Reading fiction has done more to baptize my imagination, inform my faith and strengthen my courage than any prayer technique has.
The Century asked Thomas G. Long, Barbara Brown Taylor, Scott Cairns and Kathleen Norris to describe their daily routines with the written word.
Our fall books issue includes the following annotated lists of top new titles: New Testament, practical theology and world Christianity/American religion.
"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's reviews include Sam Wells on Jürgen Moltmann, William H. Willimon on Lamin Sanneh, Shirley Showalter on Rhoda Janzen and others.
Fiction chronicle
Kevin Brockmeier’s characters ignore the divine fabric of the universe even when they are shaping it. Lauren Groff takes an opposite tack.
The Reformation led to a full embrace of the radical political implications of a humanity created in the image of God.
The question isn't who gives more and who receives more at a given moment. It's whether the use of tax dollars serves the common good.
Sick people long to be touched—the very thing loved ones tend to avoid. In today's mechanized medicine, doctors keep their distance as well.
Halloween's tradition of shadowy characters makes it as good a time as any to think on the reality of evil, sin and death that besets us.
My daily reading is tethered to the rhythms of the sun. In the evening, there is the slow burn of the substantial book beside the easy chair, which I savor in small portions. Early mornings are marked by a different pattern.
Ethics of Hope, by Jürgen Moltmann
Here’s the thing about Jürgen Moltmann. Almost everything he says, you feel you’ve read somewhere before. Now there could be two explanations for this. One, that he’s a creature of fashion: that, like everyone, he speaks out on the environment; on the analogy between the discourse on human rights and the relation to soil, sea and sky; on justice for the oppressed; on God’s coming future. Or two, that he’s a creator of fashion.
Does This Church Make Me Look Fat? by Rhoda Janzen
"Isn’t that an off-brand religion?” One of my son’s soon-to-be-relatives asked this question when he was introduced as having grown up in a Mennonite family. If Mennonites are off-brand to many Americans, then Pentecostals might be known as firebrands. The average person knows very little about either faith. Rhoda Janzen, who has moved from the former to the latter, brings awareness to both.
Summoned From the Margin, by Lamin Sanneh
For the last three decades, Lamin Sanneh has been a reliable and perceptive guide for those of us trying to think through interfaith issues, rethink missions and understand Christianity in its global reach. When I discovered Sanneh, I found his angle on Islamic/Christian conversation to be a provocative and refreshing relief from some of the fluff we were getting on that topic. Sanneh’s was also the first voice I heard to renovate the commonly accepted negative view of Christian missions.
My writing life has become increasingly dependent upon my reading life, so much so that I generally begin my writing day by reading a new or newish volume of poetry (or the occasional richly textured work of fiction).
Rev.
I feared that Rev. would reprise the saccharine sweetness of The Vicar of Dibley. Episode one set me straight.