Cover Story

Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation, and nearly half of its people are Christians. They are often in conflict, sometimes violent conflict, with Muslims.

Our fall books issue includes reviews by Robert Westbrook, Susan R. Garrett, Stanley Hauerwas, Randall Balmer, Anne Blue Wills, Valerie Weaver-Zercher, Shirley Showalter, Amy Frykholm and Brian Doyle.

Each Century books issue includes annotated lists of recent titles in a couple broad areas. Our fall books issue features Beverly Roberts Gaventa on New Testament, Philip Jenkins and Grant A. Wacker on world Christianity and American religion and Anthony B. Robinson on practical theology.

We asked eight theologians.

The commandments and promises of God are easy to find: they're right there in the Bible. But my students have something else in mind when they refer to "God's will," though it's not easy to say what.

How does a church choose a bank? Typically we look for the best deal and then pat ourselves on the back for our good stewardship, as if stewardship had to do simply with saving money rather than with putting it to good use.

The paradox of being a writer is that you are more likely to get outcomes when you let go of getting outcomes: it frees you from the ego's grip. There is a parallel here to the faith journey: seek your life and you will lose it, lose your life and you will find it.

I should have seen my road to Damascus moment approaching. I’d been warned.

When A History of God hit the New York Times bestseller list, Karen Armstrong suddenly became the go-to commentator on religion. Bill Moyers calls her “one of the foremost, and most original, thinkers on religion in our modern world.” Why is she so widely read? The answer is not immediately clear. Her prose is often maddeningly dense and her points elusive. Her drive to comprehend religion leads her to be constantly comparing elements of different religious traditions, but the connections she draws are not always illuminating.

Although nearly everyone agrees that U.S. immigration policy is inadequate, different critics focus on different elements of the problem. The most comprehensive proposal comes from Representative Luis Gutierrez (D., Ill.), a native Chicagoan of Puerto Rican ancestry who has criticized President Obama’s reluctance to address the issue. Gutierrez’s bill is heartily endorsed by most immigrants’ rights groups, but it is not likely to pass in its current form. Jen Smyers of Church World Service calls it “a marker bill,” since it stakes out a clear position. It has no Republican supporters.