Latest Articles
The most-read Century articles
Here are the Century magazine articles that got read the most online this year. Thanks for reading.
The most-read Tribal Church posts
Here are the 13 Tribal Church posts people read the most this year.
The executioner’s return
The U.S. is the only Western democracy that retains the death penalty. Evan Mandery tells the story of the long legal campaign against it.
A traditional, commercialized Christmas
In Chicago Christmas begins in November, with the revealing of Marshall Field’s (now Macy’s) Christmas windows and the hanging of golden trumpets on the façade of the grand old department store. Inside, for more than 100 years the Walnut Room restaurant has glistened in its holiday glory with its centerpiece: a stunning Christmas tree. On the fifth floor, Santa awaits his eager fans in Santaland. The store buzzes with shoppers in a crush of shopping bags from Macy’s and other stores up and down the historic State Street shopping district.
Keeping Christmas
The miracle of love is that the more you love, the more alive you are. Keeping Christmas is believing in the transforming power of love.
Boehner’s move
The budget deal was no grand bargain, but there was one grand outcome: the House Speaker stood up to the insurgent right. Is this the new normal?
Tips for the budding writer, activist or public theologian
As a writer, being a part of denomination has incredible benefits and difficulties. Here are some things I learned about the relationship between the two.
First Posadas
About a decade ago, the rector of our small Episcopal church began to incorporate Spanish into the liturgy. She didn’t do this because we had Spanish-speaking members. We didn’t. She did it, she said, to remind us that the liturgy doesn’t belong to us alone.
Monday digest
New today from the Century: The editors on the budget deal and the House Speaker, Amy Frykholm on hosting her first Las Posadas celebration, more.
Sacred Pauses, by April Yamasaki
Yamasaki writes out of her experience as a pastor who practices the spiritual disciplines....
At Adventist restaurants, meals are good for the body and the planet
c. 2013 Religion News Service...
Ugandan law would give gays life imprisonment
A Ugandan cleric who ministers to homosexuals has criticized the passage of a controversial law that imposes life imprisonment for homosexual acts....
Families of faith: Sociologist Vern Bengtson
"Religiosity is a driving force more salient than belief. Agreement with specific beliefs is the least likely religious trait to be passed on."
Advent despair
In 1595, the English Jesuit Robert Southwell wrote “The Burning Babe,” a startling, unsettling poem about the incarnation—which means, given Southwell’s rich theological imagination and deep Catholic piety, that it is also a poem about suffering and salvation. And about the human predilection to resist divine love.
Three hundred seventy-one years later, Denise Levertov penned “Advent 1966.″
Friday digest
New today from the Century: Amy Frykholm interviews sociologist Vern Bengston, Debra Dean Murphy on Advent despair, more.
Slacktivism
Do I think we can have a reasoned debate about race, homophobia, and free speech in 140 characters? Do I think that it’s good to get my anxiety and blood pressure bursting from the comment sections?
A Land without Sin, by Paula Huston
Last year, Image magazine founder Gregory Wolfe launched a literary imprint at Wipf & Stock called Slant, aiming to publish fiction unafraid of metaphysical themes....
In season of giving, atheist groups' charity rebuffed
c. 2013 Religion News Service
(RNS) ‘Tis the season for giving — but not always for receiving....
Methodist-shaped, Mandela praised roles of religion
Nelson Mandela, the widely mourned South African leader lauded by religious figures as a colossus of unimpeachable moral character and integrity, had a deep connection with faith institutions....