“Claudette Powell’s transformation into Sister Monica Clare (an Episcopal sister who is best known these days for her TikTok channel), which she chronicles in A Change of Habit, takes two decades and involves a lot of work.” – review by Elizabeth Palmer www.christiancentury.org/books/comedy...

“Our Christian hope is that God will one day step in decisively to disrupt all our timelines. No calendar can prepare us for that day.” – Brandon Ambrosino www.christiancentury.org/online-colum...

“The idea of collective blessing in scripture is a direct critique of the way power is being wielded to punish in our country. Collective punishment in politics has become normalized, but it does not have to be so.” – @revdrmichaelwoolf.bsky.social www.christiancentury.org/online-colum...

“The fascism debate is evidence that we don’t have a clear picture of our terrifying authoritarian and racial-nationalist present.” – Mac Loftin www.christiancentury.org/features/fas...

“FanDuel and DraftKings contribute money (however paltry) to anti-addiction efforts, while also steadily deepening fans’ dependence on betting … It’s moral laundering reminiscent of the tobacco companies that once insisted they weren’t encouraging teens to smoke.” – Peter W. Marty

“A properly apolitical nativity scene, we’re led to believe, would tastefully decorate lawns and mantles, signifying nothing other than the common faith that transcends conflict over things like war and oppression … But what could possibly be more political than that?” – Mac Loftin

“The potluck is an act of faith. You don’t think you bring it all, but you also don’t think you have nothing to do with it. You bring something.” – Amy Frykholm www.christiancentury.org/features/the...

Of all the solid reviews IN GUNS WE TRUST has gotten, this one is perhaps the most gratifying. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was an editor at @christiancentury.bsky.social, and it was the first to publish his "Letters from a Birmingham Jail." #booksky www.christiancentury.org/books/lethal...

“William Kole argues that the source of America’s gun violence is a lack of meaningful laws regulating guns, owing overwhelmingly to the way White evangelicals have turned the Second Amendment into an article of faith.” – Keri Ladner reviews In Guns We Trust (@broadleafbooks.bsky.social)

Crops shrink and sizzle in pernicious heat it’s fine I’ve stacked enough energy drinks in my caves for you to ride at dawn – read the complete new poem from Heidi Neumark: www.christiancentury.org/poetry/king-...

“Gossip tends to work like a bad novelist. It smooths everything out. It turns complex actions into simple, legible ones and cuts ambiguities down to a single dimension.” – @philipchristman.bsky.social www.christiancentury.org/voices/pover...

“Perhaps this is why Symeon’s poem made me cry out loud: it describes an incarnation that is appalling in its intimacy.” – Debie Thomas www.christiancentury.org/voices/chris...

“Gene Schmidt’s visual language of confession requires locality as both witness and absolver.” – art commentary from Maria Fee: www.christiancentury.org/art/gene-sch...

“In Humans: A Monstrous History, British historian @drsurekhadavies.bsky.social offers a scholarly exploration of monsters and monster-­making through the ages.” – review by A. Trevor Sutton www.christiancentury.org/books/monste... @ucpress.bsky.social

After watching Die My Love, columnist Kathryn Reklis considers just how dismal the state of motherhood in popular culture has become. www.christiancentury.org/screen-time/...

“Wherever we situate Bethlehem, let’s be clear that it’s far away from the corridors of power. God shows up in profound humility, taking up very little oxygen in that cattle stall.” – Peter W. Marty www.christiancentury.org/first-words/...

“When the hospice nurse calls at midnight to say it’s time, I drive through darkness lit only by stoplights and gas stations. The world divides into before and after with ruthless efficiency.” Read David Zepf’s new poem: www.christiancentury.org/poetry/unbur...

“The sages see in Nimrod’s deeds the necessity of a constant check against the arrogance of power. Yet they also offer a warning to his followers: You follow a bad king at your peril.” – Mordechai Beck www.christiancentury.org/features/bad...

Introducing the Dear Pastor series: We asked experienced pastors and seminary professors to put themselves in the apostle Paul’s shoes, to write a letter to a present-day ministry leader. Here is the first in the series, from Eric D. Barreto. www.christiancentury.org/features/ima...

Why has the authority of American elites been swept aside? Historian Molly Worthen argues that it’s because they failed as storytellers. Alan Bean reviews Spellbound: www.christiancentury.org/books/power-...

“If revival is possible, let alone underway, it confronts mainline Christians with the limits of our own understanding. We have been identified so closely with decline for so long that it has become a weight-bearing part of our self-image.” – Ben Dueholm www.christiancentury.org/voices/are-w...

“Some people argue that to put up a tree before Halloween is to ignore the ancient wisdom that teaches us that Christ comes at an appointed time. But of course, such an appointment is only clear from this side of the timeline.” – Brandon Ambrosino www.christiancentury.org/online-colum...

If you love words as much as we do, check out our gift recommendations for your holiday shopping. www.christiancentury.org/features/gif...

