Looking toward life with Parkinson’s
My mood veers between gritty cheerfulness and angry sardonic humor.
Russell E. Saltzman Russell E. Saltzman is an occasional web columnist at First Things magazine and lives in Kansas City Before entering the Roman Catholic Church he was a Lutheran pastor. His latest book is Speaking of the Dead. He can be reached on Twitter as @RESaltzman and by email at [email protected].
Latest articles by Russell E. Saltzman
Why you should know the Church Fathers and how to do it
There were a thousand things they had to figure out, like inventing a vocabulary to describe who they were and what they did and how they went about doing it.
Walking slow with small vessels
The consolation of knowing God has my memories, even when I increasingly don't.
Imaginary popes: A review of George Weigel’s ‘The Next Pope’
Reading it polemically will miss Weigel’s broader purpose: explaining the papacy and the Church
How to make room for science in your faith: A guide for Catholics
Revisiting an illuminating book by a Stacy Trasancos, a scientist whose discovery of the limits of science provoked her leap of faith.
Demystifying Vatican II: What the Council’s document actually said
A new book cuts through the ideology, and reveals the Second Vatican Council's work as Catholic orthodoxy, a magisterial teaching document.
Pro-life science fiction: Seeing the inhuman in us
Two short stories get to the heart of what it is to be human, and how we have lost sight of the preciousness of life.
What’s the deeper message of the “lowly seats” parable?
The key is the nature of the Shabbat dinner.
The brilliance of ‘Sunday Will Never Be the Same’
When Dawn Eden, a rock and roll journalist, opens her ears to God, the story she tells is strangely compelling, driven, and charmingly scattered.
How to start reading the Bible
One book in particular lends itself to being the first. Here are some tips for diving in.
Whatever happened to the woman at the well? Some traditions tell us
The woman, a Samaritan at that, represents all of us as the new bride.
Calendars, Herod, and Wise Men, oh my: Sorting out the dates is a head-scratcher
4 BC would have been one busy year ... but actually ...
Christmas frogs
The whole deal and ordeal of human life, and the Word made Flesh
The Roman use of “sacramentum” will bring you deeper into the sacraments
We have sworn our sacramentum to this bloodied, contested king. But then, he's sworn his to us first, hasn't he?
Did Jesus lift an astonished eyebrow at that Scribe?
He was, after all, casting the shadow of the Cross over Our Lord, whether he knew it or not ...
I’m staying Catholic for the same reasons I became Catholic
Crises come and pass and even a modest reading of Church history finds the Church sometimes marked by disarray and perplexity.
Who was that huge red dragon that brought our little boys to attention at the Assumption Mass?
Taking a look at Revelation, at what all the symbolism is about, and the message John has for us, in our times too
Surprised by nature: Seeing God’s glory in His creatures
I harbor no desire to dance with wolves or cuddle a grizzly, but I’d be pleasantly startled should they show up for my viewing.
Aging, virtue, and tending well to God’s gifts
The four cardinal and three theological virtues don't come easier with age, even if perspective does.
WWJD: That time Jesus ran a newspaper
For one week, a Topeka, Kansas paper operated as if Christ were the editor.