Latest Articles
Judging Clinton: The religious debate
Do christian leaders have anything distinctive to say--or avoid saying--about the scandal in the White House and the impeachment of Bill Clinton?...
Persuasion and discernment: The gifts of leadership
By Erwin C. Hargrove, The President as Leader: Appealing to the Better Angels of Our Nature. (University Press of Kansas, 240 pp.)...
Putting on new clothes
Hans Christian Andersen tells about an emperor who was so fond of new clothes that he spent all his money on them....
Stewardship meets the P.O.
Every Month I look forward to reading "St. Paul Journey," the newsletter of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Davenport, Iowa. I turn first to Peter W. Marty's "Pastor's Column," of course....
A sense of ending
In the 2,200 pages of Boswell's Life of Johnson, the protagonist's death is dispensed with in 36 pages.
Styles of giving
Edited by Warren F. Illchman, Stanley N. Katz and Edward L. Queen II, Philanthropy in the World's Traditions. (Indiana University Press, 382 pp.)...
Unweaving the Rainbow, by Richard Dawkins
By Richard Dawkins, Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder. (Houghton Mifflin, 337 pp.)...
The Religious Art of Andy Warhol, by Jane Daggett Dillenberger
Andy Warhol's images of soup cans, brillo boxes, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and Mao Tse-tung have been silk-screened onto our consciousness....
What Will You Do for an Encore? by Robert Drake
By Robert Drake, What Will You Do for an Encore. (Mercer University Press)...
The next Christian century
This Magazine has been a friend and a resource for me for 35 years....
Explosive issues: Emotional disarmament
Sometimes society faces issues that seem to defy rational solution....
Tobacco’s victory: Behind the settlement
This past November the tobacco industry agreed to give $208 billion to the states over the next 25 years....
Living in public housing
We were walking up to our third-floor apartment when an elderly neighbor opened her door. "I heard you come in last night," she said....
Proclaiming the Lord’s death
High view of the ministry of the Word and pronounced free church sensibilities notwithstanding, I finally caved in. I sought refuge from bad preaching in the celebration of the Eucharist....
It adds up
Decades ago I heard someone from IBM project computer size. In the 1950s, he said, it took a whole building to house one that punched holes in cards....
Acknowledgment (John 9:1-41)
"You can't be born again," I said, "you're a Lutheran. You are the chairman of the board of trustees."
A new sexual revolution
By Wendy Shalit, A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue. (Free Press, 291 pp.)...
Letting scripture work
By John P. Burgess, Why Scripture Matters. (Westminster John Knox, 186 pp.)...
Sweet Charity, by Janet Poppendieck
By Janet Poppendieck, Sweet Charity: Emergency Food and the End of Entitlement. (Viking, 354 pp.)...
Life on the playground
Across the street from the Christian Century's offices there used to be a wholesale outlet that sold barber supplies....