Latest Articles
Saint Augustine, by Garry Wills
Peter Brown is credited with discovering Augustine the old man. Gary Wills should be recognized for discovering Augustine the young man....
Clergy Women, by Barbara Brown Zikmund, Adair T. Lummis and Patricia M. Y. Chang
During nearly 40 years of full-time ministry, I have experienced many of the changes and "uphill" journeys explored in this well-researched, carefully organized book....
The Cousins' War, by Kevin Phillips
The 20th century has ended much as it began, with ethnic hostilities in the Balkans, sectarian violence in China, a change of power in South Africa, "reform" in Russia and economic power in the han...
Swaggart, by Ann Rowe Seaman
They are as American as the Fourth of July, these sensationalist preachers who nowadays crowd the TV screen and in earlier days brought thousands into camp meetings....
At the Corner of East and Now, by Frederica Mathewes-Green
This book journeys into what, for many Western readers, are the unchartered waters of Eastern Orthodoxy. Frederica Mathewes-Green writes as an active lay person and wife of an Orthodox priest....
Pentecostal Currents in American Protestantism, edited by Edith Blumhofer, Russell Spittler and Grant Wacker
The 20th century may be recorded as the ecumenical century, but it certainly will be noted as the century of the Pentecostal renewal, both as a new church phenomenon and as a charismatic impulse wi...
Film picks of ’99
Bringing Out the Dead, director Martin Scorcese’s frenetic examination of three days in the life of a paramedic, is easily my choice for the best film of 1999....
The Christian century: Take two: A living tradition the century mark
Are you going to change the name of the magazine in the year 2000? That’s a question we’ve heard often in recent months....
The origins of the Christian Century, 1884-1914: A climate of optimism
The Christian Century emerged from rather humble origins....
Modern and postmodern forms of unbelief: Gods Funeral.ByA. N. Wilson. Norton, 402 pp., $27.95.
God’s Funeral, by A. N. Wilson...
Jesus and history, the believer and the historian: TheElusive Messiah:A Philosophical Overview of the Quest for the Historical Jesus.By Raymond Martin. Westview, 236 pp., $25.00.
The Elusive Messiah: A Philosophical Overview of the Quest for the Historical Jesus, by Raymond Martin...
Who is a person?
Two of the most powerful intellectual and social forces in our culture are the hard sciences and capitalist economics....
Dental work
Four decades ago, when I began to write this column, my assignment was to “lighten up” the magazine by gently poking fun at the foibles and follies of the mainstream and all the other religious str...
Who is like thee?: Isaiah 40:21-31
Isaiah is a master at putting God and humankind in perspective.
Being Reformed
The Reformed Family Worldwide: A Survey of Reformed Churches, Theological Schools, and International Organizations, edited by Jean-Jacques Bauswein and Lukas Visher...
Apocalypse not: Y2K afterthoughts
Anyone who has ever studied for a major exam or planned a special vacation knows how the task of preparing for a big event can give vitality and meaning to one’s days—and create a sense of emptines...
Praise at Celebration: Churchgoing in Disney’s town
When most Americans think of small towns, say Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins, they think of churches: “Each of us carries a mental map of the perfect small town....
An imitation of Christ
Several years ago, when my husband’s engineering firm was between jobs, a pipe fitter named Richard came to live in the small log cabin just down the hill from our house....
A lesson in humility
When we Marty kids were in grade school, we entered any contest that pointed toward a prize. During those Great Depression years, we would have experienced great elation if we’d won even a bauble....