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Aug 1, 2023 | 
christiancentury.org | Mark Noll |Martha Tatarnic |Jessica Mesman |Libby Howe
“This country is, as everybody knows, a creation of the Bible,” said Solomon Schechter at the dedication of a new building at New York’s Jewish Theological Seminary in 1903. The renowned Jewish scholar went on: “The Bible is still holding its own, exercising enormous influence as a real spiritual power, in spite of all the destructive tendencies.”Schechter gave these remarks at almost the exact midpoint between the American founding and the present day. Were they true then? Are they true now?
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Jul 31, 2023 | 
christiancentury.org | Martha Tatarnic |Jessica Mesman |Libby Howe |Brian Bantum
“Are you all professional mourners now?” My spouse asked me this somewhat lightheartedly after a friend and I participated in a funeral liturgy and were then asked—some might say “voluntold”—if we were available for another service later that same afternoon. It was a beautiful invitation and oddly enough quite fitting.
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Jul 31, 2023 | 
christiancentury.org | Martha Tatarnic |Jessica Mesman |Libby Howe |Brian Bantum
“Are you all professional mourners now?”My spouse asked me this somewhat lightheartedly after a friend and I participated in a funeral liturgy and were then asked—some might say “voluntold”—if we were available for another service later that same afternoon. It was a beautiful invitation and oddly enough quite fitting.
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Jul 27, 2023 | 
christiancentury.org | Martha Tatarnic |Brian Bantum |Libby Howe |Melissa Florer-Bixler
On a frigid night in march, a woman wanders through a crowd with a loaf of bread. She pauses before each person and tears at the crust. “The body of Christ for you,” she hums before zigzagging back into the throng of bodies packed into the parking lot. We have gathered to protest the incarceration of migrants housed in a concrete industrial park in an isolated New Jersey suburb.
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Jul 25, 2023 | 
christiancentury.org | Melissa Florer-Bixler |Martha Tatarnic |Libby Howe |Philip Jenkins
Here’s one way churches can combat climate change: by preserving their buildings, rather than replacing them or selling them to someone who will. “The most ecologically friendly building is one you already have,” said CJ Armstrong, senior architect and vice president at Multistudio in Lawrence, Kansas.
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Jul 25, 2023 | 
christiancentury.org | Martha Tatarnic |Brian Bantum |Libby Howe |Melissa Florer-Bixler
When my mom drove my sister and me around town in our minivan, at the sound of ambulance sirens she would immediately lead us in a prayer for whoever was in distress. From behind the wheel, she’d start praying aloud, and we’d join along from the back seat.
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Jul 24, 2023 | 
christiancentury.org | Melissa Florer-Bixler |Libby Howe |Philip Jenkins |Tony Jones
“Have you understood all this?” Jesus asks after his parables. His disciples answer yes—but we cannot possibly believe them. I doubt they believe themselves. I doubt Jesus believes them. They rarely “understand all this” when Jesus teaches. Some have interpreted their yes as a fear or shame response. They lie and say yes because they do not want to admit their ignorance and disappoint their teacher. Maybe so. But there is another possibility. Read our latest issue or browse back issues.
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Jul 21, 2023 | 
christiancentury.org | Libby Howe |Melissa Florer-Bixler |Philip Jenkins |Jonathan Tran
To receive these posts by email each Monday, sign up. For more commentary on this week's readings, see the Reflections on the Lectionary page. For full-text access to all articles, subscribe to the Century. 1. I once heard someone refer to Psalm 139 as “the stalker psalm,” perhaps in an effort to shock us out of the sentimentality this psalm can provoke. It stuck with me because I have been a lover of this psalm for as long as I can remember. It has comforted me in times of despair.
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Jul 20, 2023 | 
christiancentury.org | Luke A. Powery |Melissa Florer-Bixler |Joann Lee |Libby Howe
Becoming Human is a small book that proffers a big push. Many books on America’s racialized past and present, even those written for the church, are sociological, psychological, or political rather than theological in their analyses and remedies. The White-dominated church is rightly presented as a collaborator and baptizer of White supremacy, but the church (and by implication, God) is the problem rather than part of the solution.
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Jul 20, 2023 | 
christiancentury.org | Melissa Florer-Bixler |Libby Howe |Philip Jenkins |Tony Jones
Welcome to Madang! Madang is the outdoor living room of the world. Here we invite you to sit and tune into unreserved, remarkable conversations with renowned authors, leaders, public figures, and scholars on religion, culture, and everything in between. This is the 30th episode of Madang, in which I converse with Terence Lester about his latest book, All God's Children: How Confronting Buried History Can Build Racial Solidarity. The Rev.
