Latest Articles
Catholic bishops again condemn death penalty: Executions "unfair, unnecessary and unhealthy for America’s soul."
The U.S. Roman Catholic bishops have renewed their call to end the death penalty, saying state-sponsored executions are unfair, unnecessary and unhealthy for America’s soul....
Pope lauds Lutherans, warns of difficulties: Lutheran-Catholic dialogue
In a Vatican visit by a top U.S....
NCC, interfaith group call torture intolerable: U.S. "must take the lead in condemning torture"
Whether antitorture provisions become a part of U.S. law or not, the National Council of Churches’ General Assembly last month called any use of torture unacceptable and contrary to U.S....
Sikhs fight discrimination: More than 600 incidents of discrimination and violence reported
Facing mounting discrimination since the September 11 terrorist attacks, a number of Sikh-American groups have begun a campaign to explain their religion to the American public and to differentiate...
Faith leaders press DeLay on tobacco: Legislator opposes FDA oversight of cigarette sales
Republican congressman Tom DeLay of Texas, indicted by a grand jury in his home state and bounced from his leadership position in Congress, has another distraction: interfaith groups are pressuring...
Much of Jordan River polluted with sewage: Jordanian, Israeli, and Palestinian mayors join hands to call for solution
At the Alumot Dam on the edge of Kibbutz Deganya, a cooperative community located a couple of miles south of the Sea of Galilee, you can smell the Jordan River long before you see it....
CC recommends: New on DVD
Christmas recommendations for Off the Map, Crash, Look at Me and more new DVDs—from film reviewers John Petrakis and Steve Vineberg. For recommendations in fiction, nonfiction, memoirs, theology and more, see the December 27 issue of the Century.
Liturgy as politics: An interview with William Cavanaugh
In his reflections on theology and politics, Catholic theologian William T....
Secret of Nyamirambo: A haven in Rwanda
Visiting the National Genocide Memorial in Kigali, Rwanda, was overwhelming. It is the grave of 250,000 people killed in the 1994 genocide....
The true and the gray: Ambiguity in the human condition
Like most artists, the sculptor and painter Anselm Kiefer favors certain hues and materials. His chosen hue is gray, in all its shades, and gray is nothing if not shaded....
Century Marks
“We can’t completely separate politics and faith. They rise from the same wellspring: the concern about the distance between what is and what ought to be.”—Tim Kaine, a Catholic and a Democrat, who was elected governor of Virginia in November (Newsweek, November 21).
Open paths: 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16; Luke 1:26-38, 47-55
My favorite Christmas book is The Donkey’s Dream, which is about the journey Mary and Joseph made to Bethlehem. Meant for young children, Barbara Helen Berger’s story is a brilliant and subtle work of theology. Or perhaps antitheology, as it allows simple images to tell us more than words can convey about what the incarnation signifies.
Zealous hopes
We have many defenses against hearing the Christmas readings and taking them to heart.
Zealous hopes: Isaiah 9:2-7; Psalm 96; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-20
We have many defenses against hearing the Christmas readings and taking them to heart.
CC recommends
Davis addresses “the gravest scandal” in the church—“the shallow reading of scripture.” Conservatives and liberals alike fail to be ge...
CC recommends
“Our children are the first generation to be raised without meaningful contact with the natural world,” writ...
CC recommends
People who liked Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air should like this book, which is part memoir, part adventure t...
CC recommends
This is a satisfying sampler of Robert Siegel’s work: scenes from farm life; stories from scripture; a series of poems about fishing; poems about bats,...