The following is a more or less complete collection of my academic articles, essays, reportage, and interviews. There are some stray pieces not included here, particularly blog posts for America, Killing the Buddha, and Waging Nonviolence, and interviews for The Immanent Frame. For a listing of academic publications only, see my CV.
Archive files are password protected to avoid inadvertent copyright infringement; to access them, use public as the username and access as the password.
How to Build Governable Spaces for Online Communities
MEDLab, December 18, 2024
[ link | pdf ]
Democracy Against Democracy
Flaming Hydra, November 25, 2024
[ link | open-access | pdf ]
How to Restore Community Economies: Reestablishing the Right to Associate
Nonprofit Quarterly, November 13, 2024
[ link | pdf ]
Innovation Amnesia: Technology as a Substitute for Politics
First Monday, November 3, 2024
[ link | pdf ]
Shared Code: Democratizing AI Companies
Collective Intelligence Project, October 24, 2024
[ link | pdf ]
Toward Governance Best Practices for Open Educational Resources
Proceedings of the Association for Library and Information Science Education, October 16, 2024
[ link | pdf ]
Republican or Democrat: Don’t Make an Idol of Political Parties
America, July 25, 2024
[ link | pdf ]
Review of Resisting AI
Information & Culture, 2024
[ link | pdf ]
Notes on Old Religion for New Network Sovereigns
EUI Global Governance Programme, June 21, 2024
[ link | pdf ]
Why the Future of Democracy Could Depend on Your Group Chats
The Conversation, June 3, 2024
[ link (French) | pdf ]
The YouTube Philosophers
America, May 2024
[ link | pdf ]
Perverse Attraction: Idolatry, Pornography, and the Making of Infrastructure
Zygon, 2024
[ link | pdf ]
Democracy On, Not Just around, the Internet
Harvard Kennedy School Ash Center, February 2024
[ link | pdf ]
How to Protect Your Data Privacy: A Digital Media Expert Provides Steps You Can Take and Explains Why You Can’t Go It Alone
The Conversation, January 25, 2024
[ link | SFGATE | pdf ]
Now We Know: Exit to Community Is Possible
Hacker Noon, January 3, 2024
[ link | pdf ]
Meta
RHYTHMS, November 29, 2023
[ link | pdf ]
The Trouble with “Gender Ideology”
America Magazine, November 16, 2023
[ link | pdf ]
Has the Bear Market Called Crypto’s Bluff?
CoinDesk, August 2, 2023
[ link | pdf ]
Winding Down a Cooperative with Care
Ownership Matters, July 6, 2023
[ link | pdf ]
“Polemic Becomes Canon”: An Interview With Richard Barbrook on the Californian Ideology
International Journal of Communication, June 2023
[ link | pdf ]
Homesteading on a Superhighway: The Californian Ideology and Everyday Politics
International Journal of Communication, June 2023
[ link | pdf ]
Afterlives of the Californian Ideology: Tech Movements, Pioneer Communities, and Imaginaries of Digital Futures
International Journal of Communication, June 2023
[ link | pdf ]
Toward Equitable Ownership and Governance in the Digital Public Sphere
Harvard Belfer Center, June 8, 2023
[ link | pdf ]
Governing in Nonlinear Time
Zora Zine, June 8, 2023
[ link | pdf ]
Designing for the Economy of Involvement in Co-ops
Ownership Matters, March 28, 2023
[ link | pdf ]
Regenerative Business Rising: How Policy Can Create an Economy Led by a Different Kind of Company
Doughnut Economics Action Lab, March 27, 2023
[ link | pdf ]
Governance Archaeology: Research as Ancestry
Daedalus, Winter 2023
[ link | pdf ]
Crypto’s Section 230: A Policy Platform for DAOs
Mirror, January 16, 2023
[ link | pdf ]
Mastodon Isn’t Just A Replacement For Twitter
Noema, November 29, 2022
[ link | pdf ]
Bits of Moloch
Machines in Between, November 19, 2022
[ link ]
Lighten the Load of the Nation-State
Kernel, October 12, 2022
[ link | pdf ]
From Scalability to Subsidiarity in Addressing Online Harm
Social Media + Society, September 21, 2022
[ link | pdf ]
Cryptoeconomics as a Limitation on Governance
Mirror, August 11, 2022
[ link | link (Chinese) | pdf ]
How We Can Encode Human Rights In The Blockchain
Noema, June 7, 2022
[ link | pdf ]
You’re Probably Praying the Our Father Wrong
America, April 21, 2022
[ link | pdf ]
You—Yes, You!—Would Be a Better Owner for Twitter Than Elon Musk
Wired, April 16, 2022
[ link | pdf ]
Governable Spaces: A Feminist Agenda for Platform Policy
Internet Policy Review, March 22, 2022
[ link | preprint ]
Modpol is a Self-Governance Toolkit for Communities in Online Worlds
Hacker Noon, January 30, 2022
[ link | pdf ]
How Can We Honor Martin Luther King Jr.? Defund (while Respecting) the Police
America, January 7, 2022
[ link | pdf ]
Governable Stacks against Digital Colonialism
tripleC, January 12, 2022
[ link | preprint ]
Policy Proposals for Crypto Protocols to Make Them Less Dystopic and More Inclusive
Hacker Noon, January 7, 2022
[ link | pdf ]
We Know What Caused the Colorado Fire—and We Need to Say It: Climate Change
America, January 4, 2022
[ link | pdf ]
Scaling Co-operatives Through a Multi-Stakeholder Network: A Case Study in the Colorado Solar Energy Industry
Journal of Entrepreneurial and Organizational Diversity, 2021
[ link | pdf ]
A Gallery of Craft Desktops
Hack_Curio, October 21, 2021
[ link | pdf ]
Beyond Cryptoeconomics: Platform Cooperativism and the Future of Blockchain Governance
The Reboot, October 14, 2021
[ link | pdf ]
Effective Voice: Beyond Exit and Affect in Online Communities
New Media & Society, September 20, 2021
[ link | preprint ]
The Real Story of Occupy Wall Street Is What’s Happened Since
Rolling Stone, September 17, 2021
[ link | pdf ]
‘The Chosen’ Dares to Imagine Stories about Jesus and the Disciples that Aren’t in the Gospels. It’s a Revelation.
America, August 13, 2021
Stories about his followers explode into the foreground.
[ link | pdf ]
Let Users Own the Tech Companies They Help Build
Wired, June 20, 2021
Why are big tech companies trying to share ownership with users?
[ link | pdf ]
Distribute Commons, Not Commodities
Internet Archive blog, May 27, 2021
Wrap markets in democracies.
[ link | pdf ]
Exit To Community: Strategies for Multi-Stakeholder Ownership in the Platform Economy
Georgetown Law Technology Review, May 2021
The platform economy is facing a crisis of accountability
[ link | pdf ]
Modular Politics: Toward a Governance Layer for Online Communities
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, April 2021
A generalizable paradigm for online governance.
