Books

At such ideologically charged times, it is hard to discern what a life of Christian faithfulness looks like. Miguel De La Torre offers a good resource.

Mark Achtemeier and I once faced off at General Assembly over gay ordination. Sixteen years later, he preached at my ordination.

In The Deconstructed Church, Gerardo Marti and Gladys Ganiel give us a comprehensive and revealing ethnographic study of the worldwide phenomenon known as the emerging Christian movement.

When I go backpacking, I pack light—no laptop, no phone, and especially no books. But reading Belden Lane, I’m tempted to begin toting a tome or two.

David Keck offers a refreshing addition to the conversation about vocational expectations. Eugene Peterson’s vision of holiness resonates with Keck, but Keck takes a different tack.

Few Americans today could identify any of FDR’s vice presidents. Yet little surprise is occasioned by Peter Baker’s treatment of Dick Cheney as a costar with George W. Bush.

Fabrizio Amerini’s analysis creates precision about Aquinas on beginning-of-life issues—something other accounts, especially abortion polemics, often lack.

In a crucial scene of Marilynne Robinson’s new novel, Lila spends the morning thinking, has lunch, then thinks some more. Why isn’t this boring?

Christmas recommendations from Century editors and columnists.

Chris Keith sets out to answer two questions. What lay at the heart of the conflict between Jesus and some of the religious authorities of his day? And how, if at all, did Jesus read Israel’s scriptures?

Engagement in serious, respectful conversation with other religious traditions is important and urgent. Leo Lefebure details why it’s also difficult.

Christine Helmer’s important new book has an unusual literary feature: its titular character is killed off not once, but twice.

This is a book for those that are seeking to embody the radical witness of Jesus for their own time, recalibrating their own lives in light of the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus’ example of solidarity with the oppressed. If you, or anyone you know, is looking to be inspired by both the past and present witness of Jesus in the world, and if you would appreciate it communicated through creative and beautiful artwork testifying to God’s Church making visible the Kingdom of God, then Radical Jesus is for you!

David McCullough Jr.’s view of narcissism is a familiar one among the professional classes. As an angle on our age, Elizabeth Lunbeck finds it blinding.

Barbara Crooker enters the shades and brush strokes of daily life with such reverence that readers want to take notice, live better, and die better.

Alain Epp Weaver offers a new conceptual bridge to explain the Israel/Palestine conflict to U.S. readers and to suggest a way forward.