Magazine /

July 12, 2011

Volume 128, Issue #14
Download issue PDF ›
All back issues ›

Features

Feature

Irreducible faith: Benedict the theologian

In 1968, Joseph Ratzinger wrote a modestly sized treatise on the Apostles' Creed called Introduction to Christianity. Its impact was anything but modest.
by Edward T. Oakes
Music

Long Player Late Bloomer, by Ron Sexsmith

Why don't more people listen to Ron Sexsmith? The critically acclaimed singer-songwriter crafts masterful pop songs, records them with topflight producers and sings them in an understated croon. Unless you hate music that makes you smile, what's not to like?

Sexsmith's polished new album is produced by Bob Rock, who delivers the guitar-pop pleasure. "Love Shines" sounds like an early Coldplay hit, except with all the things those songs lacked: warmth, classic-pop melody, moments of surprise.

reviewed by Steve Thorngate
Feature

Among the strays: A pastor’s vocation

Before attending seminary, I worked for several summers as a truck driver. Later it dawned on me that truckers and clergy travel a similar metaphoric highway.
by Frederick A. Niedner
Feature

A time of grace for women clergy: Retreat leader Sister Mary Luke Jones

According to Sister Mary Luke Jones, Protestant clergywomen come to Our Lady of Grace Mon­astery's retreats "with a deep thirst for community."
by Amy Frykholm
Feature

Roadside crosses: Personal shrines in public places

For some reason, going to a funeral and gathering in a cemetery doesn't serve us as it once did. People find satisfaction in erecting crosses along the public way.
by MacKenzie Scott
Music

The Party Ain’t Over, by Wanda Jackson

Wanda Jackson may be the queen of rockabilly, but Jack White is king of this collaboration. The roots-obsessed producer takes charge, offering a high-octane reimagination of various '50s styles. But where White's work on Loretta Lynn's Van Lear Rose (2004) came off as reverent and almost subtle, here 73-year-old Jackson's presence seems like an afterthought.

reviewed by Steve Thorngate
Music

Demons, by Cowboy Junkies

Vic Chesnutt, who died of an overdose in 2009, was one of the best and most unusual songwriters of his generation. Country-rock veterans Cowboy Junkies are far more conventional. So Chesnutt diehards might not find much to like in this collection of his songs, but the album may provide newcomers a bridge to his work.

reviewed by Steve Thorngate
Film

The Tree of Life: Written and directed by Terrence Malick

For years, rumors abounded that Terrence Malick was working on a screenplay version of the book of Genesis. Though Genesis: The Movie has not yet come to fruition, The Tree of Life comes close to being such a film.
reviewed by John Petrakis
Cover Story

KJV at 400

For a majority of mainline Christians, the NRSV is the biblical translation of choice. But the KJV is the English-language Bible on which all others stand.

by Jon Sweeney

Music

In the Cool of the Day, by Daniel Martin Moore

Nostalgic country-gospel records inhabit a liminal space between personal-historical document and genuine religious statement. Daniel Martin Moore's latest follows this path but enlivens it a bit.
reviewed by Steve Thorngate

Books

The New Holy Wars, by Robert H. Nelson

I have only a small flickering light to guide me in the darkness of a thick forest. Up comes a theologian and blows it out." So complained 18th-century French philosopher Denis Diderot....
reviewed by Stephen Healey

Introducing the Practice of Ministry, by Kathleen A. Cahalan

I began my first call to ministry 15 years ago. I wish that tucked into the moving boxes had been this slim volume by Kathleen Cahalan.

reviewed by Eileen R. Campbell-Reed

Abraham Joshua Heschel, edited by Susannah Heschel

Heschel was born and raised in Warsaw in a Hasidic family, studied in Berlin and then was deported to Poland in 1938....

Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So, by Mark Vonnegut

In this wonderfully titled memoir, Mark Vonnegut writes of his college years in the late 1960s: "At Swarthmore I majored in religion with the idea of going to divinity school and then maybe the Uni...
reviewed by Martin B. Copenhaver

The Convert, by Deborah Baker

In 1962, 28-year-old Margaret Marcus left her home in New York to start a new life in Pakistan as the adopted daughter of Abul Ala Mawdudi, an Islamic theorist and political leader....

Benedict the teacher

David Tracy
once distinguished three audiences for the theologian: the church, the
general public and the academic community. Joseph Ratzinger has spoken
powerfully to all three.

by Lawrence S. Cunningham

Departments

Editor's Desk

Varieties of order

A visit with Argentinan Pentecostal pastors left me grateful that the Spirit can use a variety of traditions—some orderly and some wonderfully disorderly—for the growth of the kingdom.
by John Buchanan

Taking Utah to Africa

When we look at Mormon expansion in Africa, one pressing question demands attention: Why is the whole continent not already Mormon?
by Philip Jenkins
From the Editors

Don’t know much about history

Americans who don't have a narrative sense of the country's history are more susceptible to ideologues who try to weave their own versions of the past.
Faith Matters

Veiled voices

For many women, the hijab has become a symbol of striving for gender and racial justice.
by Stephanie Paulsell
On Art

Under St. Erik’s Bridge, Stockholm

An outgrowth of New Life Church in Stockholm, Synergy is a network of people interested in connecting Christian faith with the work of musicians, painters, writers, actors and other artists....
reviewed by Lil Copan

News

Alabama immigration law called nation’s ‘meanest’

A new Alabama law that makes it a crime to offer rides to undocumented immigrants is the "meanest" immigration law in the country, according to a United Methodist bishop and respected theologian....
by Greg Garrison

Goshen College again silences national anthem

Goshen College will no longer play "The Star-Spangled Ban­ner" at sporting events, school leaders announced, reversing last year's decision to allow the use of the national anthem for the first time in...
by Jack Jenkins

Vatican tries to revive eucharistic adoration

For seven centuries, eucharistic adoration—praying before an exposed consecrated communion host—was one of the most popular forms of devotion in the Roman Catholic Church, the focus of beloved prayers and hymns...
by Francis X. Rocca

Southern Baptists affirm belief in ‘eternal’ hell

Southern Baptists delivered a group rebuttal to Michigan pastor Rob Bell for writing a book that questions traditional views of hell....
by Adelle M. Banks

Faith leaders praise goals in fighting AIDS

Religious leaders and representatives of faith-based organizations are giving generally high marks to a United Nations AIDS meeting that set new targets to combat the continued spread of HIV/AIDS....
by Chris Herlinger

SBC notes a drop in baptisms, attendance

The Southern Baptist Convention has reported declines last year in several categories traditionally used as markers of denominational vitality. Dips in baptisms, total church membership, worship attendance...
by Bob Allen

Loyal but dissenting believers

Significant majorities of Amer­icans say it is possible to disagree with their religion's teachings on abortion and homosexuality and still remain in good standing with their faith. The findings hold true for...
by Adelle M. Banks

Two thirds of Americans OK with Mormon candidate

Roughly two out of three Americans say it makes no difference to them if a presidential candidate is Mormon, according to a new Pew Research Center poll, although evangelicals are more cautious....
by Adelle M. Banks

Christians shatter taboos on talking about money

No sooner had 29-year-old Graham Messier joined a small group at his church earlier this year than he found himself breaking an American taboo: talking about how much he earns and where it all goes....
by G. Jeffrey MacDonald

Free Newsletters

From theological reflections to breaking religion news to the latest books, the Christian Century's newsletters have you covered.

Explore Newsletters