Skip to main content
The Christian CenturyThe Christian Century
  • Subscriber Login

Marketing/Header Menu

  • Sections
  • Search
  • Current Issue
  • Free Newsletters
  • Donate
  • Renew
  • Subscribe

Mega-menu

  • Subscriber login
  • Topics
    • Politics & Society
    • Arts & Culture
    • Church
    • Scripture
    • Theology
    • Life of Faith
  • Departments
    • Lectionary
    • Podcasts
    • News
    • Poetry
    • Books
    • Voices
    • Features
    • First Words
    • From the Editors
    • Screen Time
    • On Art
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Back Issues
    • Latest Articles
    • Classified ads
    • Gift Subscriptions
    • Bulk Subscriptions
    • Address Changes
    • Customer Service
  • Info
    • About Us
    • Mission
    • Staff
    • Advertising
    • Submissions
    • Rights & Permissions
  • Connect
    • Subscribe
    • Renew
    • Donate
    • Free Newsletters
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Subscriber Login

Since 1900, the Christian Century has published reporting, commentary, poetry, and essays on the role of faith in a pluralistic society.

© 2023 The Christian Century.

Contact Us   
Privacy Policy

Poetry

Agnus Dei

by Helene Bouman Debelak in the July 3, 2019 issue
ShareShare on TwitterShare on FacebookEmail to a friendPrint

         In memoriam, Paul Bouman, 1918–2019

There is a sacred place for quiet remembering
Sorrow here a little while
Kyries, soft like vesper sparrow
sing well into the evening
Listen to the solace of thanks
faithful to be
there in our heads
our understanding
Now resting
awake to the music

 

This poem appears in the July 3, 2019 issue.

We would love to hear from you. Let us know what you think about this article by writing a letter to the editors.

Most Recent

Walking Palestinian children to school

by Isaac S. Villegas

Worse than doing nothing

The lived religion of restorative justice

by Amy Carr

'We don't get to discriminate': How a Raleigh ministry decided to help resettle Afrikaners

by Yonat Shimron
 

Most Popular

Features

The new Bonhoeffer movie isn’t just bad. It’s dangerous.

By egregiously misreading Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s moral crisis, it primes viewers for violence.
by Mac Loftin
Features

An accomplished soldier, fired for no reason

Sergeant First Class Kate Cole isn’t an activist. She isn’t a radical. She’s a trans woman, a rock climber, and my friend—and after 17 years of military service, Trump kicked her out.
by Anna Keating
Duke University collage
Features

A call to solidarity at Duke

At graduation, we faculty members looked at one another across the aisle, wondering which of us would be, in the university president’s words, “pruned and thinned.”
by Amy Laura Hall
Feature

Body counts: The dark side of Christian history

With its long coastline, rugged mountains and haunting sand dunes, Oman is a paradise for desert lovers, hikers and boaters. Muscat, the capital city, is a gem—its arched white buildings and flat roofs squeezed between the blue ocean and black mountains. Yet call me an egghead, but what I remember most from a trip to Oman is a booklet I read there with an ominous title: Body Count: A Quantitative Review of Political Violence Across World Civilizations (2009). In it, author Naveed Sheikh claims that “the Christian civilization emerges as the most violent and genocidal in the world history.” Compared to Islam, Christianity is a clear winner: 31.94 million deaths by Muslims to 177.94 million deaths by Christians.
by Miroslav Volf
The Christian CenturyThe Christian Century

Since 1900, the Christian Century has published reporting, commentary, poetry, and essays on the role of faith in a pluralistic society.
 


BlueSky logo  Facebook icon  Instargram logo

© 2025 The Christian Century. All rights reserved.

Contact Us  
Privacy Policy

Mega-menu

  • Subscriber login
  • Topics
    • Politics & Society
    • Arts & Culture
    • Church
    • Scripture
    • Theology
    • Life of Faith
  • Departments
    • Lectionary
    • Podcasts
    • News
    • Poetry
    • Books
    • Voices
    • Features
    • First Words
    • From the Editors
    • Screen Time
    • On Art
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Back Issues
    • Latest Articles
    • Classified ads
    • Gift Subscriptions
    • Bulk Subscriptions
    • Address Changes
    • Customer Service
  • Info
    • About Us
    • Mission
    • Staff
    • Advertising
    • Submissions
    • Rights & Permissions
  • Connect
    • Subscribe
    • Renew
    • Donate
    • Free Newsletters
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Subscriber Login