Search

In 2004, I was the music director at a congregation with eclectic taste in music. This was exciting--but when it came to navigating copyright compliance, also a bit overwhelming. So [...]

The most brilliant and chilling novel I have read in a very long time is The Memory Monster, by Israeli author Yishai Sarid. The book is written as a report [...]

1 Corinthians 3:1-9 I was born a Baptist. I mean, you can't really be born a Baptist, but I was born to Baptist parents. I grew up in a charismatic [...]

Isaiah 58:1-12 In our three-year lectionary cycle, most Hebrew Bible texts come up once at most. Isaiah 58 is assigned five times. We justice-minded Christians tend to find additional reasons [...]

ROD DREHER'S The Benedict Option touches on an array of subjects, from the decline of the Christian West to the atomizing effects of smartphones to the competing rights claims of [...]

The article presents an interview with Amy-Jill Levine Professor of New Testament and Jewish studies at Hartford International University on the problematic portrayal of Jews in John's Passion narrative. Topics include the anti-Jewish elements in the text, the use of alternative terms to refer to Jews, and the importance of addressing harmful texts in a responsible and thoughtful manner.

IN MAY, a federal jury sentenced the surviving Boston Marathon bomber to death. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's lawyers had acknowledged his guilt and focused on humanizing him in hopes of avoiding a [...]

I WAS BAPTIZED in a swimming pool in my childhood pastor's backyard. I was 12. Asked to make a confession of faith, I mumbled something incoherent through chattering teeth. I [...]

WHENEVER I PLAN a Maundy Thursday service, I get annoyed with the lectionary. Why isn't the second reading 1 John 4? I get that Paul's account of the words of [...]

MY SIBLINGS and I have a special fondness for Peter Lutkin's classic setting of the Numbers blessing. We all sang it in high school choir; now we sing it together [...]

HOW MANY KINDS of music are there? Most teenagers could come up with four or five. An aficionado might list dozens. But ask a church worship committee and you may [...]

IN JANUARY, the National Day of Prayer Task Force changed the logo on its website. The old logo relegated the words 'Task Force' to small type at the bottom. The [...]

RESPONDING TO local critics, Amazon recently dropped its plan to build new 'HQ2' corporate offices in New York City. After enticing numerous U.S. cities to compete publicly for the honor, [...]

Day Burtness and Dan Borek hoped to start an organic farm and community-supported agriculture program at St. Olaf College. But Northfield, Minnesota--a small, two-college town 35 miles south of Minneapolis-St. […]

At a seminar last year, composer and liturgist Marty Haugen led clergy and church musicians in portions of a new Lenten liturgy he composed with Susan Briehl. He noted dryly [...]

Richard Rosenfeld's essay ['What Democracy?' May] is provocative but does not go far enough. The divided structure of our national legislative branch is one of four major undemocratic flaws in […]

NADIA STEFKO and I got married in her hometown, at an Episcopal church we had no particular connection to. 'You are free to personalize the service in a number of [...]

The article offers suggestions how to avoid liturgical language of light and dark in the Bible. Topics include consider the various senses in which positive language about light is used such as revealing of secrets, being cautious about negative language for darkness, and embrace the fact that liturgical images exist in tension with one another like metaphors.

MASS SHOOTINGS are familiar enough now that the aftermath follows a script. One line you can pretty much count on hearing: It's a sin problem, not a gun problem. The [...]

The article reviews several periodicals, including "Catholic Worker," "American Prospect," and "Nautilus."

IN JANUARY, not long after my wife began her first parish ministry job, she and I became home owners. Around early April or so I realized that my days of [...]

AN EPISCOPAL PRIEST who, with her husband, brings in about $65,000 a year tells Marketplace that they are lower middle class. A woman posting at dcurbanmom.com identifies her family as [...]

A Jew Among the Evangelicals: A Guide for the Perplexed, by Mark Pinsky. Westminster John Knox Press. There are few words thornier than 'evangelical.' It's a broad category that includes [...]

Pastor Peter Hong asserts that Chicago's New Community Covenant Church 'exists to provide an alternative to those tired of religion.' But the four-year-old, ethnically diverse congregation certainly embraces its identity [...]

America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System By Steven Brill Random House, 528 pp., $28.00 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] My daughter spent the [...]

