I was struck again on Sunday while watching the Vikings football game – really, were you thinking I’d be doing anything else on Sunday?! – that after his 61 yard run for a touchdown Adrian Peterson kneeled and raised his arms in an obvious gesture of prayer and praise. And, indeed, after...

Today is the birthday of Martin Luther, born in 1483, and so it seemed appropriate to choose of the hymns he wrote as the poem for this week. Luther’s poetry – for what are lyrics but poetry set to music – changed the course of cultural history in the West as much as almost anything else...