[ link | preprint ]
NFTs Are Leading to a New Financial Dystopia. Here’s Why You Should Care.
America, March 30, 2021
Is this what we want to be democratizing?
[ link | pdf ]
The Tyranny of Openness: What Happened to Peer Production?
Feminist Media Studies, February 17, 2021
A “culture war” is underway among software peer-production communities.
[ link | preprint ]
Our World Is Ripe for Revolution. Ten Years after Occupy and the Arab Spring, What Have We Learned?
America, January 25, 2021
Allow me to tell you a story about stories—about how stories can change the world and how they can get in the way.
[ link | pdf ]
The Assault on the Capitol Was Horrific. But Occupying a Legislature Can Be a Legitimate Act of Protest.
America, January 8, 2021
Occupying a legislature can be an act of democracy. We in the United States might need to do it again.
[ link | pdf ]
Admins, Mods, and Benevolent Dictators for Life: The Implicit Feudalism of Online Communities
New Media & Society, January 7, 2021
How social networks train users to interact through certain widespread interface designs.
[ link | preprint ]
Broad-Based Stakeholder Ownership in Journalism: Co-ops, ESOPs, Blockchains
Media Industries, 2020
A survey of broad-based stakeholder-ownership models for journalism.
[ link | preprint ]
Designing Community Self-Governance with CommunityRule
NordiCHI 2020, October 26, 2020
A simple web application to facilitate governance design.
[ link | preprint ]
We Need to Reinvent the Co-op
Vanderbilt Divinity School, October 19, 2020
The cooperative principles may be ready for rewriting.
[ link | reprint | pdf ]
Ancient Democracy for an Online World
Noema, September 29, 2020
Offline democracy offers lessons as the Internet’s fledgling democratic processes develop.
[ link | pdf ]
This Election Is a Referendum on Who Is Allowed to Break the Law
America, September 11, 2020
“Law and order” is a promise for some at the expense of others.
[ link | pdf ]
The Wrong Lesson
The Nation, September 9, 2020
Business as usual on US campuses is not only a medical danger but also poor pedagogy.
[ link | pdf ]
Exit to Community
Noema, August 27, 2020
Grafting the lessons of old cooperatively owned companies to the online economy.
[ link | link (Chinese) | pdf ]
Cooperative Ownership: A Covid Recovery Strategy
The Nation, July 7, 2020
We all have a stake in crisis relief and a just recovery.
[ link | pdf ]
Organize for Change or Quit Your Job
Hack_Curio, July 3, 2020
“Software freedom must not come before human freedom.”
[ link | pdf ]
What the 1930s Can Teach Us about Dealing with Big Tech Today
MIT Technology Review, June 17, 2020
How to give ordinary people a say in the economic recovery from covid-19.
[ link | pdf ]
What Innovations Do People Actually Need After the Pandemic? Not Flying Cars
America, June 4, 2020
Venture capital sci-fi could come with the promise of some basic fairness.
[ link | pdf ]
How’s That Open Source Governance Working for You?
Hacker Noon, April 29, 2020
Why is open-source collaboration so full of monarchical dictatorships?
[ link | link ]
How Credit Unions Can Spur Mutual Support in a Pandemic
Filene Research Institute, April 21, 2020
The spirit of mutuality is coming alive again.
[ link ]
The Culture War in Open Source is On
Model View Culture, April 15, 2020
The challenges to open source’s “noble neutrality.”
[ link | pdf ]
The Pope Just Proposed a Universal Basic Income. Is the United States Ready for It?
America, April 12, 2020
“This may be the time to consider a universal basic wage.”
[ link | pdf ]
What the President Was Supposed to Do All Along
The Atlantic, April 10, 2020
The virtues in a candidacy of nothing.
[ link | pdf ]
How to Build Mutual Aid that Will Last After the Coronavirus Pandemic
America, April 1, 2020
Can this mobilization be as patient as the virus is?
[ link | pdf ]
A Catholic Case for Open Borders
America, March 5, 2020
On the fallacy of Christian nationalism
[ link | pdf ]
Media
The Immanent Frame, February 14, 2020
Perhaps everything is in some sense religion and in some sense media
[ link | pdf ]
Mediated Ownership: Capital as Media
Media, Culture & Society, February 10, 2020
Why our institutional surroundings are pliable to tactical intervention
[ link | preprint ]
User Trusts: Broad-Based Ownership for Online Platforms
Informatik Spektrum, February 2020
A novel broad-based capital strategy—trusts serving platform users
[ link | open-access | preprint ]
Real Stakeholder Governance Requires a Counter-Weight to the Power of Wealth
Business & Human Rights Resource Center blog, January 22, 2020
How corporate stakeholders can have real power
[ link | pdf ]
I Think There’s a Revolution Happening
Hack_Curio, January 1, 2020
Weird and wacky ideas about money
[ link ]
Discarded Mutualisms
Fifty by Fifty, December 11, 2019
We need capital markets that prioritize workers over billionaires
[ link | pdf ]
The American Empire Is in Decline—and We’re Not Ready for What Comes Next
America, November 5, 2019
How will this country enter its eventual post-great future?
[ link | pdf ]
Meetup to the People: How a Zebra could Rise from a Unicorn’s Fall
Medium, November 5, 2019
Meetup could finally live up to its true potential
[ link ]
Cooperative Enterprise as an Antimonopoly Strategy
Penn State Law Review, Fall 2019
How online platforms can learn from farmers a century ago
[ link | pdf ]
Becoming Mr. Mom
America, November 11, 2019
Why we need an economy for care
[ link | pdf ]
Beyond the Valley
Times Higher Education, October 24, 2019
A book review on globalizing tech culture
[ link | pdf ]
An Economy for Anything
Plough, Autumn 2019
What if economics were to become a mainly solved problem?
[ link | pdf ]
Greta Thunberg and the Trouble with Changing the World
America, September 24, 2019
The phrase always seems to come at the end of a sentence
[ link | pdf ]
Startups Need a New Option: Exit to Community
Hacker Noon, September 16, 2019
Who builds a company just to get rid of it?
[ link | pdf ]
There’s More Than One Way to Fight Monopoly
The Atlantic, August 11, 2019
Workers and small businesses need the ability to join forces
[ link | pdf ]
Fighting Capitalism with Capitalism
The Nation, August 8, 2019
One of those mythical ideas that can claim bipartisan support
[ link | pdf ]
Seven Tips for New Catholics, from One Convert to Another
America, April 22, 2019
Welcome! Christ is risen
[ link | pdf ]
Decentralization: An Incomplete Ambition
Journal of Cultural Economy, April 17, 2019
It is called for far more than it is theorized or consistently defined
[ link | preprint ]
It’s Not Enough to Defend Democracy—Now Is the Time to Advance It
The Guardian, February 27, 2019
Democracy needs to show it can deliver a better way of life than the autocrats
[ link | html ]
The Green New Deal Could Dramatically Expand Economic Democracy
The Nation, February 15, 2019
We can accomplish great things by putting ordinary people in control
[ link | html ]
How Can Activists Win More Than a Viral Moment?
