
Einstein had what might be called a night-sky theology, a sense of the awesomeness of the universe that even atheists and materialists feel when they gaze up at the Milky Way.
