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I continue to encounter—and to find incredibly puzzling—the claim that depicting God creating through evolution portrays God less favorably than depicting God creating directly and instantaneously.

I'm back around after spending most of December away, and I'll get back to the current-events blogging directly. But first, I mentioned recently that I've been writing and home-recording a song for each liturgical season.

New today from the Century: Zionism's internal conflicts, Brueggemann reviews Douglas John Hall, more.

Douglas Hall is likely the most influential North American theological interpreter from a Reformation perspective, especially with reference to Luther. He continues to filter his thought through his teachers Tillich and Niebuhr—but he is his own man and carries his inquiry toward the demise of Christendom.

As generations of coaches have delighted in pointing out, defense wins games. But we’re very far behind in the global warming game.

Four Tar Sands Blockade young people showed up at church one Sunday. They were hungry for fellowship and encouragement—and just hungry.

Sometimes we grow weary of the same texts as they come up year after year. We may even suggest that maybe this year we should not do the Christmas pageant, but a different story instead. Bad idea.

New today from the Century: Bill McKibben on divesting from oil, Kyle Childress on protesters in the pews, more.

Philip C. Kolin is one of the growing tribe of very fine Christian poets whose work has often been sequestered in the limited venues of independent publishers. His newest collection is a beautifully printed, small hardcover volume that fits comfortably in the palm of the hand. But these are not small or comfortable poems.

I’m proud to be a part of a movement whose great concern is learning to love your neighbor as you love yourself. And as we move into the new year, I hope those voices of justice will grow stronger—and I wish for some other things as well.

I often wonder what Jesus was getting at when he asked his disciple, “Who do you say that I am?” Was Jesus testing the waters, trying to figure out if the people and his friends understood the nature of his divinity? Was he trying to figure out if his rabble rousing was about to get him killed? Was he concerned with how his identity was formed by the community? Or was he simply wondering what people thought about him?

Here are the 12 Tribal Church posts people read the most this year.

Here are the Century's most-viewed blog posts of the year. Thanks for reading.

While many of his contemporaries have ossified, Neil Young claws at the marrow like a deranged miner, digging deep in ways that confound expectation. He launches his new double album with a track that’s almost 28 minutes long—and that largely revolves around two chords. It’s one of three songs on this nine-track effort that top 16 minutes. 

Jack served the church in countless ways. There's only one thing he wanted in return.

Viewers don’t look to James Bond movies for profundity. Mostly they go to see buxom babes (now brainier and badder) and gravity-defying vehicle chases. But the most recent Bond installment offers some pertinent comments on technology.