 Cover of the December 14, 2010, issue | |
| Editor/Publisher | Peter W. Marty |
|---|---|
| Managing editor | Steve Thorngate |
| Categories | Christianity |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Circulation | 36,000 |
| First issue | 1884 |
| Company | Christian Century Foundation |
| Country | United States |
| Based in | Chicago,Illinois |
| Language | English |
| Website | christiancentury |
| ISSN | 0009-5281 |
The Christian Century is aChristian magazine based inChicago, Illinois. Considered the flagship magazine of USmainline Protestantism,[1] the monthly reports on religious news; comments on theological, moral, and cultural issues; and reviews books, movies, and music.
The magazine's editorial stance has been described as "liberal".[2] It describes its own mission as follows:
For decades, theChristian Century has informed and shaped progressive, mainline Christianity. Committed to thinking critically and living faithfully, the magazine explores what it means to believe and live out the Christian faith in our time. As a voice of generous orthodoxy, theCentury is both loyal to the church and open to the world.[3]
TheCentury's current editor and publisher is Peter W. Marty, while Steve Thorngate is its managing editor. Regular columns include:
TheCentury website hosts podcasts byGrace Ji-Sun Kim, Amy Frykholm, Cassidy Hall, Matt Fitzgerald, Matt Gaventa, and Adam Hearlson.
TheChristian Century was founded in 1884 asThe Christian Oracle inDes Moines,Iowa, as aDisciples of Christdenominational magazine.
In 1900, its editor proposed to rename itChristian Century in response to the great optimism of manyChristians at the turn of the 20th century that "genuine Christian faith could live in mutual harmony with the modern developments in science, technology, immigration, communication and culture that were already under way." Around this same time, theCentury's offices moved to Chicago.
The magazine did not receive widespread support in its denomination and was sold in a mortgageforeclosure in 1908. It was purchased byCharles Clayton Morrison, who soon labeled the magazinenondenominational. Morrison became a highly influential spokesperson forliberal Christianity, advocatinghigher criticism of theBible, as well as theSocial Gospel, which included concerns aboutchild labor,women's suffrage,racism,war andpacifism,alcoholism andprohibition,environmentalism, and many other political and social issues. The magazine was a common target for criticism byfundamentalists during thefundamentalist–modernist debate of the early 20th century.
During theSecond World War, the magazine helped provide a venue for promotion of ideas by Christian activists who opposed theinternment of Japanese Americans. Critiques of the internment policy, by writers such as Galen Fisher, appeared regularly in theCentury and helped bring awareness to the situation.
In 1956 the magazine was challenged by the establishment ofChristianity Today byCarl F. H. Henry, which sought to present a theologicallyconservative evangelical viewpoint, while restoring many social concerns abandoned by fundamentalists. Both magazines continue to flourish, with theCentury remaining the major independent publication within ecumenical, mainline Protestantism.
The magazine was heavily involved in covering and advocating for thecivil rights movement. It sent editors to a march inSelma, Alabama in 1965 and was one of the first national magazines to publishMartin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" along with six of his other essays. King was also an editor-at-large to the magazine.[4]
In 2008 bothMartin E. Marty and former editorJames M. Wall concluded long runs asCentury columnists.
Other writers published by theCentury over its long history includeJane Addams,Albert Schweitzer,W. E. B. DuBois,Reuben Markham,C. S. Lewis,W. H. Auden,T. S. Eliot,Reinhold Niebuhr,Richard John Neuhaus,Paul Tillich,John F. Kennedy,Dwight D. Eisenhower,Thomas Merton,James Cone,Rosemary Rutherford,Mary Daly,Billy Graham,Wendell Berry,Henri Nouwen,N. T. Wright,Delores S. Williams,Sarah Coakley,Rowan Williams, andMarilynne Robinson.
The magazine has been accused of being antisemitic during the editorial reign of Morrison in the 1930s and 1940s.[5][6][7] It published articles: opposing American intervention in World War II for the benefit of the Jews persecuted under the Nazis; arguing moral equivalence between an alleged Jewish-nationalist crucifixion of Jesus and the Nazi persecution of Jews; condemningAmerican Jews for maintaining their distinct identity; and a rebuttal to RabbiStephen Wise, president of theWorld Jewish Congress, claiming he was exaggeratingthe Holocaust.[8] As late as 1944, the magazine published articles such as "A Reply to Screamers" byFred Eastman,[9] which admonished the suggestion that there was a moral obligation for the United States to aid in the plight of European Jews being murdered duringthe Holocaust. Marty, writing about the 1940s, described theChristian Century at that time as being an "anti-Zionist" publication.[10]
Beginning in 2012,James M. Wall (editor from 1972 to 1999) served on the editorial board ofVNN,[11] an online news and opinion site that theSouthern Poverty Law Centre identified as a neo-Nazi hate site.[12] Wall's name was retained on the Christian Century masthead from 2012 to 2017, despite his association with VNN, drawing criticism.[11][13]
In 2017 Wall's name was removed from the masthead. InChristian Century's 2021 obituary of Wall, Marty conceded "Wall's extensive pro-Palestinian writing at times devolved into anti-Semitism."[14] In recent years, the magazine has published bothpro-Palestine and pro-Israel authors and argued for atwo-state solution to the conflict.[citation needed]
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