Latest Articles
It’s 2012, another year for ‘doomsday’ chatter
On December 21, 2012, the Mayan calendar reaches the end of its
5,126-year epoch. That's a cause for consternation among some end-time...
Essential books on spiritual direction
The print version of the Century's recent
feature on spiritual direction included an annotated book list,
which I compiled based on recommendations from three professors in the
discipline.
When something is missing
The Lens at the New York Times has a fascinating collection of images entitled “Iconic Scenes, Revisited and Reimagined.” Here are famous photos, but without the thing that made them famous.
Ghosts of Afghanistan, by Jonathan Steele
Steele, a reporter and columnist for the Guardian newspaper, has covered Afghanistan since the former Soviet Union's occupation in the 1980s....
How to follow the leader: Five habits of healthy congregations
Following doesn't command the interest that leading does. But following is crucial.
For many, 'Losing My Religion' isn't a song: It's life
c. 2012 USA Today
(RNS) When Ben Helton signed up for an online dating service, under "religion" he called himself "spiritually apathetic."
...
Candidates rate poorly on secular scorecard
c. 2012 Religion News Service
(RNS) If kids brought home grades like this, they'd be grounded.
...
Nearly 80 percent of Americans are Christian
As the year 2012 unfolds, more than three-quarters of Americans identify themselves as Christian, Gallup reports....
Ex-RCA seminary head reinstated to ministry
A Reformed Church in America minister, fired seven years ago as president of an RCA seminary for presiding over his lesbian daughter's same-sex wedding and defrocked by delegates of the 2005 RCA An...
Hopes rise in Haiti for new Episcopal cathedral
Among the casualties of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that devastated Haiti two years ago this month was Holy Trinity Cathedral in downtown Port-au-Prince....
After carnage in Nigeria, faith leaders seek unity but fear religious war
After Muslim militants bombed a Nigerian church over the Christmas weekend, northern Nigerian Christians say they will fight to defend themselves against a possible religious war in Africa's most p...
Sex on campus: Arkansas State University
I confess to being a skeptic when I first read the reports about a toxic sexual culture on campus. Arkansas State is a long way from elite East Coast colleges....
In academia, comments about Islam remain risky
A recent spate of campus controversies involving professors who made
provocative statements about Muslims shows one of two things: a...
What are supply clergy?
What are supply
clergy? Are they merely ordained persons who are authorized to use the
costume, magic words and hand motions needed to legitimize an hour of
worship while the life of the congregation goes along without them quite
well, thank you very much?
An impressive showing by Rick Santorum?
It's rare for me to disagree with Mark Silk and rarer still for me to agree with Erick Erickson....
Lutheran Slogans, by Robert W. Jenson
Slogans are necessary, Jenson says, both for practical reasons (we need shortcuts in arguments) and rhetorical ones (we need vivid ways of summing up a position). But problems arise when slogans become "untethered from the complex of ideas and practices which they once evoked."
U.K. Christians lose ground as unbelief grows
c. 2012 Religion News Service
LONDON (RNS) Christians in England and Wales are losing ground about as fast as nonbelievers are gaining it, according to a new government-sponsored poll....