Latest Articles
On the left and right, activists are driven by religious convictions: Strong convictions, different positions
Long-held assumptions about religious activists on the left and right have been confirmed in a new 40-page report issued in mid-September: the only thing both sides seem to have in common is that f...
Study finds clergy sexual misconduct widespread: Several themes emerge
In any given congregation with 400 adult members, seven women on average have been victims of clergy sexual misconduct since they turned 18, a new national study reveals....
Boldly humble: And humbly bold
"What causes you to become discouraged?” I asked a visitor from eastern Congo who started a university in that country a few years ago....
Tools of the trade: A writer's necessities
Avoid haphazard writing materials. A pedantic adherence to certain papers, pens, inks is beneficial....
'Values voters' see little value in medical reform: "It's not the government's job"
Health-care reform may be Priority No....
In the Bethany graveyard: John 11:32-44; Revelation 21:1-6a
We can scarcely imagine life without tears. We come into the world crying, and when we are hungry or wet or not held enough—no matter how old we are—we cry....
What Bartimaeus wanted (Mark 10:46-52)
We see in Bartimaeus's story the same basic elements that are present in the calling of Jesus’ first disciples.
Take and read
What happens when a superb scholar who studies both North American religious history and global...
Take and read
A past president of Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, Weeks locates the often denigrated work of church administrat...
The Eucharist and Ecumenism: Let Us Keep the Feast
We Christians are a people divided by what unites us....
5 essential books on John Calvin
How best to understand Calvin on the 500th anniversary of his birth?...
5 essential books on Paul
In addition to its roundup of book reviews, the Century's fall books issue features works that guest critics consider to be essential reading on three topics: John Calvin, Paul and preaching. A. Katherine Grieb's essential books on Paul are: Paul and His Letters (second edition), The Writings of St. Paul, Our Mother Saint Paul, Rereading Paul Together: Protestant and Catholic Perspectives on Justification, and A Shorter Commentary on Romans. Read her comments here.
Predestination: The American Career of a Contentious Doctrine
On the face of it, it does not seem difficult to state the contradictions that beset a doctrine of predestination....
7 essential books for preaching
My favorite book on the theology of preaching—which helps me remember what I’m doing and why—is the first one I e...
The Ugly Laws: Disability in Public
When I first moved to one of California’s beautiful seaside cities, a friend from a less self-consciously glamorous part of the country asked ...
A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church: Memoirs of a Catholic Archbishop
In May 2002, Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee was outed as homosexual by Paul Marcoux, a man he had fallen...
Nightwatch/Mennonite in a Little Black Dress
That an adult convert to a religious community of plain people w...