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David Nirenberg has produced a highly learned intellectual history of anti-Judaism that is also lively, engaging and accessible.

c. 2013 Religion News Service...

Sapped by three weeks of a water-only diet, three activists for immigration reform ended their fasts on December 3 with a morsel of bread blessed by a priest and “passed the fast on” to others who ...

The Eucharist gives us innumerable gifts, but we may think of its power especially in terms of three.

Last week, Ghana’s parliament approved a Ghanaian company to explore oil fields off its coast. This is noteworthy because most companies working to extract Ghana’s oil are American or European. In fact, in 2007 it was a U.S.-based company that discovered the vast oil reserve. To transnational piracy and the increased U.S. military presence that have accompanied oil, Ghana has responded with lively, public debate about neocolonialism—a term coined by Ghana’s founding father Kwame Nkrumah.

Some people can’t get enough of Christmas carols. I can’t get enough of Advent hymns. “Prepare the Royal Highway,” “Creator of the Stars of Night, “On Jordan’s Banks the Baptist’s Cry,” “People, Look East,” “Comfort, Comfort, Now My People,” “Fling Wide the Door,” “Unexpected and Mysterious”—there just aren’t enough Advent Sundays to sing all the great ones. I came across a commentary that said, “Advent is the hardest of times for Christians,” because it calls us to “embrace the darkness and the silence and the cold” rather than enjoy the warm glow of Christmas.  But Advent seems to me the easiest season for faith, because it’s the most truthful.

New today from the Century: Katherine Willis Pershey reviews Nadia Bolz-Weber, Sarah Azaransky on Ghanaian independence after oil, more.

As with many memoirists, Bolz-Weber's personal faults beget literary ones. Yet our regard for the narrator becomes less important than our regard for Christ.

c. 2013 Religion News Service...

c. 2013 Religion News Service...

The lectionary texts tell us that Advent is a time to look forward to Christ’s second coming rather than back to his first. Yet most churches prefer Christmas pageants to second coming pageants....

Why have evangelical denominations joined the mainline's downward turn? We await the definitive study, but a few culprits seem likely.

The courts have been inundated with cases from corporations that refuse to provide insurance for contraception based on the religious beliefs of their owners. The Supreme Court will be hearing the cases soon.

I consider the word "eschatology."...

New today from the Century: David Roozen on the decline narrative and evangelicals, Carol Howard Merritt on corporations and religious freedom, more.

A truly nonsectarian prayer would be so vague as to hardly constitute prayer. Besides, government can't assume the task of scrutinizing prayers.

A special Christmas review of noteworthy books, music and TV.

I am lucky enough to serve a church, in Chicago, where people are excited about coming to worship. I teach new member classes, in which many people cite worship as the thing that has really drawn them to want to get better connected with the church.

New today from the Century: The editors on Greece v. Galloway, Carol Howard Merritt on football and violence, more.

Modern Vampires of the City, by Vampire Weekend. The chamber-pop quartet’s third LP finds the band in a more introspective state than the Afropop-infused bounce of its earlier albums....