America, February 11, 2019
We can steer ourselves into more creative kinds of action
[ link | html ]
Polarization Can Bring About Real Political Change. Our Past Proves It
America, January 14, 2019
Where these pliable times take us depends on the movements we can build
[ link | html ]
Antitrust For The Many, Not The Few
The Nation, November 20, 2018
Why does antitrust law target Uber drivers and not Uber?
[ link | html ]
What to Do Once You Admit That Decentralizing Everything Never Seems to Work
Hackernoon, October 17, 2018
Some strategies for responsible decentralization
[ link | html ]
Uber’s and Airbnb’s Plans To Share Their Wealth Could Shake Up Capitalism
HuffPost, October 16, 2018
Creating a real sharing economy is actually in their interest
[ link | html ]
What If Employees Co-owned the Business Where They Work?
The Guardian, September 29, 2018
A quiet consensus is emerging across the political divide
[ link | html ]
Working for This Type of Company Can Make You Feel More Financially Secure
MarketWatch, September 12, 2018
How co-ops are poised to reverse the ingredients of the financial crisis
[ link | html ]
Rich People Broke America and Never Paid the Price
Vice, September 11, 2018
In an alternate universe, things actually changed
[ link | html ]
How to Survive Trump: End the Cult of the Presidency
America, May 30, 2018
If democracy is eroding, has the world given up on itself?
[ link | html ]
The University Is Not an Aristocracy
The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 20, 2018 (America, January 23)
Why do we value selectivity over social mobility?
[ link | original link | html ]
The Transactional Apocalypse Is Coming
America, May 1, 2018
What if we could make economics uninteresting again?
[ link | html ]
Should Researchers Share All Their Data?
Chronicle of Higher Education, April 8, 2018
A secret realm of dark data resides in the notebooks and hard drives of data-gatherers
[ link | html ]
It’s Time for Mark Zuckerberg to Give Up Control of Facebook
Vice, March 27, 2018
The social media titan needs a new model of ownership and governance
[ link | html ]
Bargaining with Robots
The Indypendent, March 6, 2018
Winning basic income has more to do with politics than machines
[ link | html | pdf | audio ]
An Internet of Ownership: Democratic Design for the Online Economy
The Sociological Review, March 2018
A survey of platform cooperativism so far
[ link | pdf | html ]
How Co-ops Can Help Spread the Benefits of Automation
Co-operative News, January 31, 2018
Who owns what will determine who really benefits
[ link | html | pdf ]
Next, the Internet
Cooperative Business Journal, winter 2018
Building a cooperative digital space
[ issue | article | article (Portuguese) | pdf ]
History Shows Co-op Movement Led to a Populism of Hope
YES!, winter 2018
The untold story of great resistance movements
[ link ]
Democrats and Republicans Both Have a Big Blind Spot on Net Neutrality
Quartz, December 21, 2017
It’s called monopoly
[ link | html | pdf ]
How Communists and Catholics Built a Commonwealth
America, September 7, 2017
Dispatch from the co-op capitals of northern Italy
[ link | html ]
A People-Owned Internet Exists. Here’s What It Looks Like
The Guardian, July 26, 2017
Democracy has been missing from the fight for a free and open internet
[ link | html ]
Telling Uncovered Sides of the Story
Harvard Divinity Bulletin, spring/summer 2017
Cooperation Jackson and the economics of black power
[ link | html ]
Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and The Case Against Philanthropy As We Know It
America, June 12, 2017
The new indulgences
[ link | html ]
Economic Democracy and the Billion-Dollar Co-op
The Nation, May 22-29, 2017
Is our energy grid a sleeping giant of collective ownership?
[ link | html | pdf ]
Users Should Be Able to Own the Businesses They Love Instead of Investors
Quartz, March 27, 2017
For online platforms, users are often natural stakeholders
[ link | html ]
Adoration Economy
America, March 7, 2017
Where we pay attention, we lend our power
[ link | html ]
How Co-ops Can Make Infrastructure Great Again
YES! Magazine, January 18, 2017
The Trump administration should take a lesson from cooperatives of the 1930s
[ link | html ]
Find Your Tribe
America, November 16, 2016
I didn’t realize I had to be come a certain type of Catholic
[ link | html ]
How the Pope May Have Saved the Climate Movement From Itself
Before the Flood movie website, October 28, 2016
An environmentalism not of the powerful and the privileged
[ link | html ]
The Rise of a Cooperatively Owned Internet
The Nation, October 13, 2016
Platform cooperativism gets a boost.
[ link | html | pdf ]
Curricular Cop-Out on Co-ops
The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 9, 2016
Business schools ignore a key form of enterprise
[ link | html | pdf ]
A Neglected Order
America, October 5, 2016
Should you become a deacon?
[ link | html ]
Here’s My Plan to Save Twitter: Let’s Buy It
The Guardian, September 30, 2016
Corporate sharks are circling around the platform we love
[ link | html ]
Denver Taxi Drivers Are Turning Uber’s Disruption On Its Head
The Nation, September 7, 2016
They just designed a new killer app: cooperative ownership
[ link | html ]
The Freelance Economy, Optimized for Trust
Vice, September 2016
Has a network in New Zealand fixed freelancer isolation?
[ link | html | pdf ]
Bernie Sanders and the Battle for Universal Healthcare in Colorado
Vice, August 30, 2016
ColoradoCare brings him into conflict with the Democratic powers that be
[ link | html ]
A New Way to Work
America, August 15, 2016
Why are Catholics so good at creating co-ops?
[ link | html ]
Democrats’ claim that ‘America is already great’ just borrows Republicans’ rhetoric
The Guardian, August 4, 2016
The Democratic strategists’ brilliant stratagem comes at the cost of a contradiction
[ link | html ]
The Compromise That Binds
America, May 16, 2016
Not all Catholics are Roman Catholics
[ link | html ]
Digital Assistants and the Cotton Gin
Vice, May 2016
Apps against inequality
[ link | html ]
Co-ops a Powerful Tool
Daily Camera, April 26, 2016
How housing co-ops can help Boulder turn a crisis into an opportunity
[ link | html ]
How a Worker-Owned Tech Startup Found Investors—and Kept Its Values
YES! Magazine, April 26, 2016
Loomio is figuring out how to finance a more values-centered online economy
[ link | html ]
Breaking Up the Banks Might Make Things Worse. Instead, Let’s Take Ownership
The Guardian, April 14, 2016
It’s not their size that’s the problem, it’s how they’re run
[ link | html ]
Free the Land
Vice, April 2016
Did the death of a Mississippi mayor end a great experiment in African-American liberation?
[ link | pdf | html ]
[Unintelligible Yelling]
America, March 28, 2016
We need a politics in which politicians matter less
[ link | html ]
Game Over for Sanders? It Needn’t Be
The Guardian, March 3, 2016
As his candidacy falters, where can that rapturous energy be channelled?
