-
Oct 4, 2024 | 
christiancentury.org | Jack Jenkins |Aleja Hertzler- McCain |Nanette Sawyer |Byfield preached
Bishop E. Anne Henning Byfield, a leader of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, has died two months into her retirement, the denomination announced on Thursday. Byfield, 74, a former president of the AME Council of Bishops and a recent chair of social action for the church, died unexpectedly on Thursday in Indianapolis. The cause of her death was not announced. “Bishop Anne Henning Byfield was a special type of bishop.
-
Oct 4, 2024 | 
christiancentury.org | Clint Schnekloth |Jack Jenkins |Aleja Hertzler- McCain |Nanette Sawyer
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. After hearing Jesus’ teaching on marriage, many churchgoers will be mindful that 2025 is the 10th anniversary of the Obergefell v. Hodges decision granting LGBTQ marriage equality in the United States. Many will also be anticipating their own 10th anniversary of official marriage.
-
Oct 4, 2024 | 
christiancentury.org | Allen C. Guelzo |Heather Hahn |Nanette Sawyer |Jack Jenkins
Karl Barth, who believed God’s word meets and saves us within our historical circumstances, famously opined that preachers should hold the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. American journalist Alan Barth (no relation to the Swiss theologian) held that news is only the first draft of history. With the advent of social media, news cycles, and the proliferation of tendentious news outlets, the views of both Barths have become increasingly problematic.
-
Oct 3, 2024 | 
christiancentury.org | Jack Jenkins |Aleja Hertzler- McCain |Nanette Sawyer |Marc Roscoe Loustau
Soon enough, and somewhat to my surprise, I have become an aged man. For many years I have been an advocate for the good and goods in which I have invested my heart. I am a patriot but not a nationalist. Since the Vietnam years, I have opposed our wars of national adventure, and I have opposed the extractive industrialism that passes with us for a national economy.
-
Oct 1, 2024 | 
christiancentury.org | Heather Hahn |Nanette Sawyer |Jack Jenkins |Aleja Hertzler- McCain
It’s widely rumored that organized religion is going down the drain. While the secularization thesis has been debated for decades, its main components are hardly controversial. Religion has reduced social power: its chief officers have less influence on political ideas and social norms, its language and habits no longer permeate the discourse of public life, and fewer people make collective worship and fellowship the rhythm of their week.
-
Sep 27, 2024 | 
christiancentury.org | Heather Hahn |Randall Balmer |Debie Thomas |Nanette Sawyer
General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church on September 26 announced that it had signed an agreement to lease its property in New York City to Vanderbilt University, which has its main campus in Nashville, Tennessee. The agreement provides GTS a continued, year-round presence on the campus in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan for decades to come, the press release said. “The General Theological Seminary is seeking to adapt to a changing world.
-
Sep 27, 2024 | 
christiancentury.org | Ari Joskowicz |Jack Jenkins |Aleja Hertzler- McCain |Nanette Sawyer
Memory of the Holocaust is fading in US culture. It has now been nearly 80 years since the end of World War II. Teaching about the Holocaust to today’s 20-year-olds is equivalent to teaching about World War I in 1998. It was so long ago. As someone who has been teaching about the Nazi genocide against the Jews since 1990, I can feel the difference as I engage students today.
-
Sep 26, 2024 | 
christiancentury.org | Heather Hahn |Nanette Sawyer |Randall Balmer |Brad East
Will Evans is the founder of Deep Vellum, a nonprofit publishing house in Dallas that seeks to put local and global authors in conversation. Founded in 2013, Deep Vellum has published seven of Nobel prize–winning writer Jon Fosse’s novels in translation and has made a name for itself as a literary translating powerhouse. But for Evans, the most important thing is building a literary community in Dallas, one reader at a time. Tell us the story of how Deep Vellum came to be. What was your vision?
-
Sep 25, 2024 | 
christiancentury.org | Isaac T. Soon |Heather Hahn |Nanette Sawyer |Randall Balmer
Christians have long wrestled with the meaning of Paul’s writings and the implications they have for us in our own contexts. Some see Paul as a herald of Christian freedom through justification by faith, while others see him as the villain who transformed the egalitarian Jesus movement into a hierarchical church.
-
Sep 18, 2024 | 
christiancentury.org | Heather Hahn |Randall Balmer |Debie Thomas |Nanette Sawyer
(Photo: D-Keine / iStock / Getty) Maybe I’m naive to think that parenting young adults was easier in the past than it is now. Maybe the business of launching our beloved babies out into the big wide world has always been fraught and painful.
