Sure, all kinds of Christians love Jesus. But he’s especially central in evangelical piety. Some years ago Francis Quinn, then Roman Catholic bishop of Sacramento, and I were talking about evangelicals who were converting to Catholicism. I was a Presbyterian minister at the time, serving a small church in Sacramento. I can’t remember the occasion …
An evangelical historian teaches us how to think critically about the heroes of our past. In 1623, Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford proclaimed the first Thanksgiving. "The great Father," he declared, "has given us this year an abundant harvest…and granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience." He directed …
Our love of Lewis’s words doesn’t mean we always get them right. C. S. Lewis, described by some as the “patron saint of American evangelicals,” is a very quotable writer, and evangelical Christians love to invoke him in sermons, social media posts, and casual conversation. However, you cannot always believe what you read. Expressions credited …
Herman Selderhuis’s biography proves that just about every adjective, good or bad, can apply to the great reformer. Brilliant, tormented, passionate, scatological, superstitious, devious, loyal, bitter—pick an adjective, good or bad, and it invariably applies to the German reformer Martin Luther at one time or another in his turbulent life. “I was born to wage …
Micah’s most beloved verse is more than a spiritual to-do list. In the early 1960s, political writer Hannah Arendt attended the trials of Adolf Eichmann, the German officer who had orchestrated much of the Holocaust. She expected to find a monster. How could it be otherwise? Only a deranged psychopath could lend his considerable organizational …
More and more Americans are taking their own lives. How the church can step up. In 2015, more than 44,000 Americans died by suicide—one death every 12 minutes, as the Department of Health and Human Services put it. The overall suicide rate has grown by nearly 30 percent over the past 15 years, prompting some …
Craig Harline portrays the suspense-filled early years of Martin Luther’s movement, when the outcome was anything but certain. In this 500th anniversary year of the beginning of the Reformation, publications about the movement, and especially about its prime initiator Martin Luther, abound. Some books will treat him as an iconic figure whose bold declarations shaped …
Where does our rage belong when egregious actions are committed or defended by a “family member”? Allegations of sexual impropriety against the longtime Religious Right celebrity and current Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore have forced the church to wrestle once again with sexual harassment and assault. While we don’t know whether the claims that seven …
And how their choice of Trump has affected the church since last year’s election. Election 2016 ended a year ago, but its effects on American culture, including the American church, persist. Many are still asking how Donald Trump became president, and what part evangelical Christians played in making that happen. Stephen Mansfield, author of bestselling …
CT asks the actor about his latest movie and Hollywood’s ongoing quest to score the faith audience. To churchgoers, Denzel Washington comes across as the ideal movie star. An Oscar winner accepted among the mainstream elite, he is also open, even evangelical, about his Christian beliefs. In person, the 62-year-old speaks like a Pentecostal preacher …