[ link | html ]
Zen and the Art of Internet Maintenance
Vice, March 2016
Maybe we would hate our ISPs less if we were in charge of them
[ link | pdf | html ]
Resetting Interest on Usury
America, February 2, 2016
To celebrate a jubilee, we need to recognize the usury in our midst
[ link | html ]
Are You Ready for the Counter-Apocalypse?
America, January 28, 2016
The climate crisis and the insidious hold of dispensationalism
[ link | html ]
How Much Does It Matter Whether God Exists?
Aeon, December 30, 2015
What are we really talking about when we debate the existence of God?
[ link | pdf ]
How Colorado Voters Could Usher in the Future of Healthcare in America
Vice, December 14, 2015
Like pot, only health.
[ link | pdf ]
Soon, Oregon Polluters May Have to Pay Residents for Changing the Climate
YES! Magazine, December 9, 2015
It’s an infectious idea.
[ link | pdf ]
The Pregnancy of Mary
America, November 23, 2015
Remembering Maria Gravida—Mary, Mother-to-Be.
[ link | pdf ]
The Internet Needs a New Economy
The Next System Project, November 8, 2015
We are not alone in longing for an Internet where people share collective ownership.
[ link | pdf ]
Behind Colorado’s Push for Universal Health Care, Governed by the People
YES! Magazine, October 23, 2015
In a purple state like this, it just might work.
[ link | pdf ]
The New Guilded Age
The New Yorker, October 12, 2015
Are medieval guilds a model for the future of work?
[ link | pdf ]
Basic Justice
America, October 12, 2015
Is there a Christian case for universal basic income?
[ link | pdf ]
The People’s Uber: Why The Sharing Economy Must Share Ownership
FastCoExist, October 7, 2015
Critics like Mr. De Blasio won’t get very far until they have something to say yes to.
[ link | pdf ]
A Techy Management Fad Gives Workers More Power—Up to a Point
YES! Magazine, September 30, 2015
Holacracy aims to liberate workers by replacing bosses with code-like rules
[ link | pdf ]
Pope-onomics: Francis’ Keys to a Better Economy—and World
Reuters, September 23, 2015
It’s not an economics of the right or left, but an economics of cooperation
[ link | pdf ]
For These Borrowers and Lenders, Debt Is a Relationship Based on Love
YES! Magazine, September 21, 2015
Debt can allow us to honor our freedom rather than our servitude
[ link | pdf ]
How Pope Francis Is Reviving Radical Catholic Economics
The Nation, September 9, 2015
Some Catholics have been quietly practicing them all along
[ link | pdf ]
Owning What We Share
Pacific Standard, September 1, 2015
The Internet has a way of changing the meanings of common words
[ link | pdf ]
Activism And Inwardness
CrossCurrents, August 19, 2015
The genre of testimony is one that a serious writer should avoid
[ link | pdf ]
Narrative of a Moneyless elf
Killing the Buddha, August 9, 2015
An oral history on the challenges and benefits of life in the commons
[ link | pdf ]
Pontifex Economicus
America, August 3, 2015
How the economics of the commons helps us understand the pope
[ link | pdf ]
Missionary, Go Home!
Lapham’s Quarterly, July 16, 2015
What Ivan Illich thought of good intentions
[ link | pdf ]
How Pope Francis Can Stop Leaks: Make Encyclicals Open-Source
The New Republic, June 17, 2015
Leaks can be a feature, not a bug
[ link | pdf ]
The Cryptocurrency-Based Projects That Would Pay Everyone Just for Being Alive
Vice, May 29, 2015
Who needs government?
[ link | pdf ]
The Joy of Slow Computing
The New Republic, May 29, 2015
Turn on, boot up, drop out
[ link | pdf ]
5 Ways to Take Back Tech
The Nation, May 27, 2015
A cooperative renaissance on the Internet is possible
[ link | pdf ]
New Monasticisms
America, May 11, 2015
The monasteries of the future will be not big, medieval abbeys
[ link | pdf ]
Have We Seen the End of the Eight-Hour Day?
The Nation, May 11, 2015
Welcome to the new battle over the clock
[ link | pdf ]
10 Lessons from Kenya’s Remarkable Cooperatives
Shareable, May 4, 2015
Steal a good idea from the British and turn it against them
[ link | pdf ]
Interviewed: The Leaders of Kenya’s College for Cooperatives
Shareable, April 24, 2015
“We see it as a business that brings people together”
[ link | pdf ]
Elizabeth Warren’s Campaign Is Still Candidate-Free
Vice, April 22, 2015
What if it stayed that way?
[ link | pdf ]
Be the Bank You Want to See in the World
Vice, April 2015
On the lam with bank robber Enric Duran
[ link | link (Portuguese) | link (Spanish) | pdf ]
‘No White Man Is Innocent’
America, March 23, 2015
William Stringfellow on what it means to be a white ally
[ link | pdf ]
Religion for Commoners
The Immanent Frame, March 20, 2015
A new economic metaphor for the study of religion
[ link | pdf ]
After the Bitcoin Gold Rush
The New Republic, February 24, 2015
Is the Internet’s native currency worth all the effort?
[ link | pdf ]
Intellectual Piecework
The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 16, 2015
Platforms like Mechanical Turk pose new ethical dilemmas for researchers
[ link | pdf ]
La’Zooz: The Decentralized, Crypto-Alternative to Uber
Shareable, January 26, 2015
Did Bitcoin give birth to the Uber-killer?
[ link | pdf ]
Family Time
America, February 2, 2015
Frida Berrigan learned the preciousness of family time early on
[ link | pdf ]
The Future of Protest According to VICE
Vice, January 15, 2015
“Social media alone are not causative”
[ link | pdf ]
Something for Everyone
Vice, January 5, 2015
Why the tech elite is getting behind universal basic income
[ link | link (Spanish) | pdf ]
More Noble Exercise
Lapham’s Quarterly, December 10, 2014
Jonathan Edwards didn’t preach the Protestant work ethic—he wanted more time off
[ link | pdf ]
Owning Is the New Sharing
Shareable, December 1, 2014
“The foundation of what defines an economic age is its form of ownership”
[ link | pdf ]
Co-opting Catholics
America, November 17, 2014
The economy of the future might look more like the economy of the past
[ link | pdf ]
Our Generation of Hackers
Vice, November 11, 2014
We are all hackers now, apparently—or are trying to be
[ link | pdf ]
The Commons Are Making a Comeback
Al Jazeera America, November 2, 2014
Environmental activists are reviving an old concept to rethink economics and society
[ link | pdf ]
Rethinking the Family on a Catholic Time Scale
Al Jazeera America, October 22, 2014
Changes in church policies require patience
[ link | pdf ]
The Labors of Leisure
The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 20, 2014
Benjamin Hunnicutt’s life’s work has been to restore the stature of leisure
[ link | pdf ]
Commons Sense
America, October 20, 2014
Commoning was the original bulwark against poverty
[ link | pdf ]
Martyr Family Values
America, October 6, 2014
Discussion starters for the upcoming synod
[ link | pdf ]
Climate Change Is War–and Wall Street Is Winning
Al Jazeera America, September 20, 2014
We shouldn’t reward polluters with profit
[ link | pdf ]
Can Monasteries Be a Model for Reclaiming Tech Culture for Good?
