Latest Articles
Colson and worldviewism
In noting the death of Chuck Colson, David Sessions at the Daily Beast points to Colson’s role in popularizing the idea--which he got it from Francis Schaeffer, who got it from other Reformed thinkers--that Christians possess a distinct “worldview.”
A simpler church
Anthony Robinson said it well in a recent Stillspeaking devotional. Maybe the future of the church is a lot simpler than it is today. Breaking bread, prayers, learning about the word and caring for the lost are the simple acts Jesus led his little band to engage in.
Tuesday digest
New today from the Century: The lure of books, Chuck Colson and worldviewism, more.
Spring books: Reviews
Our spring books issue's reviews include Lillian Daniel on Lauren Winner, Jason Byassee on The Jewish Annotated New Testament, Janet Potter on Ayad Akhtar and more.
Little-known Swedenborg gets fresh look in new book
c. 2012 Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS) William Blake, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Martin Luther King Jr. and even Helen Keller all found something to like in Emanuel Swedenborg. Emanuel who?...
Repentant ‘hatchet man,’ Colson was evangelical icon
Charles W. Colson, the Watergate felon who became an evangelical icon and born-again advocate for prisoners, died April 21 after a brief illness. He was 80....
Love survives
“What will survive of us is love,” writes Philip Larkin in his remarkably unsentimental poem “An Arundel Tomb.” He is reflecting on the recumbent stone effigy over the grave of a couple buried long ago in an ancient church.
Maybe we should take a step further, however, and say that love is that which not only “survives” but also rises, or is raised, from any and every grave. This is especially important to bear in mind in the face of all the threats to love, those powers and forces that try to bury it.
The Jewish Annotated New Testament, edited by Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler
One of the most interesting shifts in Christian theology after the Shoah was in how the adjective Jewish was used....
Understanding Wisdom Literature, by David Penchansky
People often assume—wrongly—that the Bible presents a single view of God and the world....
The Columbia Guide to Religion in American History, edited by Paul Harvey and Edward J. Blum
There are probably few reference books that vacationers will drag down to the beach this summer....
Living into Focus, by Arthur Boers
My fifth-grade son used to walk around the house pretending to be texting....
Still, by Lauren F. Winner
Lauren Winner first drew widespread literary attention in 2004 with the spritely spiritual memoir Girl Meets God: A Memoir, which told the story of her conversion first to Orthodox Judaism...
War Time, by Mary L. Dudziak
One of the notable features of the Obama administration’s foreign policy has been its disavowal of the locution, if not necessarily the policies, of the “war on terror” declared by George W....
A God in the House, edited by Ilya Kaminsky and Katherine Towler
A striking and apt image enhances the cover of this new collection of interviews with 19 leading American poets....
American Dervish, by Ayad Akhtar
This debut novel features ten-year-old Hayat Shah, a first-generation Pakistani American, who is attempting to find his identity as a Muslim....
The Story of Beautiful Girl, by Rachel Simon
These days it’s a rare novel that addresses disturbing social issues without flinching and treats religious faith as a force for good, without denying the complexity of either....
Our first family
If anything remains sacred in our culture, it’s the family. Yet Jesus challenged the family’s ultimacy.