

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.
From a Western phenomenon to a truly global church
John McGreevy makes what could have become a dull textbook into a riveting narrative of Catholicism’s modern history.
The woman behind tarot’s strange beauty
I wonder how Pamela Colman Smith worked it out in reverse, led by her own creativity straight to the Catholic Church—the place I’ve tried to leave.
Is Sinéad O’Connor a secular saint?
A new documentary positions the fiery iconoclast as a prophet ahead of her time.
Does Catholic higher ed have to sell its soul?
A truly Catholic university, says James Heft, steers a course between secularization and insularity.
John Boswell’s faith lit up a generation
My brother’s work paved the way for many LGBTQ Christians.
How did abortion become legal in majority-Catholic Argentina?
In Latin America, faith and politics are being disentangled.
The global church in an English village
The Londoners who come to Aylesford as pilgrims are an impressively polychrome microcosm of Christianity.
What Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination doesn’t mean
Don’t bother looking for the political significance of the Supreme Court nominee’s Catholicism. There isn’t any.
Pope Francis’s vision of a wounded church converted by mercy
How can the church become less of a citadel and more of a field hospital?
A lapsed Catholic’s unexpected devotion
Searching for the Mary statue from her childhood, Sonja Livingston found much more.
by Amy Frykholm
Flannery O’Connor’s letters with Caroline Gordon and other friends
Two new collections add to the landmark volume The Habit of Being.
Take & read: New books in American religious history
An ever-renewing narrative of community formed by difference
selected by Anne Blue Wills
A religious test from Dianne Feinstein?
The senator's questioning of a Catholic judicial nominee misrepresented the nature of faith—and overstepped the spirit, at least, of the Constitution.
Women who do things
The story of Esther Wheelwright and the communities of women and girls who surrounded her
Conversations with the other pope
Benedict XVI’s book is both unusual and important. Mostly because it never should have been written.
by Jon Sweeney
They share a faith background, but one supports school choice and the other opposes it. Here’s why.
Pope Francis's theology of mercy has political implications.
Mary Clark Moschella recommends the best recently published books in her field.
selected by Mary Clark Moschella
Perhaps the real lack of faith in modern society comes down to a lack of reverence for the people around us.
On two occasions I decided to become Catholic. Both times I had to wait because I had been asked to preach or preside as a Methodist.