The Nation, September 15, 2014
Hackers are transforming an ancient city into a prototype for the future.
[ link | pdf ]
Los Angeles Schools Need to Think Outside the iPad
Al Jazeera America, August 30, 2014
Open-software alternatives make for better, cheaper teaching tools.
[ link | pdf ]
Who Stole the Four-Hour Workday?
Vice, August 5, 2014
“These dreams seem to be completely forgotten, lost in a mad scramble for work and money.”
[ link (Indonesian) | pdf ]
Meet Vitalik Buterin, the 20-Year-Old Who Is Decentralizing Everything
Shareable, July 31, 2014
Just before last New Year’s, 19-year-old Vitalik Buterin had an idea.
[ link | pdf ]
Are You Ready to Trust a Decentralized Autonomous Organization?
Shareable, July 15, 2014
Many mutual-support networks have fallen away, but maybe crypto-currency can bring them back.
[ link | pdf ]
The Real Trouble with Disruption
Vice, July 11, 2014
Disruption is not a word we should use lightly, or cynically, or to sell more eyewear.
[ link | pdf ]
The Paradise Part
Commonweal, June 30, 2014
The right to be silent, or not.
[ link | pdf ]
From Occupation to Reconstruction
Al Jazeera America, June 29, 2014
The movements of 2011 are turning their energy toward rebuilding society from the ground up.
[ link | pdf ]
Sharing Isn’t Always Caring
Al Jazeera America, May 18, 2014
The sharing economy has to choose between people and profits.
[ link | pdf ]
What’s Left of May Day?
Al Jazeera America, May 1, 2014
Replacing May Day with Labor Day was part of an effort to stifle populist movements.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
The Uncanonized Saints
Reuters, April 25, 2014
One doesn’t have to be a world-famous pope to be a saint.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Code Your Own Utopia: Meet Ethereum, Bitcoin’s Most Ambitious Successor
Al Jazeera America, April 7, 2014
A new ‘Lego of crypto-finance’ enables users to design social contracts.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
‘Full of Faith’
Commonweal, March 20, 2014
Remembering Ned O’Gorman—poet, friend, schoolteacher.
[ link | pdf ]
A Nun’s Secret Ministry Brings Hope to the Transgender Community
Al Jazeera America, March 2, 2014
The unresolved challenge of transgender identity for the Catholic Church and one woman’s courageous, life-saving response.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
A Literary Scholar’s Voice in the Wilderness
The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 17, 2014
Elaine Scarry fights American complacency
about nuclear arms.
[ link | pdf ]
12 Ways Catholicism is More Radical Than Pope Francis
The Daily Beast and Yahoo News, February 9, 2014
The new pope has only scratched the surface.
[ link (DB) | link (YN) | pdf ]
Why Movies about Wall Street Help Wall Street
The Huffington Post, February 6, 2014
An insight from Dame Iris Murdoch.
[ link ]
The World Should Be Watching India’s ‘Common Man’ Coup
Waging Nonviolence and openDemocracy, January 16, 2014
Can the new Aam Aadmi Party transform Indian democracy?
[ link (WNV) | link (oD) | pdf ]
Commies for Christ
The New Inquiry and The Catholic Worker, December 13, 2013
Giorgio Agamben’s The Highest Poverty: the monastery in late capitalism.
[ link | pdf ]
What Proofs about God Really Prove
Killing the Buddha, December 10, 2013
Beyond the yes-or-no question.
[ link | pdf ]
Missing Revolutions
Commonweal, November 4, 2013
A retrospective review of Paul Goodman’s Growing Up Absurd.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
The Government Shutdown — An Anarchist Dream?
Waging Nonviolence, October 1, 2013
It’s hard to decide who should be more annoyed — the Tea Party or the anarchists.
[ link | pdf ]
OWS Icons: Where Are They Now?
Al Jazeera America, September 17, 2013
Two years later, checking in on the people of Liberty Square.
[ link ]
After May Day
Guernica, September 16, 2013
On Occupy Wall Street’s second anniversary, revisiting the expectations and disappointments of the general strike meant to reignite the movement.
[ link | pdf ]
Breaking Up With Occupy
The Nation, September 11, 2013
On its second anniversary, a sense of failure pervades the Occupy movement.
[ link | pdf ]
Occupied by The Newsroom
Harper’s Magazine, August 22, 2013
On inspiring (probably, maybe) a Newsroom plot arc.
[ link | pdf ]
Colin McGinn: Not the Only Masturbating Philosopher
Religion Dispatches, August 5, 2013
Why philosophy needs its bodies back.
[ link | pdf ]
The Search to Prove the Existence of God
The Tablet, July 24, 2013
Though I wouldn’t have said so at the time, I began writing my book 11 years ago this summer.
[ link | pdf ]
Virginia Heffernan: A Creationist Against the Creationists
The Huffington Post, July 24, 2013
Creationists are more likely to love science, in their way, than hate it.
[ link | pdf ]
7 Habits of a Highly Effective Philosopher
Killing the Buddha, July 12, 2013
Life lessons from the Christian apologist William Lane Craig.
[ link | Portuguese | pdf | discussion ]
The New Theist
The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 1, 2013
How William Lane Craig became Christian philosophy’s boldest apostle.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Macs No More
The Huffington Post, June 11, 2013
After Edward Snowden, it’s time to come to the penguin
[ link | pdf ]
10 Proofs That Will Change How You Think About God
The Huffington Post, June 8, 2013
Proofs about God through history reveal a lot more than they’re given credit for
[ link | pdf ]
Truth-Telling in Vulgaria
Killing the Buddha, May 9, 2013
Questions for Kathryn Joyce, who bursts the international Christian adoption bubble in her new book.
[ link | pdf ]
A Criminal Injustice System
America, May 3, 2013
Review of The Scandal of White Complicity in U.S. Hyper-Incarceration
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Hacking the World
The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 1, 2013
An anthropologist in the midst of a geek insurgency.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
This Compulsion to Prevent Something
The Nation, March 19, 2013
What the invasion of Iraq taught a generation of students.
[ link | pdf ]
The Pope Is Not the Church
Religion Dispatches and Salon, March 14, 2013
It’s going to be very tempting to forget this fact over the next few days.
[ link (RD) | link (Salon) | pdf | discussion ]
Saving Faith
Commonweal, March 13, 2013
The renewed stature of Christian philosophizing.
[ link | pdf ]
The Hourglass
Killing the Buddha and Waging Nonviolence, January 30, 2013
What I learned about empire in the West Bank.
