The Christian Century

For some Christians, the menace of apostasy is anything but distant or theoretical.

“You are here to kneel,” wrote Eliot, “where prayer has been valid.” But which prayers are valid at the Mezquita Catedral, or at Hagia Sophia?

Any Christian who travels in Muslim countries or on the frontier between the faiths may well encounter the Gospel of Barnabas and be asked to respond to its claims.

The Christian population in Israel has begun to swell again, drawing on wholly different sources than in the past.

For many early Chris­tians, only at the moment of Jesus' baptism was he suddenly overwhelmed by the power of divinity.

Once upon a time—and not long ago—there was another Europe. The religious story of communist Europe, in which Christians suffered horrific persecutions, is forgotten by most Americans today.

Here is my unscientific rule: if Martin Luther treated a biblical book with disdain, then that book is really popular in modern Africa.

The persistence of a rigorously orthodox Protestant area in the Netherlands must make us rethink our generalizations about the state of religion in Europe.

When documentaries ex­plore Christianity, they have little difficulty finding diverse manifestations of faith and practice. A global survey also reveals a surprising diversity when it comes to the content of the Bible.

Western Chris­tians seem neither to know nor care about the catastrophe that has unfolded before them in the ancient heartlands of their faith.

When we look at Mormon expansion in Africa, one pressing question demands attention: Why is the whole continent not already Mormon?

The Zion Christian Church—an African-initiated church that's powerful in South Africa—traces its origins to John Alexander Dowie, a 19th-century Scottish spiritual entrepeneur who founded the city Zion, Illinois.

Fiji has long been known to West­erners mainly as an exotic tourist destination. In re­cent years, though, the country has ac­quired a troubling reputation for religious and ethnic confrontations.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the persecuted Orthodox Church began its resurrection. Nothing better illustrates this revival than the restoration of the cathedrals and churches.

Many Mexican Christians behave heroically, working for peace and meeting social needs where government has all but abdicated power. But the drug crisis has also exposed some weaknesses in the church.