Christian Century
@christiancentury.bsky.social
Thoughtful, Independent, Progressive
Website: christiancentury.org
Free email newsletters: christiancentury.org/newsletters
Website: christiancentury.org
Free email newsletters: christiancentury.org/newsletters
David Zahl focuses on sharing a gospel that’s unapologetically about the grace of God.
Katherine Willis Pershey reviews The Big Relief: www.christiancentury.org/books/relief...
Katherine Willis Pershey reviews The Big Relief: www.christiancentury.org/books/relief...
November 26, 2025 at 7:27 PM
David Zahl focuses on sharing a gospel that’s unapologetically about the grace of God.
Katherine Willis Pershey reviews The Big Relief: www.christiancentury.org/books/relief...
Katherine Willis Pershey reviews The Big Relief: www.christiancentury.org/books/relief...
Looking for some great gifts for the booklovers in your life? Here are the top recommendations from our editors and staff.
www.christiancentury.org/features/gif...
www.christiancentury.org/features/gif...
Gifts you can read
What can we say? We love...
www.christiancentury.org
November 26, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Looking for some great gifts for the booklovers in your life? Here are the top recommendations from our editors and staff.
www.christiancentury.org/features/gif...
www.christiancentury.org/features/gif...
“From the start, Norman Rockwell’s Freedom from Want was meant to be in conversation with Filipino activist Carlos Bulosan’s reminder that freedom means little if some are kept from the table.”
– Julene Tegerstrand
www.christiancentury.org/features/tal...
– Julene Tegerstrand
www.christiancentury.org/features/tal...
A tale of two Thanksgivings
Two adjacent items in a 1943 issue of The Saturday Evening Post highlight the conflict—and joy—inherent in our mythic...
www.christiancentury.org
November 26, 2025 at 3:00 PM
“From the start, Norman Rockwell’s Freedom from Want was meant to be in conversation with Filipino activist Carlos Bulosan’s reminder that freedom means little if some are kept from the table.”
– Julene Tegerstrand
www.christiancentury.org/features/tal...
– Julene Tegerstrand
www.christiancentury.org/features/tal...
In our latest On Art column, art and culture professor Yohana Junker discusses two pieces by Australian painter Jo Bertini, who is known for the vivid palette and gestural brushwork of her landscape paintings.
www.christiancentury.org/art/jo-berti...
www.christiancentury.org/art/jo-berti...
Jo Bertini’s Reading a Fathom of Sand (left) and Taken by the Sky (right)
Jo Bertini’s career has been shaped by deserts across the globe, and the Australian painter (and art educator and writer) infuses her canvases with a sense of reverence and intimacy. Known for her viv...
www.christiancentury.org
November 25, 2025 at 9:45 PM
In our latest On Art column, art and culture professor Yohana Junker discusses two pieces by Australian painter Jo Bertini, who is known for the vivid palette and gestural brushwork of her landscape paintings.
www.christiancentury.org/art/jo-berti...
www.christiancentury.org/art/jo-berti...
“The heft of the pulpit Bible is a statement. Worship leaders and preachers can’t ignore it. Our people in the pews notice as we shuffle our papers around it.”
– Isaac Villegas
www.christiancentury.org/voices/heft-...
– Isaac Villegas
www.christiancentury.org/voices/heft-...
The heft of a pulpit Bible
As I pressed my sermon’s pages across the book’s valley, I couldn’t keep them from sliding into the...
www.christiancentury.org
November 24, 2025 at 3:50 PM
“The heft of the pulpit Bible is a statement. Worship leaders and preachers can’t ignore it. Our people in the pews notice as we shuffle our papers around it.”
– Isaac Villegas
www.christiancentury.org/voices/heft-...
– Isaac Villegas
www.christiancentury.org/voices/heft-...
“I want to be able to take my days and transform them into beauty. This fall in Chicago, it has felt like time is running out.”
– Alejandra Oliva
www.christiancentury.org/voices/pract...
– Alejandra Oliva
www.christiancentury.org/voices/pract...
Practicing patience in difficult times
I want to be able to take my days and transform them into beauty. This fall in Chicago, it has felt like time is running...
www.christiancentury.org
November 21, 2025 at 5:31 PM
“I want to be able to take my days and transform them into beauty. This fall in Chicago, it has felt like time is running out.”
– Alejandra Oliva
www.christiancentury.org/voices/pract...
– Alejandra Oliva
www.christiancentury.org/voices/pract...
“We define a soul-safe community as one that addresses suicidal desperation as a regular aspect of its life and work. So we’re not doing this once a year at a Blue Christmas service—we’re doing this every day.”