[ link (KtB) | link (WNV) | pdf (KtB) | pdf (WNV) | discussion ]
How Occupy Got Religion
The Indypendent, December 16, 2012
Ties to friendly churches spur the movement’s rebirth.
[ link | pdf ]
West Bank Village Resists, Week after Week
Waging Nonviolence, September 27, 2012
“Life is freedom. If you lose your freedom, you lose everything.”
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Occupy, After Occupy
The Nation, September 5, 2012
One year after Occupy Wall Street first shook the world, what lies ahead for the movement?
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
The Templeton Effect
The Chronicle of Higher Education, September 3, 2012
Why are so many analytic philosophers starting to receive multimillion-dollar grants?
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
How to Succeed in Reoccupation Without Really Trying
The Indypendent, May 2, 2012
A hint: Challenge the power that affects the most people’s lives.
[ link | pdf ]
OWS Marks May Day With a Beatific Vision and a Big March
YES! Magazine, May 2, 2012
Waging Nonviolence, May 2, 2012
What will be the lasting impact of Occupy’s latest major action?
[ link (YES!) | link (WNV) | pdf (YES!) | pdf (WNV) | discussion ]
Mapping Out May Day
Harper’s Magazine, April 30, 2012
How Occupy Wall Street organizers are trying to redraw the map.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
No Revolution Without Religion
Occupy! An OWS-Inspired Gazette #4, April, 2012
Killing the Buddha, April 30, 2012
Just every successful social movement in U.S. history involved religion, and so will the next one.
[ link (Gazette) | link (KtB) | pdf (Gazette) | pdf (KtB) | discussion ]
Change Now, Vote Later
YES! Magazine, Spring, 2012
An exchange with Van Jones about the role of elections in the Occupy movement.
[ link | pdf ]
Consider the Lilies: Money in Movements
Tidal: Occupy Theory, Occupy Strategy, March, 2012
If a radical movement is doing what it should be doing, it will run mostly on things other than money.
[ link | pdf ]
Some Assembly Required
Harper’s Magazine, February, 2012
Witnessing the birth of Occupy Wall Street: did its planners really have a plan?
[ link | pdf ]
Planet Occupy
Harper’s Magazine, January 30, 2012
Imagining an Occupied world.
[ link | pdf ]
Dreaming Big: OWS Organizers Plan Spring Offensive
The Indypendent, January 23, 2012
It’s bizarre how often nowadays one hears Occupy Wall Street talked about in the past tense.
[ link | pdf ]
Some Occupy Sci-Fi
Mobilizing Ideas, January 16, 2012
A response to an academic discussion about the future of the Occupy movement.
[ link | pdf ]
OWS Finds a Home
The Indypendent, December 21, 2011
What the Occupy Our Homes action tells us about the future of the Occupy movement.
[ link | pdf ]
Thank You, Anarchists
The Nation, December 19, 2011
Why the Occupy movement wouldn’t be the same without its anarchist roots.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
proof
Frequencies, December 16, 2011
One contribution to “a collaborative genealogy of spirituality.”
[ link | pdf ]
Occupy Wall Street’s Free-Speech Appeal
Harper’s Magazine, December 12, 2011
What the First Amendment really means for a movement that constantly invokes it.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
An Inconvenient Theology
Commonweal, December 6, 2011 (web) / January 27, 2012 (print)
A review of a new book by Anthony Dancer on the life and ideas of the lawyer and theologian William Stringfellow.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
More Than a Mere Protest
The Catholic Worker, December, 2011
Watching Occupy Wall Street go from messy planning meetings to the birth of a global movement.
[ pdf | discussion ]
Why the World Needs Religious Studies
Religion Dispatches, November 20, 2011
A plea for the academic study of religion to open its doors (and its students’ futures) to the wider world.
[ link | pdf ]
The Revolujah! Will Be Performed: Reverend Billy’s Reality Joke
Religion Dispatches, November 14, 2011
Talking religion, performance, and revolution with Reverend Billy, Savitri D, and Kathryn Lofton.
[ link | pdf ]
Occupy Wall Street Joins an Assembly of Struggles in Athens
Waging Nonviolence, November 9, 2011
An organizer from New York meets a basement full of Greek anarchists sharing the experiences of their local assemblies.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
What ‘Diversity of Tactics’ Really Means for Occupy Wall Street
Waging Nonviolence, October 19, 2011
A license for violence or a deeper philosophy of direct action?
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
God Dissolves into the Occupy Movement
Religion Dispatches, October 16, 2011
A roundtable on the role of religion in the unfolding protests.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
From Occupy Wall Street to Occupy Everywhere
The Nation, October 14, 2011
How the idea of an occupation at Wall Street went from an email to a movement.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Values Added: Occupy Wall Street
Bloggingheads.tv, October 13, 2011
A discussion about what Occupy Wall Street is coming to represent.
[ link | discussion ]
Generally Assembled at #OccupyWallStreet
Harper’s Magazine, October 7, 2011
What Occupy Wall Street’s General Assembly is like and where it came from.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Beware of the Old Guard
The New York Times, October 6, 2011
The protesters are getting more attention and expanding outside New York. What are they doing right, and what are they missing?
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Occupation Nation Goes to Washington
The Nation, October 6, 2011
Even before #occupywallstreet was a meme, a group of activists were planning to occupy Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Occupy Wall Street: FAQ
The Nation, September 29, 2011
Everything you always wanted to know about #occupywallstreet but were afraid to ask.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
The Wall Street Protest
The New York Times, September 27, 2011
A letter to the editor about #occupywallstreet.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
#OccupyWallStreet Is More Than a Hashtag
Truthout, September 23, 2011
How the internet is helping—and hurting—a growing protest movement.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Who Will Occupy Wall Street on September 17?
Adbusters, September 14, 2011
A breakdown of what to expect this Saturday.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
American Autumn
Boston Review, September 13, 2011
Protest groups bring the Arab Spring to the United States.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Taking the Economy Back From the Elites
Religion Dispatches, August 10, 2011
An interview with philosopher Jeffrey Stout about his book Blessed Are the Organized.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
The Garden of Eden: A Dull Place?
Religion Dispatches, August 2, 2011
Brook Wilensky-Lanford talks about Eden and Iraq, how the search for Paradise has been a masculine adventure, and about the hazards of perfection.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Google as God
The Daily, June 19, 2011
What faith looks like in the Internet age.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Mobilize and Contemplate
Killing the Buddha, June 6, 2011
What’s spiritually at stake in The Tree of Life?
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Rapture’s Returns
The Daily, May 15, 2011
What the predictors of the May 21st apocalypse can teach the rest of us.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Debating God: Atheist and Evangelical Face Off at Notre Dame
Religion Dispatches, April 14, 2011
Sam Harris and William Lane Craig pack the house, talk over each other, leave audience wanting more.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Of Gods and Men Resurrects Martyrdom
Religion Dispatches, March 29, 2011
How a new film about French monks in Algeria might change the way you use your vocabulary.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Text messages from the Wisconsin Capitol
The Huffington Post, February 28, 2011
A dramatic day of protest and occupation unfolds one text at a time.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Playing Hooky: Will Boycott of Catholic Church Spur Reform?
