How the Great Migration changed music in the black church forever. In the 1920s, Chicago’s first African American congregations were at a crossroads. After decades of investment, the churches and their musicians were proud of their accomplishments as they had “lifted the Negro race” to a position of separate but equal status with their white …
God sent his only Son. Why couldn’t I let my husband donate a kidney? The nurse hands my husband a bag for personal belongings and a bundle that includes a hospital gown, nonskid socks, and a heavy blanket. As Mike undresses, the weightiness of the moment is almost palpable. I do not allow myself to …
Randall Stephens’s history pays attention to political and cultural flash points—without losing focus on the music itself. Every few years, it seems, what some call the “mainstream media” rediscover Christian rock. Sometimes it’s treated with reverence and respect, as in John Jeremiah Sullivan’s now-classic 2004 account of tagging along at a Christian music festival for …
Today’s fights over the religion in the public square are replays of fights from two thousand years ago. In The Idea of a Christian Society (1939), T. S. Eliot saw a conflict between Christianity and paganism shaping the 20th century. Steven D. Smith’s Pagans and Christians in the City applies Eliot’s map to today’s culture …
You and I have a murder problem, even if we’re 100-percent murder-free. In David Powlison’s book Good and Angry, he has a chapter entitled, “Do You Have an Anger Problem?” It’s very clever, because the chapter is only one word long: “Yes.” That’s all it says. And rightly so. You and I have an anger …
CT’s greatest essays of old still speak today. But on civil rights, we failed our readers. In many traditions, the weeks leading up to Christmas are considered a season of self-examination and repentance. At Christianity Today, this period of reflection comes after the November online release of our complete archives, encompassing every issue of CT …
Until God showed me that there’s more to life than making people laugh. For the longest time, comedy was my religion. As a stand-up comedian, I performed in bars, theaters, and restaurants that functioned, essentially, as my churches. If you asked about my theological perspective, I would have replied that I was a comedian first …
We’re not awaiting a helpless baby, but a righteous and powerful judge. It would be hard to say which is more alien to our contemporary ideas of getting ready for Christmas, the season of Advent or the figure of John the Baptist—the man who greeted the Pharisees and Sadducees by calling them a “brood of …
Truly biblical prophecy strengthens the church—without adding anything to the Bible. On the day the church went public, it was laughed at. A noisy rabble was spilling out into the streets of Jerusalem, declaring the works of God in all kinds of languages, and while some responded with genuine amazement, others simply ridiculed it: “They …
The All Nations leader remembers the 26-year-old killed by the “world’s most isolated” tribe. A little over a week ago, a 26-year-missionary was killed by members of an isolated tribe on a remote island near India, Myanmar, and Thailand. As CT reported: According to news reports based on Chau’s journal entries, the Oral Roberts University …