Martin Marty Center

In this week's Sightings essay for @MartyCenter, Paul Pribbenow explains how Operation Metro Surge brought fear to Augsburg, but a lived theology of neighborliness endures, serving a diverse community with courage and care. Read more via ow.ly/iBBw50YpeZa #Augsburg

In this week's Sightings essay for @martycenter, Richard Amesbury explores that as ICE raids hit Minneapolis, churches mobilize aid, signaling renewed public engagement and a possible reemergence of progressive Christianity. Read more via ow.ly/E3y750YlfLk

In this week's Sightings essay for @martycenter, Justin N. Smolin examines how from a “God-Emperor” meme to the “No Kings” protests, Trump’s kingly image exposes a clash at the heart of America’s republican tradition. Read more via martycenter.org/sightings/on-k… #PoliticalAnalysis

In this week's Sightings essay for @martycenter, Russell P. Johnson explores how AI doomsaying mirrors religious apocalypticism, where prophets of destruction also promise salvation, revealing a faith in technology disguised as fear of it. Read more via martycenter.org/sightings/the-…

In this week's Sightings essay for @martycenter Sarah Zager examines how Minnesotans’ “neighbor” language reveals the limits of grounding social responsibility in physical proximity and personal encounter. Read more via ow.ly/7VZY50Y8RYU #minnestoa #iceout #neighborly

In this week's Sightings essay for @MartyCenter Carl Southwell explores how analyzed through the works of Martin Marty and Jonathan Z. Smith, Trump's rhetoric echoes that of Jim Jones, building loyalty and sharpening division. Read more via ow.ly/45Wl50Y4y4F

In this week's Sightings essay for @MartyCenter Kristi Del Vecchio explains how teaching climate fiction helps students face loss without fatalism, imagine ethical lives, and sustain hope amid environmental crisis. Read more via ow.ly/GtiH50Y0LQN #ClimateFiction

In this week's Sightings essay for @martycenter Robert Saler examines how "Wake Up Dead Man" reimagines clerical corruption, shifting the threat from lust or greed to rage, grievance, and culture-war ideology for modern times. Read more at ow.ly/9Q7w50XWQPs #WakeUpDeadMan

In this week's Sightings essay for @martycenter, Jesse Berger explores how Victor Turner's theory of communitas helps us understand the communal value of sports fandom—a value threatened by betting and fanaticism. Read more via ow.ly/tiVI50XSZKp #SportsFandom

In this week's Sightings essay for @MartyCenter, Brian Britt examines how "A Charlie Brown Christmas" uses a middlebrow aesthetic to critique consumer culture while offering a comforting holiday message. Read more via ow.ly/PyEP50XBZM8 #CharlieBrownChristmas

In this week's Sightings essay for @martycenter, T. Patrick Hill explores how Justice Alito champions expansive religious liberty, but his combative approach often elevates faith above other rights, undermining constitutional integrity. Read more via ow.ly/TokC50XBZhn

In this week's Sightings essay for @MartyCenter, Colin Weaver explores how climate skeptics, including leaders at the Pentagon, frame environmentalism as a “religion” to justify rolling back climate policy. Read more via ow.ly/Or0t50Xuecw #climatechange

In this week's Sightings essay for The Marty Center, Charles Hawkins argues that love isn’t soft, it’s political. Practiced as respect and accountability, love is essential to building a just, humane, and enduring democracy. Read more via ow.ly/XpNS50XraqT

In this week's Sightings essay for The Marty Center Ibrahim N. Abusharif explores how in Saramago’s “Blindness” morality dims amid crisis. Now, media overload calls those who see clearly to guide with empathy and resolve. Read more via ow.ly/nkx350XnsPx #saramago

In this week's Sightings essay for @martycenter Alex Mathews examines Del Toro's revival of Shelley’s myth of creation and blasphemy, but history reveals older traditions where 'playing God' was seen as sacred, not sinful. Read more via ow.ly/efX250XkqR3

In this week's Sightings essay for @MartyCenter Jason Bonham and Clayton Powell explore how after Nelson’s passing, a new LDS leader with Chicago roots rises, revealing its surprising and sustained influence on the Church’s direction. Read more via ow.ly/HRJO50Xgwlk

In this week's Sightings essay for @MartyCenter John Marc Sianghio examines Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth framing of the "warrior ethos" as focused on power, while St. Augustine views military virtue as rooted in humility. Read more via ow.ly/mVU950Xc2V1

In this week's Sightings essay for @MartyCenter Executive Director Emily Crews discussing this years Sightings which will explore new themes and new partnerships. Read more via ow.ly/gvM550X9hZy

To celebrate the centenary of Swift Hall, @MartyCenter has curated an exhibition of 100 items illuminating the rich lived history of @UChiDivinity’s iconic structure on @UChicago’s main quad. Visit the site at swift100.com.    #chicagoexhibits #uchicago

In this week's Sightings essay for @martycenter Julius Crump explores mass protests to marketable dissent, how economic forces shaped, co-opted, and now silence Black radical movements post-2020. Read more via ow.ly/3jZe50W4kR1 #blm #protest