Having a subscriber-only paywall in front of most of our magazine content allows us to put the whole issue online and sell online-only subscriptions. Among other advantages, online-only subscriptions are cheaper—especially for folks who don't live in the States and would have to pay extra postage for print-magazine delivery.

This arrangement does, however, mean the articles behind the paywall generally get less traffic than the free ones. With this in mind, here's a separate top-12 list of just the paid content—i.e., the most popular articles of the year that were read online only by Century subscribers. Thanks, all of you, for supporting us. (If you don't subscribe, please consider it.)

Here's the list:

1) The seeker next door, by Linda Mercadante. “It’s tempting to dismiss the spiritual-but-not-religious as salad-bar spiritualists concerned primarily with themselves. But many assumptions about this group are off target.”

2) A hopeful universalism, by Paul Dafydd Jones. “God's ‘consuming fire’ is the fire of holy love. It doesn't await sinners in the future; it burns up sin itself.”

3) No need for church, by Adam J. Copeland. “Why are there 45,000 young adults in Fargo-Moorhead with no connection to a church? It's not a supply-side issue; there's simply no demand.”

4) Our life together, by Christine D. Pohl. “To build stronger communities, we need to get in the habit of recognizing what undergirds our relationships. We can't afford to take it for granted.”

5) Family affair, interview with Rich Melheim. "Parents are the most important faith guides, mentors and teachers a kid will ever have."

6) Wisdom and light, by Marilynne Robinson. “Is John 1 a midrash on the creation story and the song of creative Wisdom? If so, its writer has infused it with profoundest joy.”

7) Teen hero, by Ann Duncan and Andy Langford. “While The Hunger Games does not have overt Christian themes, it does offer a social vision familiar to Christians.”

8) Worship without walls, by Benjamin M. Stewart. “Public ritual might be construed as a benign relic, as imperialism or as marketing. Or it might be seen as a form of pilgrimage.”

9) How to follow the leader, by Anthony B. Robinson. “Following doesn't command the interest that leading does. But following is crucial.”

10)  The power of poetic preaching, by Elizabeth Myer Boulton and Matthew Myer Boulton. “People are surrounded by dehumanizing forces and discouraging lies. Preachers should name these—and replace them with wearable forms of truth.”

11) Disagreeing in love, by Lee Hull Moses. “I knew I had to talk to him. This longtime church elder would soon see my newsletter article, and he wasn't going to like it.”

12) It looks like a wedding, by Charles Hefling. “The new Episcopal liturgy makes no claim that couples of the same sex can, in the ecclesiastical sense, marry. What it does say is more interesting.”