Religion Dispatches, September 24, 2010
Why progressive Catholics will only hurt their cause by boycotting mass in protest.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
There Is No Abstention from Politics
The Guardian, September 1, 2010
The apolitical heresy takes two forms: jihadi extremism and blissed-out spirituality. Both disregard other human beings.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Better Science Through God?
Religion Dispatches, July 20, 2010
A New ‘Protscience’ polemic aims to tell readers how to believe in science.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
In Defense of the Memory Theater
Open Letters Monthly, July 2010
The Smart Set, November 19, 2010
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, January 2, 2010
What concerns me about the literary apocalypse that everybody now expects is not chiefly the books themselves, but the bookshelf.
[ link (OLM) | link (TSS) | link (ADG) | pdf ]
Pagan Martyrs, Murderous Monks
Religion Dispatches, June 4, 2010
A new movie, in blockbuster style, tells the story of Hypatia, the last queen of Greek philosophy.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
God, Science and Philanthropy
The Nation, June 3, 2010 (June 21 print issue)
The politics of Big Questions at the John Templeton Foundation.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Captive Meditation
Tricycle, Summer 2010
Caleb Smith’s The Prison and the American Imagination explores the literature of confinement.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Emblems of Belief
Bloggingheads.tv, April 19, 2010
A conversation with Richard Amesbury about religion in human rights and the politics of New Atheism.
[ link | discussion ]
A Carefully-Crafted F**k You
Guernica, March 2010
Judith Butler, in an interview about war, nonviolence, and the uses of philosophy.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
The Atheist with a Soul
The American Prospect, February 26, 2010
36 Arguments for the Existence of God shows there is something to be gained by delving into the rudiments and accoutrements of religion even if you think they’re basically bogus.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
The War at Home
The Point, Winter 2010
A childhood’s love for warfare and the architecture of nonviolence.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Theology for Atheists
The Guardian, January 4, 2010
Could some of the most exciting theology being done today be coming from atheists?
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
What Hipsters Can Learn From Hasids About the Bedford Bike Lane
The Huffington Post, December 28, 2009
If cyclists had been more courteous in Hasidic Williamsburg, would there still be a bike lane there?
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Hipsters v. Hasidim Over Brooklyn Bike Lane
Religion Dispatches, December 28, 2009
Did Williamsburg’s Hasidic community have Mayor Bloomberg close a major bike lane simply because they were offended by the immodestly clothed hipsters biking through their neighborhood?
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Lying about Santa: The Irrelevance of Proof to the Holiday Spirit
Religion Dispatches, December 18, 2009
A serious philosophical lecture on the origin and meaning of Santa Claus is interrupted by the tinkling of bells, jovial laughter, and the mysterious delivery of a case of beer.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
You Broke It, You Bought It
Obit, November 30, 2009
Why is the end of the world such a big deal?
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
The Gospel of Contradiction
Religion Dispatches, November 9, 2009
Bestselling writer Mary Gordon re-reads the Gospels, trying to figure out why fundamentalist readings of scripture have come to dominate the understanding of religion in this country.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Divine Wilderness
Triple Canopy, November 5, 2009
From Thomas Aquinas and John the Baptist to cellular automata and intelligent design: How God taught us planning, and where we went wrong.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
The Life And Death Of The Death Of God
Obit, November 5, 2009
Does that mean He’s alive again?
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Beautiful Dreamers
Religion Dispatches, November 5, 2009
Peter Rodger traveled through twenty-three countries in three years asking the same question to everyone he met, and filming, gorgeously, the results.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Reverend Billy For Mayor; Is He For Real? / The Calling of Reverend Billy
Religion Dispatches and Killing the Buddha, October 28, 2009
Why in tarnation is a performance artist running for mayor of New York City?
[ article | video | article pdf | discussion ]
Sentimental Repression
Killing the Buddha, October 18, 2009
“I say this as so much an enemy of capitalized Marriage as the next guy: let folks marry, for goodness sake.”
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Repentance on Wall Street?
Religion Dispatches, October 28, 2009
Is there something about civil religion in the US that gives those responsible a pass?
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Could God Die Again?
The Guardian, October 4, 2009
Death of God theology was a 1960s phenomenon that casts light on the narrowness of the current debate.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Warm Gun
The New York Times, September 30, 2009
He’s a pacifist. So where’s he going with that gun in his hand?
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Scenes of Destruction
The Saint Ann’s Review, Fall 2009
Into the world of a boy gravitationally attracted to the shapes and forms of violence.
A Solemn Game
The New York Times, September 11, 2009
Planning the next move on the day that would define my generation.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Recession Is Dangerously Good for the Arms Business
The Huffington Post, September 7, 2009
In the present recession, market forces threaten to throw even more of the weight of American industry (such as it remains) into the war business.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
The Self-Thinking Thought
The New York Times, August 23, 2009
Why did discovering the ontological proof make Anselm so happy?
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Blackwater’s Free-Market Crusade
Religion Dispatches, August 19, 2009
What Blackwater’s founder Erik Prince can teach us about freedom.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
The Proof Industry
The Guardian, August 18, 2009
When modern-day debaters on belief use ancient proofs in their arguments, it’s often to make a point they weren’t meant to serve.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Does War Make Sense? Science and Religion on the Battlefield
Religion Dispatches, July 23, 2009
From thermodynamic war, to cybernetic battle, to the emergence of the “chaoplexic,” a new book by Antoine Bousquet explains what war means in the modern era.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
The What of God?
Killing the Buddha, July 6, 2009
A chat with Robert Wright on his new monster, The Evolution of God.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
The Pluralistic Universe
Search, July-August 2009
Science has a handle on the age of the universe. Now “multiverse” theorists are asking a vexing question: Which one?
[ link | pdf ]
Have Faith in Atheists
The Guardian, June 21, 2009
Those who discriminate againsts non-believers should know that atheists are healthy, intelligent and well adjusted.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
The Economy’s Fortune Teller
Vice, June 16, 2009
Turkish creationist Harun Yahya tries his hand at economic analysis.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Undercover at Falwell’s Liberty University, Finding Common Ground
Religion Dispatches, June 4, 2009
Brown sophomore Kevin Roose, an Ivy-League heathen, infiltrated the nation’s holiest university and emerged a changed man—not committed to conservative Christianity, but to finding a new language for reconciliation.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Angels & Demons: America’s Preeminent Pop Theologian Takes on Religion and Science
Religion Dispatches, May 28, 2009
The prequel to Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, features a “theo-physicist” on a mission to save the Catholic church from itself and perhaps the first action-movie villain driven to his diabolical acts by an addiction to intelligent design theory. Why are Americans so attracted to metaphysical thrills?
