Latest Articles
On "the glory of preaching"
I spent part of a recent week reading a book about preaching. It had an impressive sounding title that included the words “the glory of preaching.” I bought it on the recommendation of someone from my grad school days who had spent ten minutes or so listening to me going on and on about my what an unobvious choice I was for the vocation of “pastor.”
Monday digest
New today from the Century: The editors on Syria, Lil Copan reviews Christian Wiman, more.
My Bright Abyss, by Christian Wiman
Having struggled with a rare cancer that offered little chance of recovery, Poetry magazine editor Christian Wiman has navigated his way through questions of belief and death....
A response to "Pulpit rotation" Case by case: Case by case
Read Ellen Blue's fictional narrative first....
Both sides see gay marriage as ‘inevitable’
c. 2013 USA Today
(RNS) About 72 percent of Americans say legal recognition of same-sex marriage is “inevitable,” according to a survey released Thursday (June 6)....
Activists rally to bury the bodies from Gosnell abortion trial
c. 2013 Religion News Service...
Pulpit rotation: Case by case
The community Thanksgiving service would be at the Southern Baptist church that year, but it was Madeline's church's turn to supply the preacher.
Inactive in the steeples
When I first started working for the Century about six years ago, I was given the assignment of intervie...
In the midst of weakness
I am weak in him. This week I mailed a few dozen invitations to a meeting about a mission trip, a trip few people are interested in. I wonder if the trip will need to be canceled. I am a disciple who has fished all night and caught little.
Other people saying things
"Group singing and performance can produce satisfying and therapeutic sensations, even when...
Friday digest
New today from the Century: Ellen Blue's latest "Case by Case" ministry scenario, Daniel Schultz reviews Jim Naughton and Rebecca Wilson.
Speaking Faithfully, by Jim Naughton and Rebecca Wilson
How can churches and other religious institutions speak effectively to let the world know that something is happening with church people that they might want to be a part of?
Armenia’s survivors
Armenia is a nation of 3.3 million in a territory a fourth the size of Pennsylvania. Its small scale belies a much larger ancient reality.
Lutherans elect first openly gay bishop
A prominent Lutheran scholar and theologian in California will become the first openly gay bishop in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a denomination that opened its ministry to gay and p...
PCUSA membership drop in 2012 exceeds 2011 slide
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which voted to ordain openly gay and lesbian ministers in May 2011, continued its multidecade membership losses, reporting the loss of more than 100,000 members la...
Muslims who go online see U.S. culture in better light
Want Muslims to have a better opinion of the United States? Get them on the Internet....
Greeley was outspoken as priest, sociologist and novelist
Andrew Greeley’s sharp-tongued critiques of the Catholic Church, drawn from his priestly experience and sociological research, often irked the hierarchy....
Sunni and Shi‘ite Muslims clash in Syrian civil war
The Syrian civil war is increasingly drawing in nations across the Middle East. The conflict, which sets Muslim against Muslim, threatens to pit world powers against each other....
Oldest complete scroll of Torah found in Italy
An Italian university professor says he has found what is believed to be world’s oldest complete Torah scroll....