

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.
Sloth in a bathrobe
Does weariness of the soul make us apathetic toward what is good?
Holy attachments
During the pandemic, I went six months without touching another human being. I felt starved.
The bones in God’s garden
Will my daffodil bulbs overcome their trauma and rise up despite the odds? Will we?
Lent beckons like an open door
For 40 days, we contend with our mortality so that we might know what it means to live.
A meditation on Jazz during Lent
We are flakes of snow; we are notes vanishing in the air.
Sin is like a suitcase abandoned at the baggage claim
Lent beckons us to claim those forgotten things we’d packed away.
This Lent, I want to learn to see the world like a poet
Why I’ve chosen Michele Madigan Somerville's Glamourous Life as my Lenten companion.
On not getting used to this
My spiritual practices have long been communal ones. I love people—and their presence.
Following the suffering Christ
Discipleship-as-self-improvement doesn’t much resemble the way of Jesus.
Can Lent help prepare us for a pandemic?
I got my two weeks of groceries. But the CDC offers no wisdom on preparing the soul.
Alejandra Oliva’s devoted attention at the border
A student of mine went to Tijuana to help. She found she could help the most simply by paying attention.
There once was a Wednesday named Ash
It's Lent, and we all know what that means: time for limericks.
Rejoice in the Lord always—and especially in Lent
When we give something up, we realize that its goodness doesn't depend on our ownership of it.
by Miroslav Volf and Drew Collins
Alienated from our own beauty
Sin distorts the reciprocity for which God made us.
Clash of cultures
Pontius Pilate shows us what happens when the historical and the eternal intersect.