– Michelle Snyder, in an interview by @jonmathieu.bsky.social
– Michelle Snyder, in an interview by @jonmathieu.bsky.social
Training faith leaders to work against suicide
“Suicide happens because of loss of hope and loss of social connection,” says Michelle Snyder of Soul Shop. “What if we became a church where no one loses hope and no one is...
www.christiancentury.org
November 21, 2025 at 3:38 PM
“We define a soul-safe community as one that addresses suicidal desperation as a regular aspect of its life and work. So we’re not doing this once a year at a Blue Christmas service—we’re doing this every day.”
– Michelle Snyder, in an interview by @jonmathieu.bsky.social
– Michelle Snyder, in an interview by @jonmathieu.bsky.social
“Anderson’s films are hard to pin down, moving between grand historical epics to tight familial dramas, all set in different decades or even centuries. But domination versus freedom is a throughline that … comes to a head in One Battle After Another.”
– Kathryn Reklis
– Kathryn Reklis
Paul Thomas Anderson’s biggest question
One Battle After Another explores what it means to find agency in a world we can’t...
www.christiancentury.org
November 20, 2025 at 5:53 PM
“Anderson’s films are hard to pin down, moving between grand historical epics to tight familial dramas, all set in different decades or even centuries. But domination versus freedom is a throughline that … comes to a head in One Battle After Another.”
– Kathryn Reklis
– Kathryn Reklis
“Whatever else Jesus was—the son of God or not, fully divine or otherwise, without sin or whatever—he was most certainly a traveling indie musician.”
– Julian DeShazier
www.christiancentury.org/voices/learn...
– Julian DeShazier
www.christiancentury.org/voices/learn...
Learning from people who can’t quit
Musicians never stop being musicians. I hope it’s the same for justice...
www.christiancentury.org
November 20, 2025 at 3:23 PM
“Whatever else Jesus was—the son of God or not, fully divine or otherwise, without sin or whatever—he was most certainly a traveling indie musician.”
– Julian DeShazier
www.christiancentury.org/voices/learn...
– Julian DeShazier
www.christiancentury.org/voices/learn...
“The question that must be asked is Tertullian’s: What becomes of us if we offer everything to Caesar?”
– Michael Woolf
www.christiancentury.org/features/whe...
– Michael Woolf
www.christiancentury.org/features/whe...
The theology of ICE
I was wearing my clerical collar, and an agent said something that has stuck with me ever since: “Jesus said to follow the law.”
www.christiancentury.org
November 20, 2025 at 12:12 AM
“The question that must be asked is Tertullian’s: What becomes of us if we offer everything to Caesar?”
– Michael Woolf
www.christiancentury.org/features/whe...
– Michael Woolf
www.christiancentury.org/features/whe...
“We should, @dwcongdon.com argues, call off the search for true Christianity and instead embrace a diversity of beliefs and practices.”
– review by William J. Schultz: www.christiancentury.org/books/who-ge...
@universitypress.cambridge.org
– review by William J. Schultz: www.christiancentury.org/books/who-ge...
@universitypress.cambridge.org
November 19, 2025 at 4:50 PM
“We should, @dwcongdon.com argues, call off the search for true Christianity and instead embrace a diversity of beliefs and practices.”
– review by William J. Schultz: www.christiancentury.org/books/who-ge...
@universitypress.cambridge.org
– review by William J. Schultz: www.christiancentury.org/books/who-ge...
@universitypress.cambridge.org
“Bad Bunny’s music and activism have reconnected me to roots I thought were severed beyond repair. His lyrics call me home—to my ancestors who lived, labored, and died on the world’s oldest colony.”
– Kristina Lizardy-Hajbi
www.christiancentury.org/features/son...
– Kristina Lizardy-Hajbi
www.christiancentury.org/features/son...
Songs that call me home to Puerto Rico
Bad Bunny’s music and activism have reconnected me to roots I thought were severed beyond...
www.christiancentury.org
November 19, 2025 at 3:37 PM
“Bad Bunny’s music and activism have reconnected me to roots I thought were severed beyond repair. His lyrics call me home—to my ancestors who lived, labored, and died on the world’s oldest colony.”
– Kristina Lizardy-Hajbi
www.christiancentury.org/features/son...
– Kristina Lizardy-Hajbi
www.christiancentury.org/features/son...
Why is it that we fear God’s gaze—but gladly surrender to the surveillance state?
www.christiancentury.org/features/god...
www.christiancentury.org/features/god...
God's gaze that judges–and heals
What Christ Pantocrator teaches about divine judgment in an age ruled by the surveillance
state.
www.christiancentury.org
November 18, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Why is it that we fear God’s gaze—but gladly surrender to the surveillance state?
www.christiancentury.org/features/god...
www.christiancentury.org/features/god...