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
The Full Armor of God
Killing the Buddha, May 25, 2009
Donald Rumsfeld took the LORD’s name in vain.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
The Original Peaceniks
Commonweal, May 22, 2009
In his new history of Christian nonviolence from World War I to Vietnam, Joseph Kip Kosek asks what this movement has offered American democracy, and how much of the offer has been accepted.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
The Defense Department Gospel and America’s Desert Crusade
Religion Dispatches, May 20, 2009
Bush-era intelligence briefings featured cover pages subtitled with decontextualized and misunderstood scripture in deference to the piety of the administration.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Star Trek: Politics Anti-Matters
Religion Dispatches, May 14, 2009
But the new Star Trek movie takes us back in time, to an age when political divisions were in stark black and white.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
The Teachings of Carl
Vice, May 12, 2009
An invitation to the world and ideas of Carl Johnson.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Reclaiming Religion
The American Prospect, April 30, 2009
Two new books respond to the anti-religion screeds of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. But are attempts to reclaim Christianity for humanism mere wishful thinking?
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Beyond Belief
The Boston Globe, April 26, 2008
Maui Time Weekly, November 11, 2010
Research on religion goes after a new target: the secular.
[ link (BG) | link (MTW) | pdf | discussion ]
The Tweets of the Christ
Religion Dispatches, April 12, 2009
On Good Friday, New York’s Trinity Church reenacted the Passion Play via Twitter, the latest social-networking sensation.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Evolving Allah
Search, March-April 2009
Will Harun Yahya succeed in stirring up the Muslim world against evolution?
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
The Multiverse Problem
Seed, March 30, 2009
Is theoretical physics becoming the next battleground in the culture wars? Not according to some theologians and scientists.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
The Pennsylvania Avenue Circus
The Huffington Post, March 26, 2009
Some days, the one-block stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and Lafayette Park puts the Kennedy Center to shame.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Seeing What They Wanna See: Religion Surveys Reflect Surveyors
Religion Dispatches, March 17, 2009
Religion surveys have become a battleground for the American religious marketplace—and a magnet for big money.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Five Things We Can Learn From Creationists
Religion Dispatches, February 12, 2009
On the occasion of Darwin’s birthday, a toast to the enduring spirit of “the other side” of the Pandora’s Box opened by his remarkable insight.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Technology and Tradition: Carlson’s Indiscrete Image
Religion Dispatches, February 9, 2009
A philosopher connects the dots between mysticism and modernity, arguing that technology — human invention — is not in opposition to an idealized state of nature, but is part of an ever-evolving created world.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
New York, Calling Farm Animals
The Brooklyn Rail, February 2009
Overlooking the concrete skyline from a Tribeca penthouse one late afternoon in January, a new war was declared on the practice of factory farming.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Can Islam Save the Economy?
Religion Dispatches, January 26, 2009
Islamic law prohibits the very financial instruments that have caused the global recession. Can it point the way toward a sounder economy for the future?
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Nonviolence: Between Our Safety And Our Ideals
Religion Dispatches, January 21, 2009
Nonviolent resistance movements were part of the 20th century’s eternal contribution to human history; can those ideals be sustained and reinvigorated for a new era?
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Surfing the Satellite
The Smart Set, January 5, 2009
How Jordanian TV is a window to the world’s soul.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Who Carries the Burden of Peace?
The Huffington Post, January 5, 2009
The latest Gaza fiasco reveals how we need to start talking about nonviolence in terms of powerful state actors, not just underdog resistance movements.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Harun Yahya’s Dark Arts
Seed, December 10, 2008
One-on-one with the Turkish creationist who uses bad science and bizarre art to spread his vision of a troubled world.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Het feest van pater Louis [The Feast of Father Louis]
News4All, December 10, 2008
A Dutch translation of a short essay in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Thomas Merton’s death.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Proof Enough for Me
Killing the Buddha, November 5, 2008
When the usual proofs for God don’t do the trick, sometimes you have to think up your own.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Agnostic Machinery
Seed, October 29, 2008
Bill Maher hoped to use science to paint religion as a neurological disorder, but the researchers he interviewed in his film Religulous hold a much more complex picture of why we have faith.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Far Out (Where went the ancient astronauts?)
The Smart Set, October 28, 2008
The idea that gods are aliens is back in fiction. But why’d it fade as a popular, real-live theory in the first place?
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Obama Territory
Religion Dispatches, October 8, 2008
A Baptist church in Brooklyn puts its hopes in Barack Obama, but will he remember them when he comes into his kingdom?
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Sarah Palin’s Big Bad Creationism
AlterNet, September 9, 2008
People are whispering that McCain’s VP pick doesn’t believe in evolution. But how much would this really affect policy?
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Dialogue in the Dark
Religion Dispatches, September 3, 2008
Review of Michael Novak’s No One Sees God, the neoconservative theologian’s effort to dialog with the New Atheists.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Despite Overwhelming Evidence, Creationists Cling to Unreality
AlterNet, July 31, 2008
Review of Lauri Lebo’s The Devil in Dover with some thoughts about moving forward in the evolution controversies. Note: in the discussion I explain my reservations about the title that the editors chose.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Rumors of God’s Death Are Greatly Exaggerated
Religion Dispatches, July 16, 2008
A leading evangelical takes on the “God is dead” crowd in the flagship journal of the conservative movement, but neither theists nor atheists will win this argument until they stop misrepresenting each other and misinforming their readers.
[ link | pdf | discussion (continued) ]
Until the World Laughs with God
Religion Dispatches, July 3, 2008
Mike Myers’s latest movie, plagued by interfaith protests, bad reviews, and a poor showing at the box office, makes us ask, once again, whether religion is allowed to be funny.
[ link | pdf ]
Power Belongs to God
Religion Dispatches, June 9, 2008
A review of Jeff Sharlet’s book, The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power.
[ link | pdf ]
What Happens to Religion When It Is Biologized?
Science & Spirit (now Search), May/June 2008
Explores the religious vitality of new efforts to explain human religiosity with cognitive science, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology.
[ link | pdf | On 3QuarksDaily ]
Apocalypse Without God
Religion Dispatches, May 8, 2008
An interview with Mark C. Taylor about his recent book, After God.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
Big Hopes for a Slow Opera: Restoring Virtue to Its Feet with the Met’s Satyagraha
The Brooklyn Rail, May 2008
Follows a group of Sanskrit students through a weekend of spiritual and political events leading up to the Metropolitan Opera’s performance of Satyagraha by Philip Glass.
[ link | pdf | discussion ]
The Biblical Circus of William Stringfellow
Religion Dispatches, March 10, 2008
Through the lens with my experiences in his books, explores the work of William Stringfellow, a theologian and lawyer who disturbs the usual assumptions.
[ link | pdf ]
Blessed and Holy Confusion:
Can a Dose of Religion Save Washington Square Park?
The Brooklyn Rail, March 2008
Revolving around a worship service and protest at Judson Memorial Church, explores the different perspectives at play in the renovation of Washington Square Park.
[ link | pdf ]