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4 weeks ago | 
christiancentury.org | Liz Goodman |Mac Loftin |Amy Hall |Liz Charlotte Grant
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. I find Acts difficult to preach on. The stories in Luke’s “sequel” are long, and they’re about events that are hard to relate to. The Holy Spirit in Acts is so present, active, and effective that it’s tough to find analogues, at least in my life.
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1 month ago | 
christiancentury.org | Mac Loftin |Amy Hall |Liz Charlotte Grant |Phil Christman
Clockwise from upper left: bombermoon / iStock / Getty | Markus Spiske / Unsplash | NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / T. Temim | Mlenny / E+ / Getty The Buechner Narrative Writing Project honors the life and legacy of writer and theologian Frederick Buechner with the aim of nurturing the art of spiritual writing and reflection. Readers are invited to submit first-person narratives (under 1,000 words).
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1 month ago | 
christiancentury.org | Mac Loftin |Amy Hall |Liz Charlotte Grant |Phil Christman
I’ve always loved the idea of unity. That all may be one just as Jesus and the Father are one: this was my hope long before I even knew that Jesus ever prayed such a thing, as he does in this week’s gospel reading. A faint memory has me on a family trip to Disneyland, where I spent most of my time on the “It’s a Small World” ride.
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1 month ago | 
christiancentury.org | Liz Charlotte Grant |Mac Loftin |Phil Christman |David Klein
The small African Hebrew Israelite community in Israel’s Negev Desert last month celebrated a major milestone in its struggle for recognition in the Jewish state, as more than 100 members seem to have avoided deportation. In a court battle spanning decades, Israeli judicial authorities ruled a majority of residents with undocumented or unclear status in the country will be placed on a pathway toward permanent residency and potential citizenship. “It’s been really rough.
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Mar 28, 2025 | 
christiancentury.org | Mac Loftin |Peter W. Marty |Brian D. McLaren |Liz Charlotte Grant
Audrey’s Children, a feature-length biopic about Audrey Evans, a pioneering British American pediatric oncologist and a devout Episcopalian who co-founded Ronald McDonald House Charities with members of the Philadelphia Eagles and McDonald’s, will have a limited theatrical release beginning March 28.
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Mar 27, 2025 | 
christiancentury.org | Mac Loftin |Peter W. Marty |Brian D. McLaren |Liz Charlotte Grant
What’s the Bible for? We asked dozens of writers to respond to this question in seven words or less, as well as to expand on their response in a few sentences. To see all of the responses together as they are posted, bookmark this page. Telling us about people following GodThe Bible is a witness and guide to communities of people who believe they have heard from God and thus have a unique relationship with God.
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Mar 26, 2025 | 
christiancentury.org | Mac Loftin |Liz Charlotte Grant |Amy-Jill Levine |Fleming Rutledge
What’s the Bible for? We asked dozens of writers to respond to this question in seven words or less, as well as to expand on their response in a few sentences. To see all of the responses together as they are posted, bookmark this page. Revealing the God who lives“What is the Bible for?” seems an extraordinarily obtuse question, as if it were a how-to book. Stand back! Herein is a word so alive with its author that it is capable of overturning every notion you ever had.
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Mar 21, 2025 | 
christiancentury.org | Mac Loftin |Liz Charlotte Grant |Amy-Jill Levine |Peter W. Marty
Photo: Jens Domschky / iStock / Getty Jesus may have been an excellent carpenter. Or maybe he wasn’t. It’s possible that he made perfectly level tables but wobbly chairs. Or, if he was a stone mason, which the Greek word translated as “carpenter” in Mark 6:3 allows for, he may have chiseled stone with great precision but laid slightly crooked walls. We can’t know these details of his early life, of course. But let’s turn to the art world to broaden our perspective.
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Mar 21, 2025 | 
christiancentury.org | Mac Loftin |Liz Charlotte Grant |Peter W. Marty |Brian D. McLaren
The plan we were pondering—as students at Ripon College in central Wisconsin, 60 years ago this month—seemed crazy at first. But it was the 1960s, and we were young and brimming with the idealism of the age. So we set out confidently to make our nascent plan a reality. Almost a thousand miles away, in Selma, Alabama, Martin Luther King Jr. was preparing to lead a 54-mile voting rights march to Montgomery, the state capital. It was a just cause, and we were eager to join in.
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Mar 21, 2025 | 
christiancentury.org | Peter Hawkins |Mac Loftin |Liz Charlotte Grant |Amy-Jill Levine
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. We do not know for sure what audience Isaiah had in mind with these stirring words of invitation, how close his first hearers stood either to the destruction of Jerusalem in around 586 BCE or to the return to the promised land from Babylonian captivity some 50 years later.