“Many Native Americans do not celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims and other European settlers,” the plaque says. “To them, Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of their people, the theft of their lands, and the relentless assault on their cultures.”
– Stephanie Perdew
– Stephanie Perdew
A day of mourning each November
I have been asked more than once to participate in civic Thanksgiving services. And more than once, I’ve...
www.christiancentury.org
November 18, 2025 at 3:06 PM
“Many Native Americans do not celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims and other European settlers,” the plaque says. “To them, Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of their people, the theft of their lands, and the relentless assault on their cultures.”
– Stephanie Perdew
– Stephanie Perdew
Writer Tom Montgomery Fate chats with Jon about the peaceful protests at the ICE facility in Broadview, IL, where several faith leaders were recently arrested.
youtu.be/bKGNh_WmvGY
youtu.be/bKGNh_WmvGY
The religious significance of Chicago ICE protests
YouTube video by The Christian Century
youtu.be
November 17, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Writer Tom Montgomery Fate chats with Jon about the peaceful protests at the ICE facility in Broadview, IL, where several faith leaders were recently arrested.
youtu.be/bKGNh_WmvGY
youtu.be/bKGNh_WmvGY
Reposted by Christian Century
"Protests at the #Broadview facility are not a recent development. The tradition of a weekly protest and prayer vigil...was initiated in 2007 by two #Catholic sisters, Pat Murphy and JoAnn Persch", @christiancentury.bsky.social reminds us.
@revdrmichaelwoolf.bsky.social @moryan.bsky.social
@revdrmichaelwoolf.bsky.social @moryan.bsky.social
This column was written by one of the regulars holding vigil outside Chicago's Broadview ICE detention center. DHS is lying to everyone.
www.christiancentury.org/features/dhs...
www.christiancentury.org/features/dhs...
Protest propaganda
The protesters at the ICE facility outside Chicago are not an angry mob. We’re just people who believe in due process and free...
www.christiancentury.org
November 16, 2025 at 1:11 PM
"Protests at the #Broadview facility are not a recent development. The tradition of a weekly protest and prayer vigil...was initiated in 2007 by two #Catholic sisters, Pat Murphy and JoAnn Persch", @christiancentury.bsky.social reminds us.
@revdrmichaelwoolf.bsky.social @moryan.bsky.social
@revdrmichaelwoolf.bsky.social @moryan.bsky.social
“I popped a virtual champagne bottle when news of Sarah Mullally’s appointment broke. It was indeed a historic moment. But it’s also a fraught one, because when glass ceilings shatter, the shards can cut and make us bleed.”
– @dethansen.bsky.social
www.christiancentury.org/features/sar...
– @dethansen.bsky.social
www.christiancentury.org/features/sar...
The Anglican Communion’s glass ceiling—and glass cliff
The historic appointment of Sarah Mullally comes at the tradition’s most fragile moment in five centuries.
www.christiancentury.org
November 14, 2025 at 9:05 PM
“I popped a virtual champagne bottle when news of Sarah Mullally’s appointment broke. It was indeed a historic moment. But it’s also a fraught one, because when glass ceilings shatter, the shards can cut and make us bleed.”
– @dethansen.bsky.social
www.christiancentury.org/features/sar...
– @dethansen.bsky.social
www.christiancentury.org/features/sar...
“I remember when my son first asked me what history is. I told him it’s the story we write with our lives.”
– Kelly Brown Douglas
www.christiancentury.org/voices/what-...
– Kelly Brown Douglas
www.christiancentury.org/voices/what-...
What history are we making?
I remember when my son first asked me what history is. I told him it’s the story we write with our...
www.christiancentury.org
November 14, 2025 at 3:09 PM
“I remember when my son first asked me what history is. I told him it’s the story we write with our lives.”
– Kelly Brown Douglas
www.christiancentury.org/voices/what-...
– Kelly Brown Douglas
www.christiancentury.org/voices/what-...
“Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead reconstructs something many readers have forgotten: the dignity of belief, the labor of faith, the beauty of unassuming lives shaped by interior reverence.”
– Ibrahim N. Abusharif
www.christiancentury.org/features/rev...
– Ibrahim N. Abusharif
www.christiancentury.org/features/rev...
Gilead, twenty years later
Marilynne Robinson’s Pulitzer–winning novel speaks unflinchingly of God, grace, sacred luminosity, and humility.
www.christiancentury.org
November 13, 2025 at 9:12 PM
“Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead reconstructs something many readers have forgotten: the dignity of belief, the labor of faith, the beauty of unassuming lives shaped by interior reverence.”
