Features
Our bodies, our faith: Practicing incarnation
Deep suffering makes theologians of us all. The questions people ask about God in Sunday school rarely compare with the questions we ask while we are in the hospital. This goes for those stuck in the waiting room as well as those in the hospital beds. To love someone who is suffering is to learn the visceral definition of pathetic: affecting or exciting emotion, especially the tender emotions, as pity or sorrow; so inadequate as to be laughable or contemptible. To spend one night in real pain is to discover depths of reality that are roped off while everything is going fine.
Unholy rites: What's wrong with worship
God says no to supposedly right worship, and yes to genuinely right living.
The Wrestler
The story of the proud and vital man who has lost his power and nobility is a recurrent theme, especially at the movies. Films have specialized in showing us the washed-up boxer (The Set-Up, Requiem for a Heavyweight, Fat City) and cowboy (Red River, The Gunfighter, Unforgiven). The late director Sam Peckinpah crafted a film career around stories about men who had outlived their time, including lawmen (Ride the High Country), rodeo riders (Junior Bonner) and ruthless killers (The Wild Bunch).
Books
Trustworthy
Barbara Blodgett, director of supervised ministries at Yale Divinity School, has written what may be the best book yet on the cruc...
The Way Is Made by Walking: A Pilgrimage Along the Camino de Santiago
Erasmus, writing in the early 16th century, provided a scathing critique of the waning, often abusive practi...
Exiles: A Novel
With each novel, Ron Hansen takes considerable risks, whether in exploring new geographical and cultural settings, modeling characters on historical figures or pr...
BookMarks
Tamara Park went on a low-budget pilgrimage from Rome to Jerusalem with two of her young adult friends....
Departments
Title to come: What to call the sermon
Every other week, on Thursday afternoon, several editors at the Century gather around a cluster of filing cabinets. With the pages of the next issue spread in front of them, they work on coming up with titles for the articles....
Prayer and conversation: A truce in the culture war
Apart from Billy Graham, who is sidelined by age, the most influential evangelical Christian in the U.S. these days is probably author and pastor Rick Warren....
Prayer chain: Compassion and connection
People have asked me to pray for them or for their loved ones all my adult life. I practice intercessory prayer very seriously, but that doesn’t stop me from wondering what I’m doing. Is intercession magical thinking?...
Taking back the night: All-night prayer services
For many African churches, the all-night vigil is a centerpiece of devotion and is not limited to any particular season. The event commonly begins at 9 or 10 p.m., usually on a Friday, and runs until four or five the following morning. Particularly among the independent or African-instituted churches, prayer is accompanied by acts of healing and exorcism. These services commonly draw thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of people. Night vigils also flourish among the booming evangelical and Pentecostal churches of South Korea, where hundreds of thousands pass their Friday nights in prayer and praise. In terms of timing, endurance and mass appeal, the closest Western parallels to these Christian celebrations would be found in dance clubs and rave parties in major cities.
News
Are religious vanity license plates a First Amendment right? State-sponsored religious advertising: State-sponsored religious advertising
In South Carolina, a district court has temporarily halted the production of state-sponsored license plates that declare “I Believe” and feature an illustration of a stained-glass window with a cross....
Survey finds changes in U.S. congregations: Demographic shifts
According to a new study, U.S. congregations have changed significantly since 1998, having become more ethnically diverse, more technologically savvy and more informal in worship....
Church unity advocates admit their 'phobias' Fears vary by denomination: Fears vary by denomination
In recent months, the National Council of Churches observed its 100th anniversary, the World Council of Churches celebrated its 60th birthday, and the new, widest-ever group, called the Global Christian Forum, laid plans for a second international...
Poll: Americans see faith's influence waning: A big change
Two-thirds of Americans think that religion is losing its influence on U.S. life—a sharp jump from just three years ago when Americans were nearly evenly split on the question, according to a new Gallup Poll....
Obama, Warren defy culture war: A controversial invitation
When President Barack Obama tapped megachurch pastor Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration, many liberal activists decried the choice of a high-profile evangelical figure who has opposed gay marriage and abortion rights....
Century Marks
Older and wiser: Henry Alford, 46, has written a book about old age based on conversations with more than 100 people over 70 (How to Live). Althea Washington, a retired school teacher, lost her husband and house in Hurricane Katrina and now lives in a small apartment close to train tracks. When asked how she's coping, she responded: "Can you hear that train? As long as it stays on its tracks, I'll stay on mine" (USA Today, December 30).
People
A longtime official of evangelical organizations is the new president of the American Bible Society. R....
Jerusalem church leaders seek halt to Gaza violence: "Deep concern, regret and shock"
The heads of Christian churches in Jerusalem have denounced the devastating hostilities in the Gaza Strip as well as “all forms of violence and killings from all parties”—an appeal in the closing days of 2008 heard from government officials and re...
Tony Blair at Yale: A former P.M. reflects: Ten lessons
To the chapters of the life of a onetime prime minister and now freelance diplomat, add one more: Mr. Blair Goes to Yale....
Lectionary
False prophet or true?: Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Mark 1:21-28
True prophets have a different bottom line than false ones, but that doesn’t make them any easier to recognize.
The first deacon: Mark 1:29-39
The Christian church was born with Simon Peter’s mother-in-law.