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Since 1900, the Christian Century has published reporting, commentary, poetry, and essays on the role of faith in a pluralistic society.
© 2023 The Christian Century.
The duly elected Black men expelled from a state legislature—155 years ago
The expulsion of Justin Jones and Justin Pearson recalls the Original 33, expelled by Georgia’s anti-Reconstruction White majority in 1868.
The White church still owes “Letter from Birmingham Jail” an answer
King’s letter is so soaked in US history that 60 years later we almost forget it was addressed not to the nation but to specific Christian pastors.
Anti-racism’s mission drift
Privileged progressives have turned their attention from structures and systems to sentimentalism.
Episode 26: Ethicist Reggie Williams, author of Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus
A conversation with ethicist Reggie Williams about Bonhoeffer, Black Jesus, racism, and more
A self-emptying of privilege
Brandan Robertson grounds his discussion of Christians and privilege in the kenosis hymn of Philippians 2.
Cheap grace in South Africa
Eve Fairbanks traces the experiences of three South Africans to diagnose the country’s unrealized promises.
Tyre Nichols’s killing is not an exception
Police violence against Black citizens is written into the script of American culture.
Another look at the 1619 Project
I approached the project’s new anthology with some skepticism. Its contents quickly dispelled my doubts.
Episode 23: Activist Otis Moss III, author of Dancing in the Darkness
A conversation with activist and filmmaker Otis Moss III about his film Otis’ Dream, retribution, spirituality, and more
Should we avoid liturgical language of light and dark?
While struggling with this question as a church songwriter, I came up with six guidelines.
Baldwin the exorcist
He wrote to free the heart from hatred and despair.
Can we be reconciled to God without being reconciled to one another?
Jonathan Augustine starts where Barth left off, moving from salvific reconciliation to social reconciliation.
Epistles of hope for our time
Randal Jelks and Shaka Senghor both write with realism but not fatalism.
Episode 21: Activist and scholar Jemar Tisby, author of How to Fight Racism: Young Reader's Edition
A conversation with activist and New York Times bestselling author Jemar Tisby about racism, the concept of race, how to work for racial justice, and more
Labor, land, and racism
Fifty years later, Wendell Berry revisits the themes he introduced in The Hidden Wound.
by Brian Volck
Critical race theory can help us serve others
Why would we refuse that help?
American “heathens”
Kathryn Gin Lum explores the entwining of racial and religious stereotypes in the United States.
Imani Perry’s tour of the American South
South to America shows how one region’s beauty, losses, and inequities have shaped the country as a whole.
A letter to my Black daughter after the fall of Roe
Your body is not a public domain.
How Christena Cleveland walked away from “whitemalegod”
The social psychologist went on a revolutionary pilgrimage in search of the sacred Black feminine.