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The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of documents discovered at the archaeological site Qumran, by the Dead Sea, in the 1940s. Most scholars hold that they were written by the Essenes, who appear to be connected to the priests of the Jerusalem temple, though the Essenes broke away from them, believing the temple to be corrupt. The authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls believed they were living in an age shortly before a massive war between “the sons of light” (themselves) and the “ …

It’s always nice to have some basic guidelines in any endeavor. A good caddy in golf is told to “show up, keep up, and shut up.” Ronald Knox said the best advice he could give on prayer was to “pray the way you can and not the way you can’t.” The best guidance I received when going into law school was from an experienced attorney who said, “The answers are easy; the trick is to ask the right questions.” (That goes way beyond law school, by the way …

Why should I believe that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah? In Judaism, the Messiah has been understood a number of ways, and there is no single understanding of messianic prophecy or what the Messiah will do. Jesus did not wish to be a political revolutionary at his first coming, but the Christian faith holds that he will dramatically reorder world affairs at his second. He has already given us abundant evidence by fulfilling numerous messianic prophecies, both clear and less clear, both inside and …

In 1964, Pope Paul VI issued the Second Vatican Council’s “Decree on Ecumenism,” called Unitatis Redintegratio, which translates from Latin as “The Restoration of Unity.” Right there, we see that the whole notion of denominationalism is wrong. And to their credit, the mostly Protestant thinkers involved in the “Baptism, Eucharist, Ministry” document from the World Council of Churches would agree. As most Christians—not just Roman Catholics&md …

St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) devised a way of examining our soul that moved away from looking only at the sinful thoughts, words, and deeds of our day. Ignatius’s introspection begins not with sins but with gratitude and the cataloging of daily blessings.This manner of praying later came to be called an Examination of Consciousness, to distinguish it from what was done before the sacrament of reconciliation. A different contour arises in our souls when we look primarily at the …