Our spring books issue includes scholars' recommendations of the best recently published books in Old Testament, theology, and ethics.
Our spring books issue's reviews include Rachel Marie Stone on Marilynne Robinson, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove on Matthew Desmond, Lawrence Wood on Mary Rakow, and more.
One Good Book deserves another
The Century invited people to comment on their favorite book of the Bible and a book that has helped them appreciate or understand the biblical text.
A tall stack of books on the floor of my bedroom greets me each morning. Its very presence is exhausting.
Several recent state-level legislative efforts have something in common: they are solutions in search of a problem.
Those who heard the disciples preach on Pentecost comprehended the message in their own language. But that was only the beginning.
Japanese Buddhist adherence is in sharp decline. At every stage of this story, the analogies to Western Catholics are obvious.
Few Americans may believe in witches—or in a Puritan God. Yet The Witch explores human impulses that are still with us.
In Galatians, Paul is confrontational. While we should be more cautious about calling other people "foolish," we can learn from him that tolerance shouldn't depend on denying one's faith, and being grounded in one's faith shouldn't lead to intolerance or coercion.
When we are overwhelmed by our daily struggles, when we get weary because of the dehumanization that results from hatred and greed, Proverbs 8 and Psalm 8 remind us how God conceives of us as human beings crowned with glory and honor.
Reckoning with racism
Why does the church participate in modern-day lynching, or at most turn a blind eye, rather than protesting as our faith would dictate?
Emancipation and economics
Lincoln understood that the dream of well-being, if not radically democratized, would for some people only be a nightmare.
Graphic grief
We grieve always alone while at the same time needing community. Surely there is a role for the church in this paradox.
Alternative realities
John of Patmos presents readers of Revelation with fantastical visions of what life could be, just as Dickens does to Scrooge.
Poetic nothingness
This collection is suffused with one of poetry’s most fundamental aims: making meaning out of suffering and loss.
Picturing dementia
Dementia is graphic. These illustrated narratives draw out insights to provide empathy and healing for caregivers.
Lived witness
The Christians whose ministries are documented in the book of Acts did not know that they were the "early church."
The genesis of kinship
The ancient stories of Genesis bear witness to a created world that is interconnected and has value in God’s eyes.
Layers of John
I find that the book which most fascinates me is the Gospel of John.
Novel exegesis
The lines between sacred history and contemporary life are wonderfully, miraculously blurred.
Depths of evil and peace
Why would Psalms and Cormac McCarthy's novel Blood Meridian pop into my head?
Carnal theology
Flesh is indeterminate. It flows, changes over time, and is consumed and transformed. It becomes the reality of rich spiritual encounter.
God, the implied agent
Linguist Suzanne Kemmer helps me understand the book of Esther better.
Faith’s ghastly legacy
Christians fail to realize that the responsibility for rebellion against the faith lies invariably at their own door.
Canaan at the margins
When I read the book of Joshua, it is easy for me to miss God's call for genocide.
Precarious housing
In poor communities like the one where I live and work, evictions are not the exception. They’re the norm.
Unsettled in the beginning
I love Genesis for some of the same reasons the church fathers were wary of it.
Someone else's liberation
Reading Exodus together with Isabel Wilkerson reminds me that the biblical story is not told from my point of view.
Haunting particularities
To meet others as God meets us—prickly and imprecise and difficult though we may sometimes be—is a kind of grace.