In other ways, though, the springtime holiday is far from straightforward. How did rabbits get involved' Where did the name 'Easter' come from ' and why is the English word different from the way many other cultures refer to the holy day' Even theologically, exactly what the Resurrection means is not universally agreed upon. First things first: Easter is what's called a 'movable feast,' a holiday whose exact date changes year to year. In the Northern Hemisphere it falls soon after the spring equinox, as the world comes back into bloom ' a fitting time to celebrate rebirth. But Easter's dating 'goes back to the complicated origins of this holiday and how it has evolved over the centuries,' wrote Brent Landau, a religious studies scholar at the University of Texas at Austin. Similar to Christmas and Halloween celebrations today, Easter blends together elements from Christian and non-Christian traditions. The name 'Easter' itself seems linked to a pre-Christian goddess named Eostre in what is now England; she was celebrated in springtime. And in fact, in most languages, the word for the holiday is related to Passover, since the Gospels say Jesus traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish festival in the days leading up to his crucifixion....

Liberation theology's approach to living out Christian faith has been both globally influential and bitterly controversial. It has been investigated by the CIA on suspicion of promoting social unrest and inquisitioned by a former pope who accused it of getting too close to Marxist thought. It's even inspired conspiracy theories. Critics have dismissed it as naive ' but also called it a threat to free market capitalism. Fifty years have passed since the landmark publication of the book most associated with liberation theology: 'A Theology of Liberation,' by a Peruvian priest named Gustavo Gutierrez. Gutierrez. whose most recent manuscript I'm helping to edit, published the book in Spanish in 1971, and then in English in 1973. With its emphasis on the liberation of oppressed people, especially the poor, this book helped reconfigure many Catholics' ways of thinking about the relationship between faith and justice. As a theologian who grew up during the civil war in El Salvador, I emphasize to my university students that it is impossible to grasp the beating heart of this theology without paying attention to the poverty and legacies of colonialism in Latin America....