image of cover
Magazine /

April 8, 2020

Volume 137, Issue #8
Download issue PDF ›
All back issues ›

Features

Amid Detroit’s housing crisis, tiny homes offer residents new hope

A project that helps build pride, confidence, and community

by Celeste Kennel-Shank

First Person

Thinking about Good Friday during a pandemic

This year the Solemn Reproaches are speaking to me in a new way.

by Elizabeth Palmer

Critical Essay

Seven spiritual beliefs of young adults

Karma is real. Just do good. It’s all good.

by Melinda Lundquist Denton and Richard Flory

Critical Essay

The coronavirus pandemic feels like an unending Holy Saturday

We stay home. We look out for others. We wait—but for what?

by Richard Lischer

Opinion

Attacking climate change one bank at a time—starting with Chase

It’s time to stop the biggest lenders to the fossil fuel industry.

by Bill McKibben

Books

image of book cover

A novel about climate change’s impact on all of us

In Gun Island, Amitav Ghosh practices what he preached in The Great Derangement.

by Joshua B. Grace
image of book cover

A city dweller follows the harvest

Marie Mutsuki Mockett’s spiritual and cultural pilgrimage through the heart of farm country

by Valerie Weaver-Zercher
image of book cover

Notes from an organ transplant surgeon

Joshua Mezrich weaves professional insight with personal stories.

by Kristel Clayville
image of book cover

How mainline Protestants got involved in urban renewal

Mark Wild complicates the conventional account of postwar white flight.

by Heath W. Carter
image of book cover

Christian Wiman’s poems of love and doubt

Massive struggle, intense suffering, and abundant joy

by Jill Peláez Baumgaertner

Departments

Christianity’s explosive growth in Kenya

A nation’s rapid population growth and its complex religious impacts

by Philip Jenkins

Faith Matters

Lamenting with my Jewish neighbors on Tisha B’Av

The Book of Lamentations resonates with the stories of oppressed immigrants and refugees.

by Isaac S. Villegas

On Art

Christ and the Masks, by Paez Antonio

Votive objects, religious relics, timeworn crucifixes, and fragments of funerary sculptures appear frequently in the work of Paez Antonio....

art selection and comment by John Kohan

First Words

The resource we most need during the coronavirus pandemic is human relationship

Looking for signs of hope when social distancing keeps us apart

by Peter W. Marty

empty pews in the dark
From the Editors

Staying connected during the COVID-19 pandemic

What does it mean to be the church when we can’t be together?

News

Tornadoes take toll on Nashville churches

Tornadoes that destroyed more than 140 buildings on March 3 in Middle Ten­nessee left their mark on a number of religious landmarks in Nashville....

by Bob Allen

Trump supporters Jeffress and Falwell change tune on COVID-19 threat

As religious groups nationwide began taking dramatic steps to halt COVID-19, even canceling Sunday services, the initial response from some evangelical leaders who advise President Donald Trump was less “batten down the hatches” and more “business...

by Jack Jenkins

Religious dating apps aren’t safer for women

When Marla Perrin, now 25, first heard about Mutual, the dating app designed for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she was thrilled....

by Gillian Friedman Deseret News

Biden faces backlash over staffer with Hindu nationalist ties

Former vice president Joe Biden’s campaign is facing growing pressure to fire a top aide with Hindu nationalist ties....

by Aysha Khan

At UM-Forward gathering, United Methodists consider a new “Liberation Methodist Church”

Some came wanting a new denomination. Others said they prefer, for now, to keep working within the United Methodist Church....

by Sam Hodges

People

Barbara Harris, first woman ordained in Anglican Communion, dies at 89

Barbara Harris, the first woman to be ordained and consecrated as a bishop in the worldwide Anglican Communion, died on March 13 at a hospice house after a recent hospitalization. She was 89....

by Adelle M. Banks

People

Ioan Sauca appointed acting general secretary of the World Council of Churches

Ioan Sauca has been appointed acting general secretary of the World Council of Churches until the WCC executive committee meets in June....
People

Eugene Cho to lead Bread for the World

Bread for the World, a prominent Christian advocacy group dedicated to ending hunger, has elected Seattle pastor and author Eugene Cho as its new president....

by Jack Jenkins

People

Edith Blumhofer, historian of American religion, dies at 69

Edith Blumhofer, a renowned scholar of religious history in the United States, died of pancreatic cancer on March 5. She was 69....

Lectionary

April 19, Easter 2A (John 20:19–31; 1 Peter 1:3–9)

There's more than one way to taste and see the goodness of God.

by Laurel Mathewson

April 12, Easter Day (Acts 10:34–43; Psalm 118:1–2, 14–24; Matthew 28:1–10)

What kind of faith gets you through 25 years in a refugee camp?

by Laurel Mathewson

April 10, Good Friday (Psalm 22; John 18:1–19:42)

Things Pilate cannot touch: creative life, confounding power

by Brian Bantum

April 9, Maundy Thursday (Psalm 116:1–2, 12–19; John 13:1–17, 31b–35)

Jesus is saying, Love should feel like this.

by Brian Bantum

Free Newsletters

From theological reflections to breaking religion news to the latest books, the Christian Century's newsletters have you covered.

Explore Newsletters