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The dictionaries of saints leap alphabetically from St. Frances of Rome to St. Fremund, with stops along the way to a half dozen St. Francises....

Samuel, the Billy Graham of his day, was adviser to the political leader Saul, the Pete Rose of ancient Israel. Samuel anointed Saul to be the first king of Israel. But soon (to quote James Thurber), “confusion got its foot in the door” and went through the entire “system.” Samuel observed Saul disobeying the explicit word of God, and it became Samuel’s job to inform Saul that God had rejected him as king.

It is tempting to sit in judgment on others. Sometimes we do it in jest, as Mark Twain did when commenting on Adam. “Adam was but human—this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple’s sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden. The mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent.” But sometimes the serpent eats us, and then we judge in earnest.

As part of a course on preaching that I took in my middler year at divinity school, I preached, and then submitted as a written text, what I thought was a good sermon....

My tradition of origin said, “Find a teacher.” My first teachers, of course, were my parents, especially my father, who taught me to paint a room, saw a board, read poetry during thunde...

For a generation of students at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, Langdon Gilkey reflected with wisdom and grace on contemporary events in light of Christian faith, and he reflected...

Whatever you do, for God’s sake don’t ask a question in class, that really makes Holmer mad,” said the older, wiser graduate student....

Sometime in the middle of my second year at New York’s Union Seminary, I made an appointment to consult with J. Louis Martyn about my prospects for graduate work in New Testament....

When I arrived at Yale more than 30 years ago to do graduate work in theology, I soon heard other students urging that I take a course with David Kelsey....

At church, the loser appears right above the altar.

We face no shortage of proposals for fixing theological education....

I believe I had a rare experience in my doctoral program in theology. I was given a seminar on the art of teaching....

Many of us have vivid memories of teachers who changed our lives....

People who hate getting caught in lies should steer clear of any serious engagement with Christianity....

"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....

How has a novel so erudite maintained its place week after week on the New York Times best-seller list?...

Zana Briski is a New York photojournalist who went to India in 1995 to document the plight of women in a patriarchal society....

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....

I like to think of the Christian Century as offering a lively conversation about faith and the issues of our time....

If the staff at the Christian Century is any indication, most younger Americans don’t expect much from Social Security....