About the Contributor(s): Owen F. Cummings is the Regents' Professor of Theology and Academic Dean at Mount Angel Seminary, Oregon. He is also a permanent deacon of the Diocese of Salt Lake City.

The last decade or so has seen many books from what might be called ""the new atheists."" One thinks, for example, of Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens. They have captured the interest of the general reading public and have sold well. Often, however, they have loaded the dice against Christian belief in a most unfair fashion. Arguments and issues have been summarily dismissed after the most cursory of treatments. Thinking God, written by a philosopher and a theologian, father and son, invites the reader to a more reflective consideration of the issues around God and the traditional...

Many feel that work for Christian unity or ecumenism is not especially urgent or important in the complexities of our contemporary world. So many different issues demand the attention of committed Christians--for example, responding to global crises in which people are suffering, developing strong moral stands on a variety of moral problems and challenges, etc. Such issues must remain of major importance to Christians. However, Christians form the one Body of Christ. If that Body continues to remain divided and fragmented, lacking in unity, concord, and harmony, then Christian witness will be...

The liturgical season of Lent and Good Friday are very important for Christians as they meditate and reflect upon the dying of Jesus. These are traditions that take us back to the very beginnings of the Christian tradition. From early times, pilgrims have made their way to the Holy Land, especially Jerusalem, to walk where Jesus walked and to remember his death on the cross. Not everyone can go to Jerusalem, and we cannot stand at the foot of the cross of Jesus, but the Stations of the Cross and the Seven Last Words may take us to Jerusalem and to Calvary imaginatively. LONG...