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The New Testament offers two compelling models for our relationship with money. When translated into a vision for a whole society, each is flawed.

James Wall is listed on the Christian Century masthead as a “contributing editor” along with other former editors and staff members....

Dionne Searcey and Robert Gebeloff do a nice job crunching some numbers on what sorts of people are part of the middle class, and how they’re doing (the short version: not great). This caveat of theirs, however, is an important one.

I have a sneaking suspicion this is what matters most. Not the anticipation of Advent, the celebration of Christmas, the long journey of Lent, or the exuberance of Easter. But the everyday of Ordinary Time.

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(The Christian Science Monitor) A group of determined ultra-Orthodox women are rejecting the male monopoly on politics in their commun...

When the congregation starts reciting the creed, I do one of two things: argue with it in my head, or zone out and stop listening.

In the wake of Michael Brown's shooting by Darren Wilson and the subsequent protests in Ferguson, Lauryn Hill posted a song called "Black Rage."

This summer I am going to be teaching at a Kenyon College writing workshop designed for clergy who want to hone their writing skills for conversations beyond their congregations and denominations. The program, Beyond Walls, is envisioned as an interfaith conversation with writers and clergy from both Jewish and Christian traditions. I will be teaching essay writing along with Rodger Kamenetz, and he and I each have an essay in this month’s Beyond Walls e-mag.

“Don’t shop at the Safeway!” This is what my husband and I heard time and again when we told people where we had purchased our new home....

The budget passes, with a reluctant majority. The pastor sweats as the whispers continue. No one knows how they’re going to keep their pastor. The pastor becomes very anxious, but doesn't know how to respond, because the minister has not done anything wrong. There has even been growth and vitality in the last years. But that still can't make up for the last couple decades of decline or keep people alive. The pastor has mouths to feed and loans to pay. The message is clear. The church will not be able to afford their leadership for long. It's hard to focus on ministry, so the pastor begins putting energy and effort into looking for another call.

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We are confronting a reality that for some of us was just an abstraction: black and white communities perceive the police differently and are treated differently by them.

 I've seen family relationships crash and burn on the Christian celebrity circuit. I've seen how we get so addicted to praise that we can't handle criticism. But when we write, we generally become healthier humans. 

We often like to speak, in Christian circles, about the God who descends, who comes down, who is somehow nearest to those on the bottom, those who find themselves on the wrong side of the scor...

One baker doesn’t want to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. Another baker doesn’t want to decorate a cake with the words “God hates gays.” Are the two cases comparable? The differences may be obvious, but they’re also complex.

"For them, Heather Cook’s crime spree began with her ordination, and continued because the church that consecrated...

Paul Elie has lamented the absence of serious engagement with Christianity in contemporary fiction. He should read Stacia Brown.

(The Christian Science Monitor) The purported leader of Boko Haram claimed responsibility in a video Wednesday (January 21) for a mass...