“What makes this work of hope and trust exhilarating and truthful is the way its invitation to let go leads away from the promise of success and achievement. To grow into Christ’s likeness is to step toward failure and the stripping away of power.” – @revrachelmann.bsky.social

The new year will be here soon. What are your plans for spiritual reflection and/or group discussion? Our free weekly newsletter is here to help. www.christiancentury.org/goingdeeper-...

“Kristen Plinke Bentley’s goal is to raise up practices and perspectives that will help congregations and ministers involved in bivocational ministry to thrive.” – review by Susan Willhauck www.christiancentury.org/books/minist...

“Now is no time to be passive or silent. We need to say how our theological vision of people—as children of God made in the divine image and as sinners graced with possibilities for good—illumines politics and the workings and organization of critical institutions.” – Douglas F. Ottati

“The pulpit Bible reminds us that we are people of the book. We derive our existence in communion with the Holy Spirit, who incorporates us into Christ’s life . . ." – @isaacvillegas.bsky.social www.christiancentury.org/voices/heft-...

“It is fair to raise questions about the particulars of Mamdani’s policy initiatives or approach to governance. But we cannot allow negative tropes about his Muslim heritage to seep into our civic discourse.” – the Christian Century editors www.christiancentury.org/editors/new-...

“I want to live already in the future of all my beautiful things—the yarn in the crates transformed into the sweater I have planned for them, . . . books with my name on them ranged up on the shelf, my city calm and quiet.” – @olivalejandra.bsky.social www.christiancentury.org/voices/pract...

“As I prepared my syllabus, I came to see the fascism question as a distraction. Antifascist writers from the last century do have much to teach us about our own moment, but not because far-right politics today is the same as it was then.” – Mac Loftin www.christiancentury.org/features/fas...

“We need, perhaps now more than ever, to wrestle with the brutality of Advent.” – @ynpierce.bsky.social www.christiancentury.org/features/adv...

“The musicians who decide to keep going aren’t doing so because they have some divination that they will magically avoid the brick wall this time. It’s because they can’t quit.” - Julian DeShazier www.christiancentury.org/voices/learn...

“Black autistic pastor and disability scholar @lamarhardwick.bsky.social shows how ideas around race and disability can cost people their lives.” – review by Lilia Ellis www.christiancentury.org/books/when-a... @brazospress.bsky.social

Love this analysis from Jen Kaalund. "Memory binds us together and helps us become who we aspire to be. But it only does this when we remember the real and complicated stories."

“As an experiment, I decided to pick one dish that was emblematic of potluck foods and consider it in light of its theology. Impossible cheeseburger pie is recorded for posterity in a cookbook called Seminary Cooking.” – Amy Frykholm www.christiancentury.org/features/the...

“Just as the Roman elite made efforts to systematize the erasure of an unwanted past—to create the illusion of a pure one—so the legislatures across our country are attempting to do the same.” – Jennifer Kaalund www.christiancentury.org/online-colum...

“Bad Bunny’s music and activism have reconnected me to roots I thought were severed beyond repair. His lyrics call me home.” – Kristina Lizardy-Hajbi www.christiancentury.org/features/son...

“Maybe in this Advent season waiting isn’t hoping for the end of this terror but attending to the moment when God asks us to join our voice and our life—in all their limitations—to create a little beauty.” – Brian Bantum www.christiancentury.org/voices/i-kee...

“So what was this mystery, this desire, preying on my mind, coming back to me years later? Dare I imagine that my sudden burst of insight, coming on a winter night in the wilderness, constituted a singularity—a unique, world-changing moment?” – Belden Lane www.christiancentury.org/features/nig...

“It was just a coincidence that I was singing a Newsboys song with @flamygrant.bandcamp.com the night I would learn about Michael Tait’s misdeeds. But I think there’s something important in the contrast between these two artists.” – @mwatsonfore.bsky.social www.christiancentury.org/features/sin...

“Sean Dempsey tells the story of liberal Christians—Protestant and Catholic, Black and White and Latino—who fought for justice in late 20th-century Los Angeles.” – review by Heath W. Carter: www.christiancentury.org/books/social... @uchicagopress.bsky.social

“The Divine has lovingly broken into every corner of the cosmos … Or so I have blithely claimed, never needing until now to ponder the possibility that ‘every corner’ might include not just the mysterious depths of the oceans but also my buzzy thumbs, aching palms, and frozen toes.” – Debie Thomas

“All of us, prophets included, usually must do it wrong many times before we can do it right.” — Richard Rohr www.christiancentury.org/books/weepin...

“If you’re as tired of this militant Christianity as I am, my word to you is simple: Christmas is waiting for you.” – Peter W. Marty www.christiancentury.org/first-words/...

“A man who once idolized the politics of privacy and conservatism spent his influence in his late years rallying for Civil Rights, for nuclear disarmament, for the eradication of poverty.” – @lizcharlottegrant.bsky.social on Norman Rockwell www.christiancentury.org/features/roc...

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...

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...

“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...

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...