Cover Story

Some questions won't go away. The creed says Jesus was crucified "for us," but what do those two little words mean?

Much of the Bible is not fit for children—it's a book to ease little ones into, not drop them in cold. So what's the best way to go about this?

The idea that students will reside on a campus and attend classes at specified times seems increasingly quaint.

Thomas thinks he should have been more suspicious of Lee and that his sermons should have had more of an effect on him. But these are not the immediate issues at hand.

Around 3:30, an SUV bearing the local TV station's logo pulled up. Thomas wondered how they knew about the service project.

Some Americans see themselves as isolated individuals struggling in a forbidding environment. Institutions do things to them, not for or with them.

As generations of coaches have delighted in pointing out, defense wins games. But we’re very far behind in the global warming game.

Four Tar Sands Blockade young people showed up at church one Sunday. They were hungry for fellowship and encouragement—and just hungry.

We might still pray for rain, but we can account for thunder without invoking bowling gods. Is there still a place for God?

A special Christmas review of noteworthy books, music and film.

Offering the elements to the unbaptized can be seen as a development and not a revolution, but it is a significant change. Is it a good one?

"Speak the truth in love," and "see that none of you repays evil for evil," exhorts St. Paul. Which is easier said than done.

Being a pastor is bad for your health. The Clergy Health Initiative aims to study this problem and begin to correct it.

Our fall books issue's reviews include Sam Wells on Jürgen Moltmann, William H. Willimon on Lamin Sanneh, Shirley Showalter on Rhoda Janzen and others.

"In 2010 we decided to do a quarterly print magazine," says Englewood Review of Books editor C. Christopher Smith. "We felt like we were moving against the cultural tide."

Our fall books issue includes the following annotated lists of top new titles: New Testament, practical theology and world Christianity/American religion.

The Century asked Thomas G. Long, Barbara Brown Taylor, Scott Cairns and Kathleen Norris to describe their daily routines with the written word.

Kevin Brockmeier’s characters ignore the divine fabric of the universe even when they are shaping it. Lauren Groff takes an opposite tack.

Reading fiction has done more to baptize my imagination, inform my faith and strengthen my courage than any prayer technique has.

Public ritual might be construed as a benign relic, as imperialism, or as marketing. Or it might be seen as a form of pilgrimage.