John Buchanan

"Easter is a terrific story,” says Tony Hendra, an actor, satirist and author of the wonderful book Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Life....

Those of us who spend a major portion of life in church keep track of time by the sequence of the liturgical or church year as well as by the calendar year....

I loved reading in this issue about great teachers, teachers who have a way of changing lives. I found it impossible not to think about the teachers who changed me....

I like to think of the Christian Century as offering a lively conversation about faith and the issues of our time....

Perhaps it was John Wesley who observed that a preacher has only a few things to say, only a few sermons to preach, and that the task of preaching is a matter of addressing in newly creative and en...

Men my age are “bridge fathers.” We began being fathers in one era, and before the last child left the nest we realized that fatherly responsibilities and expectations had changed significantly....

The prophet Isaiah, whose words we read in Advent, gives us wonderful images of peace and of the restoration of Zion—images of the wolf living with the lamb, of waters breaking forth out of the wil...

Several years ago, early in Advent, I received an interesting note from the sixth-graders in the church school. “Dear Mr. Buchanan: We have some questions about Christmas....

I recall that we used to sing “This Is My Father’s World” at the beginning of Sunday school sessions, and we would sing it every evening at church camp as we sat on the hard wooden benches....

Last summer the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) passed several resolutions that have distressed the American Jewish community....

The Call to Renewal’s “Rolling to Overcome Poverty” project is attempting to convince religious people to start talking about poverty again....

This issue’s emphasis on books exemplifies one of the things I have most liked about the Christian Century over the years: it has helped me to decide what books to purchase and read....

In the previous issue, Mark Noll, a distinguished church historian, indicated his intention to sit out the upcoming presidential election because no candidate or national party reflects his sense o...

How are we doing? The editors and staff of this magazine periodically ask themselves that question. Are we succeeding?...

In his compact book Before God, George Stroup observes that we live in a time when many people no longer understand that their lives are lived coram Deo, before God....

Protestants are about to become a minority in the U.S. after almost four centuries of numerical superiority and cultural dominance....

A recent editorial in Christianity Today suggested that “it may be time for mainline churches to consider an amicable divorce.” The editorial cited a proposal floated informally at the Unite...

If you walk south out of Princeton, New Jersey, on Mercer Street for a mile or so you discover how the street got its name....

Pastors often experience an uncomfortable tension between trying to be both a truth-telling prophet and a caring pastor....

It is a little unusual for a biography (William Sloane Coffin Jr.: A Holy Impatience) to be published when its subject is not only alive but is the author of his own just-published be...