Stay Gold First Aid Kit (Columbia) On the Soderberg sisters' third album and their second with producer Mike Mogis, the sound is bigger and lusher, even utilizing strings and winds [...]

Parks and Recreation (Season Five) NBC Washington doesn't come up much on television's best and warmest show about politics, outside a running joke about Joe Biden's sex appeal. Parks and [...]

This Side of Jordan Mandolin Orange [Yep Rot] Another day, another talented Americana songwriter immersed in the language of a faith he doesn't profess. Andrew Marlin, half of the North [...]

THIS PAST SPRING, Mary Louise Bringle revealed in the CENTURY that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) hymnal committee voted against including the popular song 'In Christ Alone' after the copyright holder [...]

Sun By Cat Power Hatador, $7.99 Chan Marshall has struggled with substance abuse, other health problems, crippling stage fright and financial issues. She used to be notorious for her erratic [...]

IN A JUNE column, Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne Jr. argued that liberals need to be more direct and explicit about championing the role of government. Political scientist Douglas [...]

FOR SEVERAL YEARS, the CENTURY participated in Amazon.com's affiliate program. By directing readers to the online retailer to buy copies of the books and music we review, we brought in [...]

We Are Rising by Son Lux [Anticon] Earlier this year, NPR's All Songs Considered solicited Ryan Lott, aka Son Lux, for an experiment: could he write and record an album [...]

WHEN HOUSE of Mercy was founded in 1996, having a membership roll wasn't on its radar. 'There were maybe 30 people at church,' explained Debbie Blue, who has copastored the [...]

THE REPUBLICANS are about to take control of the House of Representatives, and House leader-to-be John Boehner (R., Ohio) says their top priority will be creating jobs by cutting government [...]

A Friend of a Friend Dave Rawlings Machine Acony, $13.99 Gillian Welch and her longtime sideman switch places for a loose, mostly acoustic record, with help from members of Old [...]

From Stone to Living Word: Letting the Bible Live Again, by Debbie Blue. Brazos Press. A wise seminary professor once warned those of us anxious to boil the New Testament [...]

The Trumpet Child, by Over the Rhine. Great Speckled Dog When comedian Gracie Allen took up painting, she determined to paint only masterpieces. The gag was that she didn't know […]

Before the Daylight's Shot, by Ashley Cleveland. 204 Records I don't usually expect too much from blues-rock music. It seems that for every well-rooted disciple of the Rolling Stones and [...]

Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading, by Eugene H. Peterson. Eerdmans. I as visiting a church at which pentecostal practices were gaining traction, bringing no [...]

Post-Rapture Radio: Lost Writings from a Failed Revolution, by Russell Rathbun. Jossey-Bass. A few years ago, the 'postmodern memoir' or 'autobiographic novel' was all the rage among critics anxious to [...]

Bluesamericana Keb' Mo' (Kind of Blue) You can call Keb' Mo' a lot of things, but 'unpredictable' isn't one of them. His blues tradition is more down-home than hard-charging, more [...]

Small Town Heroes Hurray for the Riff Raff (ATO) At the height of gangsta rap, commentators lined up to decry the subgenre's violent and misogynistic lyrics. Conspicuously absent was much [...]

Bach Sonata No.1 in G Minor / Partita No. 1 in B Minor Chris Thile (Nonesuch) Chris Thile is equally committed to the mandolin--that oh-so-traditional instrument he plays so uncommonly [...]

In the article, the author discusses the lessons that can be learned from the Bible book of 1 Corinthians 3:1-9, particularly about the divisions among religious sects like the Methodists and Episcopalians. Other topics include the history of Protestantism, the East-West schism of 1054, and how God is allegedly influencing Christian growth and Christian unity.

In the article, the author discusses the lessons on religious rituals from the Bible book of Isaiah 58:1-12. Also cited are how the verses called for proper treatment of workers, feeding of hungry people, and sheltering homeless persons, the fasting and other religious practices during Isaiah's era, and the relationship of ritual and justice as tackled in the Bible.

Bob's Burgers [Season Three] Fox The Belchers, the family at the center of this animated sitcom, are as ridiculous as the Bluths but far more loving. The show has a [...]

Veep (Season Two) HBO If The Newsroom is The West Wing's pale shadow, Veep is its nemesis. Armando Iannucci's series offers another not-terribly-realistic inside look at Washington, but instead of [...]