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December 21, 2016

Volume 133, Issue #26
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Features

loaves and fishes

A Bible translation for everyone?

It was the all-time paperback best seller. But Good News had its critics.

by John Fea

girl catching toddler

A soft landing in Montana

Despite protests, the group persisted in welcoming refugees to their community.

by Amy Frykholm

garlic braids
First Person

Planting garlic at the cusp of the seasons

All hands join in to get 40,000 pungent cloves into the ground.
by Terra Brockman
communion chalice and wafers
First Person

Bearing God in Advent

As I lifted the chalice, the baby began to play soccer under my ribs.

by Carol Howard Merritt

The rise and fall—and rise?—of Christian nationalism

Did the 2016 election portend the rise of Christian nationalism?

Only two years ago, the percentage of Americans who identified being a Christian with being an American had dropped precipitously from its post-September 11 hike.

Just one-third of Americans in 2014 said being Christian was very important to being a “true American.” That was down from the nearly half of Americans who felt that way in 2004, the General Social Survey found.

by David Briggs

Books

Why existentialism still matters

Sartre, de Beauvoir, and Camus have something to say about living authentically.

by Robert Westbrook
picture of book

Possibilities, not prescriptions

Writing may not cure cancer, but it helps with the side effects.

by Karen Saupe
picture of book

The pains of being present

Jonathan Safran Foer asks what it really means to say, Here I am.

by Elizabeth Palmer
picture of book

Can war be beautiful?

Fiction and photographs offer nuanced depictions of conflict.

by Chris Herlinger
picture of book

What (some) Trump supporters were thinking—and feeling

A Berkeley academic empathizes with antigovernment Louisianans.

by Anthony B. Robinson

Departments

On Art

Angel of Undevastation and Black, by Paul Solovyev (aka 0x17)

Moscow artist Paul Solovyev, or 0x17, creates art that intentionally throws viewers off balance. His works turn the familiar inside out as the artist considers the nature of belief and the objects used to symbolize belief....

Art selection and comment by Lil Copan

woman in jumpsuit
First Words

Swaddled in an orange jumpsuit

She gave birth to a son in the back of a squad car.

by Peter W. Marty

Basuki Tjahaja Purnama

A Christian governor in Jakarta

He’s a powerful leader in the world’s largest Muslim nation—and he’s popular, too.

by Philip Jenkins

Advent candles
Faith Matters

Awake and watching this Advent

We need the prophets to unmask power’s seductions.

by Stephanie Paulsell

Muslim student on a campus
From the Editors

What's at stake in the next four years

Avoid the media distractions. Focus on collective responses to Trump.
On Media

J. K. Rowling’s wizards in the Jazz Age

Fantastic Beasts diagnoses how rising fear leads to demonizing others.
by Beth Felker Jones

News

People

Joshua Case leads ministry for today's holy innocents

When Joshua Case and parishioners at Holy Innocents’ Episcopal Church bury some of Atlanta’s youngest victims of violence, they often do so alone....
by David Paulsen

U.S. Lutheran seminary returns rare manuscript to Greek Orthodox Church

It was an “act of ecumenism” and a true gift—since the giver could not receive anything of equal value in return....

by Celeste Kennel-Shank

FBI report shows surge in anti-Muslim attacks, rise in hate crimes

Although Jewish people remain the most frequent victims in America of hate crimes based on religion, the number of incidents against Muslims surged in 2015, according to newly released data from the FBI....
by Lauren Markoe

Germany cracks down on Muslim groups accused of recruiting terrorists

(The Christian Science Monitor) German police raided nearly 200 mosques, apartments, and offices connected to a Muslim group in mid-November after receiving information suggesting its ...

by Amanda Hoover

Sanctuary churches vow to shield immigrants from possible crackdown

When Javier Flores, a 40-year-old father of three, received an order to surrender to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he fled to Arch Street United Methodist Church....

by Elizabeth Eisenstadt Evans and Yonat Shimron

German Protestants renounce efforts to convert Jews

Germany’s main Protestant church mostly gave up efforts to convert Jews in the decades following the Holocaust, and closing that chapter should have been a formality....

by Tom Heneghan

People

Lisa Sharon Harper and Russell Moore among those exposing rifts among evangelicals

The day after the election, Lisa Sharon Harper nearly gave up the name “evangelical.”...

by Emily McFarlan Miller

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