Features
Times of abundance: Terra Brockman on food and feasting
"We often have the idea of the feast appearing magically from the kitchen without labor. But the participatory aspect is the most important part of the feast."
Disobedience for racial justice
William Barber has a way of getting people arrested. Since he took
charge of the NAACP in North Carolina, he's been inspiring
followers—black and white—to engage in acts of civil disobedience.
Defending diversity: North Carolina churches fight for integrated schools
Years before Brown v. Board, the North Carolina Council
of Churches fought for integrated schools. Almost 75 years later, the council mobilized again for the same cause.
Faces of Jesus: Rembrandt and the incarnation
Rembrandt's meditations on Jesus' face reflect momentous
changes in his faith—and in how people of his time
envisioned Jesus.
Footloose
Craig Brewer, the extraordinary young director of Hustle & Flow and Black Snake Moan,
brings his sharp ear for southern culture's tone and rhythms to this
remake of a 1998 pop musical (itself a remake of a 1984 film) set in a
small Georgia town. The problem is that the material is still Footloose.
CC recommends
A special Christmas review of noteworthy books, video and music.
Categories include theology and spirituality, creative nonfiction, fiction, history and current
events, children's literature, TV on DVD, choral Christmas
music and popular music.
CC recommends: Choral Christmas music
Christmas with Cantus, by Cantus. I'm partial to Cantus because the group started its musical life at St. Olaf College, where my husband, Tony Holt, taught singing for 20 years. It takes some of the best lesser-known carols and adds to them its own pristine interpretations and arrangements. Check out bass Timothy C. Takach's range on a couple of the Russian arrangements from "The All-Night Vigil."
CC recommends: Popular music
The Harrow and the Harvest pushes Gillian Welch's winning formula further. On Mockingbird Time, the Jayhawks' sweet harmonies and gritty edges are finally back. There's a hefty dose of early Paul Simon on Fleet Foxes' Helplessness Blues. "Soul" is as good a word as any for Liz Janes's groovy little record Say Goodbye. Tom Waits's Bad As Me is accessible enough to convert some skeptics. And The Head and the Heart's self-titled debut is the feel-good record of the year.
Entrepreneurial idealism: Ministry in the 21st century
"What would happen," asks Carol Howard Merritt of Western Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., "if we coupled baby boomers' prophetic focus with the pragmatism of my generation? What if the church unleashed us to plant churches?"
50/50
50/50 is a balancing act: a comedy-drama about a
man who learns
he has a tumor and a 50 percent chance of surviving. Writer Will Reiser and director
Jonathan Levine pull off twin feats: they sustain a tone midway
between ironic and poignant, and they touch the audience without pushing
pathos at us.
Books
The Submission, by Amy Waldman
Amy Waldman's debut novel asks us to take a long look at our post-9/11 selves and be disappointed.
Naked Spirituality, by Brian D. McLaren
The architecture of Naked Spirituality is a bit complicated. But if you can bear with it, you'll find that Brian McLaren offers countless insights.
Gospel journey
With his imagination in overdrive, Bruce Fisk has created a fictional character to guide readers through the Holy Land and the thickets of New Testament scholarship.
CC recommends: Children’s literature
For young adults...
Poetic Theology, by William A. Dyrness
In Poetic Theology, William Dyrness tries to keep one eye on the historical conversation about art's theological value, one eye on the issues of the contemporary church, and one eye on the...
CC recommends: Theology & spirituality
The Cross and the Lynching Tree, by James H. Cone....
CC recommends: Creative nonfiction
On Conan Doyle: Or, The Whole Art of Storytelling, by Michael Dirda....
CC recommends: Fiction
The Buddha in the Attic, by Julie Otsuka. Otsuka tells the story, in collective voice, of Japanese women who traveled to meet husbands already living in the U.S....
CC recommends: History & current events
Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World, by Robin Wright....
Departments
A this-worldly story
The colonial Puritans did a lot of good things, but banning Christmas was not one of their better ideas.
A proper patriot
We owe our homeland patriotism, but not just any kind of patriotism—because just as we don't choose our parents, neither do we choose our country of origin.
Lifted High
"For I know who guides my steps." Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch (www.pbsartist.com) gives credit to her faith as the inspiration for her art. Lifted High is an encaustic painting (using a specialized w...
The 16 percent
A record number of Americans are poor. And by any measure, the poverty rate is rising.
News
Seminary aims to offer free education
More than half of the graduates at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary this year borrowed an average of $20,600 to earn their master's degree—not an uncommon handicap for seminarians today as they await a call to ministry ...
FBI accused of using Islamophobic materials
Religious leaders from Christian, Jewish and interfaith organizations have called on the White House to convene an interagency task force to investigate and resolve concerns over recent allegations that the federal government has used biased and m...
Experts: Sexual predators hidden in plain sight
The abuse allegations at Penn State seem unthinkable: revered assistant coach and prominent community activist Jerry Sandusky preying on eight children. But such abuses of trust occur repeatedly across the country....
Accused bishop gets deal to avoid second indictment
A Catholic bishop in Missouri has avoided a second criminal charge for failing to report suspected child abuse by agreeing to allow prosecutors to oversee similar allegations against church officials in their county for the next five years....
Hip-hop embraced as an evangelistic tool
It's hard to get young people into the pews on a Sunday morning, but
several seminaries think they have found a way to grab the next
generation: hip-hop....
After Mississippi defeat, what about ‘personhood’?
The failure of the "personhood" initiative in Mississippi in November
intensified what appears to be a growing divide in the antiabortion
movement....
Antiabortion analogy is flawed but popular
Is legalized abortion akin to the Nazi Holocaust? The analogy is a
standard talking point among abortion opponents, and a new half-hour
video by a prominent Christian apologist has gone viral by making the...
Supreme Court sidesteps issue of roadside crosses
The Supreme Court says it will not reopen a case in which a lower
court ruled that highway crosses memorializing Utah state troopers are
unconstitutional....