Questions about their reliability deserve better than sheepish mumbling. Last month, Harvard psychologist and atheist public intellectual Steven Pinker posted this provocative tweet: “As any Jew knows, there is controversy (to put it mildly) over whether Jesus was the messiah. But did he exist at all? A new book by R. G. Price argues, ‘Deciphering …
Do people choose their politics on the basis of their religion, or is it the other way around? We live in an era of political divisions. There is the gender gap. There is the race gap. There is also the so-called “God gap.” Americans with no religion are more likely to be Democrat, and religious …
As a child of the Iranian Revolution, I wanted nothing to do with religion. I was nine years old when I decided that I hated God. I hated him because I believed he hated me first. It was 1979, during the middle of the Iranian Revolution. Ayatollah Khomeini and his religious zealots had recently overthrown …
We won’t achieve perfect unanimity on every contested topic. Not long ago a pastor friend called, asking for help. “I’m preaching through Genesis 1–11,” he said, “and I need some advice on the whole creation and evolution thing.” There was anxiety in his voice. He wasn’t sure how preaching on origins was going to go …
How, the late pastor asked, can you shepherd a flock you don’t know? Eugene Peterson—who died in October at age 85—is best known, perhaps, as the author of The Message, his vernacular paraphrase of the Bible. But for many pastors and church leaders, Peterson was also a mentor who taught them to be shepherds rather …
Ann Voskamp and photographer Esther Havens document the moment a new Bible translation arrives in a rural Kenyan community. The word of God comes riding in on a camel. It’s a kind of modern-day Palm Sunday in Northern Kenya, the nomadic Rendille people waving their worn sticks instead of palm branches, the Word of God …
What’s good and what’s bad about unpopular opinions. The Huffington Post recently drew eye rolls with a tweet claiming that the beloved children’s TV classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was “seriously problematic.” The accompanying video pointed out all kinds of bigotry and abuse in the show—which, as responders were quick to point out, the show …
Why we need to remember the God-given language of music. When my nine-year-old daughter communicates with me about something that happens in her day at school, she uses gestures, eyebrows, words, and inflections to try to get the story from her heart into mine. For a child, everyday conversation is something more like singing than …
Eugene Cho explains why he stepped down from Quest Church, ministers reflect on Eugene Peterson’s influence, and Noe Garcia reveals the challenges of hosting John McCain’s memorial service. We hope all of Christianity Today’s content is valuable for those in vocational ministry, but we also publish articles specifically for pastors. Here are our top 15 …
Research shows our society’s widespread isolation. What’s the church’s role in alleviating it? Americans are lonely. So suggests data released this year by health insurer Cigna, which surveyed 20,000 Americans. According to their findings: Nearly 50 percent of respondents report that they felt alone or left out always or sometimes. More than half of Americans …