– Ibrahim N. Abusharif
www.christiancentury.org/features/rev...
– Ibrahim N. Abusharif
www.christiancentury.org/features/rev...
“Through personal essays, nuanced reporting, and original illustrations, Martha Park grapples with religious ambivalence and ecological care as she wonders how faith both compels and hinders our love for a planet in peril.”
– review by Annelise Jolley
@hubcitypress.bsky.social
– review by Annelise Jolley
@hubcitypress.bsky.social
Apocalypses all around us
Martha Park unearths surprising connections between the natural and the supernatural, the material and the...
www.christiancentury.org
November 13, 2025 at 3:10 PM
“Through personal essays, nuanced reporting, and original illustrations, Martha Park grapples with religious ambivalence and ecological care as she wonders how faith both compels and hinders our love for a planet in peril.”
– review by Annelise Jolley
@hubcitypress.bsky.social
– review by Annelise Jolley
@hubcitypress.bsky.social
“Some Americans know exactly what time it is, because it’s their families, neighbors, parishioners, and communities under threat—ICE has brought the problem to them. And they’re responding.”
– the Christian Century editors
www.christiancentury.org/editors/faci...
– the Christian Century editors
www.christiancentury.org/editors/faci...
When the lawless gangs are federal agents
It is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain that the United States is a democracy.
www.christiancentury.org
November 12, 2025 at 8:57 PM
“Some Americans know exactly what time it is, because it’s their families, neighbors, parishioners, and communities under threat—ICE has brought the problem to them. And they’re responding.”
– the Christian Century editors
www.christiancentury.org/editors/faci...
– the Christian Century editors
www.christiancentury.org/editors/faci...
“The occupation is best understood as Christians punishing Christians who refuse to say the Russian invasion is divinely sanctioned.”
– @attheedges.bsky.social
www.christiancentury.org/features/pas...
– @attheedges.bsky.social
www.christiancentury.org/features/pas...
Pastors in exile
Clergy who have fled Russian-occupied Ukraine are finding new ways to provide pastoral care for parishioners who are still...
www.christiancentury.org
November 12, 2025 at 3:06 PM
“The occupation is best understood as Christians punishing Christians who refuse to say the Russian invasion is divinely sanctioned.”
– @attheedges.bsky.social
www.christiancentury.org/features/pas...
– @attheedges.bsky.social
www.christiancentury.org/features/pas...
“Eugene Peterson’s theology was not what I found most compelling in his work . . . Above all, it was his insistence that we live and minister as if God is real.”
– Katherine Willis Pershey
www.christiancentury.org/features/ple...
– Katherine Willis Pershey
www.christiancentury.org/features/ple...
Please, liberal Christians, read Eugene Peterson
I’m not too proud to...
www.christiancentury.org
November 11, 2025 at 9:20 PM
“Eugene Peterson’s theology was not what I found most compelling in his work . . . Above all, it was his insistence that we live and minister as if God is real.”
– Katherine Willis Pershey
www.christiancentury.org/features/ple...
– Katherine Willis Pershey
www.christiancentury.org/features/ple...
“Jo Bertini’s career has been shaped by deserts across the globe, and the Australian painter infuses her canvases with a sense of reverence and intimacy.”
– art commentary from Yohana Junker: www.christiancentury.org/art/jo-berti...
– art commentary from Yohana Junker: www.christiancentury.org/art/jo-berti...
November 11, 2025 at 3:03 PM
“Jo Bertini’s career has been shaped by deserts across the globe, and the Australian painter infuses her canvases with a sense of reverence and intimacy.”
– art commentary from Yohana Junker: www.christiancentury.org/art/jo-berti...
– art commentary from Yohana Junker: www.christiancentury.org/art/jo-berti...
“The depredations of ICE, which has emerged as the president’s private masked army, have been so extreme that ‘abolish ICE’ is rapidly becoming the common-sense, middle-of-the-road, boring Democratic Party position.”
– @philipchristman.bsky.social
www.christiancentury.org/voices/aboli...
– @philipchristman.bsky.social
www.christiancentury.org/voices/aboli...
Tolerating ICE means tolerating tyranny
There is deep rot in our systems of punishment and control.
www.christiancentury.org
November 10, 2025 at 9:04 PM
“The depredations of ICE, which has emerged as the president’s private masked army, have been so extreme that ‘abolish ICE’ is rapidly becoming the common-sense, middle-of-the-road, boring Democratic Party position.”
– @philipchristman.bsky.social
www.christiancentury.org/voices/aboli...
– @philipchristman.bsky.social
www.christiancentury.org/voices/aboli...