Latest Articles
Practical Wisdom
I believe I had a rare experience in my doctoral program in theology. I was given a seminar on the art of teaching....
What the Best College Teachers Do
Many of us have vivid memories of teachers who changed our lives....
Lying: An Augustinian Theology of Duplicity
People who hate getting caught in lies should steer clear of any serious engagement with Christianity....
The Terrible Love of War
"Why do the nations rage so furiously together and the people imagine a vain thing?” That is Handel’s lyrical adaptation of Psalm 2:1....
The Rule of Four
How has a novel so erudite maintained its place week after week on the New York Times best-seller list?...
Kids with cameras
Zana Briski is a New York photojournalist who went to India in 1995 to document the plight of women in a patriarchal society....
Mountaintop searching: Wondering about God
If I could only describe the high country, how the car strains and the mind races and the lungs ache, how the body slows and the breathing quickens....
Necessary conversation: The divestment debate
I like to think of the Christian Century as offering a lively conversation about faith and the issues of our time....
What crisis? Social Security at risk: Social Security at risk
If the staff at the Christian Century is any indication, most younger Americans don’t expect much from Social Security....
Century Marks
Repeating ourselves: Laurel Wamsley, 20-year-old daugher of a Vietnam veteran, traveled to Vietnam to come to terms with what the U.S. did there a generation ago....
A great leveler: Sri Lanka's factions deal with the tsunami
When Nadarajah Arulnathan visits his church at Pasikudah, he puts on a surgical mask because along the way he must pass rotting bodies tangled in the underbrush....
Stuck in Darfur: Refugees are 'like hens in cages'
On my last night in Nyala, in southern Darfur, convoys of combat-ready security forces circled the streets of the city, which has become part fortress, part camp for the displaced, and part home f...
ELCA calls for some leeway on gay clergy: Advocates on both sides unhappy
"They unlocked the closet door, but they haven’t opened it,” wryly commented a retired Lutheran bishop on his church’s much-awaited report on homosexuality....
Pastors poll: Graham is 'most influential' Rick Warren and George W. Bush runners-up
Although illness and age have slowed him, evangelist Billy Graham is considered by Protestant senior pastors to be the most influential Christian figure and most trusted spokesperson for the faith...
Bush urged to work on Mideast conflict: Leaders request presidential envoy
Representing 28 U.S. religious organizations, a diverse group of leaders has appealed to President Bush to make every effort in his second term to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict....
Episcopal bishops remain defiant on gay bishop's election: Apologize for "pain" caused but not for action
The bishops of the Episcopal Church have formally apologized for the “pain, hurt and damage” caused by the consecration of an openly gay bishop but stopped short of saying the action was wrong....
Pastor takes Bush's attendance in stride: In the President's Pew
Episcopal Rector Luis Leon, a priest who looks out at George and Laura Bush in the pews occasionally, says he treats President Bush just like any other parishioner at the historic St....
Judge bans stickers questioning evolution: Stickers to be removed from textbooks
Civil liberties groups are praising a federal judge’s decision to ban textbook stickers that notify public school students that evolution is a “theory, not a fact.”...