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February 15, 2017

Volume 134, Issue #4
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Features

image Chaplain Abdullah Antepli
Interviews

When Muslims talk to Zionists

“It’s one thing to say you support a two-state solution. It’s another thing to go to Israel and study Judaism.”

David Heim interviews Abdullah Antepli

whirling dancer dancing

How I teach theology to undergrads

Being religious is not about following rules. It's more like dancing.

by Aristotle Papanikolaou

Forming priests among the people

Chicago's Episcopal seminary goes all in on field education

by Celeste Kennel-Shank

Sidebar

Startup seminaries

Read the main article, "Seminaries find homes in congregations."

Some important experiments in theological education are happening on a small scale. The Immerse program at Northwest Baptist Seminary in Langley, British Columbia, and the Yellowstone Theological Initiative in Montana are examples of what might be called “boutique” institutions, which are small enough to be able to change and try new things quickly.

by Jason Byassee and Ross Lockhart

St Mellitus London

Seminaries find homes in congregations

Churches have long outsourced theological education. Now it's moving back.

by Jason Byassee and Ross Lockhart

people walking at NASA

A feel-good story's power and limits

There is a danger in responding to a film like Hidden Figures by congratulating ourselves on how far we’ve come.

by Lee Hull Moses

Books

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A bright future for (some) seminaries

If theological education’s prospects look dim, we’re defining it too narrowly.

by Christian Scharen
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Stories that leave us with questions

In Dana Johnson's new collection, nothing is easy.

by Melissa Earley
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When black women lead

A century before Alicia Garza came Anna Arnold Hedgeman, Violet Johnson, and Florence Spearing Randolph.

by Sarah Azaransky
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Living in the gray

A hospice chaplain writes about facing pain without flinching.

by Jera Brown

Departments

wooden blocks stacked
First Words

Good habits shape good ministers

Even the most mechanical routines can transform our inner lives.

by Peter W. Marty

Tunnel in woods
Faith Matters

The wild places nearby

Dwelling in the edgelands can help us find what’s most hidden.

by Stephanie Paulsell

Constanzo Beschi statue

The Silence Jesuits and their contemporaries

In many instances, Jesuit influence is essential to understanding the history of Asian societies.

by Philip Jenkins

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On Art

Daughter of an Irish Catholic and Bengali Muslim, by Liz Hingley

Photographer and anthropologist Liz Hingley grew up in Birming­ham, United Kingdom, the daughter of two Anglican priests....

Art selection and comment by Lil Copan

Tesla car factory
From the Editors

Can states lead the way on climate change?

California is on track to reduce carbon emissions—through innovation as well as regulation.
Adam Driver Paterson
On Media

How Paterson sidesteps the clichés embraced by La La Land

Escapism can be delightful. But artistic creation also uses the fodder of daily life.

by Kathryn Reklis

News

Anglicans in Burundi aim for ‘one person, one tree’

In the Anglican Province of Burundi, the church has set a goal of planting 10 million trees—one for each person in the country—during the next five years....

Army now allows soldiers to wear turbans, beards, and headscarves

New army regulations will allow Sikh and Muslim soldiers to wear turbans, beards, and hijabs—the headscarves worn by some Muslim women—under most circumstances....

by Adelle M. Banks

Quinn Chapel AME

New $14 million fund supports historic congregations

The National Fund for Sacred Places aims to help churches raise funds, restore their buildings, and find new community partnerships.

by Celeste Kennel-Shank

Johnston and O'Connor
People

Scott Black Johnston and Patrick O’Connor, PCUSA pastors, meet with Trump

Scott Black Johnston and Patrick O’Connor, two Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) pastors whose congregations have ties to the Trump family, met with the president for 20 minutes days before his inauguration....

by Christian Century staff

People

Ethiopian leader promotes role of church in peace building

Eyob Yishak, who coordinates the peace office of the Ethiopian Evan­gelical Church Mekane Yesus and teaches at Mekane Yesus Theological Sem­inary in Addis Aba­ba, was one of several leaders who gathered to talk about the role of religious groups i...
People

Chaldean archbishop sees signs of interfaith reconciliation in Iraq

While the Iraqi conflict is not over, Archbishop Yousif Mirkis of Kirkuk is focused on how to heal his deeply divided country....

by Elizabeth Bryant

After 500 years, a new synagogue opens in Sicily

More than 500 years after the Jews were expelled from Sicily, a tiny Jewish community will open its first synagogue in the island’s capital city of Palermo....

by Josephine McKenna

In black Charleston, a struggle to find both justice and mercy

(The Christian Science Monitor) Charleston variety store owner Leon Fields pondered the question of whether Dylann Roof should die for his unthinkable crimes or have his life spared as...

by Patrik Jonsson

Iconography classes draw non-Orthodox in search of spiritual images

For Lara Neri, painting icons is a kind of prayer....

by Adelle M. Banks

People

Retired Ugandan bishop seeks restorative justice for former child soldiers

Macleod Baker Ochola II, 84, a retired Anglican bishop in northern Uganda, is agitating for restorative justice in a region where the wounds of a brutal war unleashed by the Lord’s Resistance Army persist....

by Fredrick Nzwili

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