New CC content on biblical scholarship, Pentecostalism, political activism, and more.

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** Mysteries of the Bible
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I write this email as I prepare to travel to AAR/SBL (the short way of saying “the annual meetings hosted by the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature”—whew). Will you, O reader, be there this year? If so, let me know... and stop by the Christian Century’s booth and say hello!

This will be my second year at the conference, and I really enjoyed it last year. It was fascinating to be in a giant room with so many other religion enthusiasts and Bible nerds. If this sounds fun to you but you can’t make it to San Antonio this weekend, perhaps you can get your fill of Bible scholarship from our new interview with Elizabeth Schrader Polczer. She chats with CC senior editor Amy Frykholm about a discovery in textual variants of John 11 ([link removed]) that might shed light on the “apostle of the apostles,” Mary Magdalene. Polczer says that her discovery revealed a wound or vulnerability in the word of God—just one of the intriguing moments in this insightful and illuminating conversation.

We have plenty more great new content too. Below you’ll find an investigation of mushroom usage in the early church ([link removed]) , a reflection on the ubiquity of Pentecostalism in Argentina ([link removed]) , and a book review about the failings of the political left ([link removed]) in the US. And even more.

Email me: What upcoming travel or learning opportunity are you excited about now?

Jon Mathieu
[email protected] (mailto:[email protected]?subject=Re%3A%20Editors%E2%80%99%20Picks)
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Signs of Mary Magdalene in John 11 ([link removed])

“It almost felt like the gospel was showing a wound in the text to me. Each textual variant was revealing a new aspect of the vulnerability of the word of God.”
Amy Frykholm interviews Elizabeth Schrader Polczer
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** Mushrooms at the table? ([link removed])
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“Once you start looking for mushrooms in Christian art, you start to see them everywhere.”
by Don Lattin
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** My Pentecostal kin ([link removed])
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“The Pentecostal church is present where the most marginalized people are. I know there are mainline churches in Argentina, but I’ve never seen one in the poor areas I’ve spent time in, where there is now a Pentecostal church on almost every corner.”
by Heidi Neumark
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** In the Lectionary for November 19 (Ordinary 33A) ([link removed])
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Irena Sendler, who smuggled hundreds of children out of the Warsaw Ghetto, was a modern-day Deborah.
by Dorothy Sanders Wells

Ordinary 33A archives ([link removed])
Get even more lectionary resources with Sunday’s Coming Premium, an email newsletter from the editors of the Christian Century. Learn more ([link removed]) .


** Why is progressive activism so ineffective? ([link removed])
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“Fredrik deBoer’s core critiques of modern progressivism find their targets. Leftist politics in America really are hampered by dependency on the ‘nonprofit industrial complex,’ by ignoring material issues in favor of symbols, by raising the salience of identity categories in an electorate that reliably becomes less progressive in reaction, and by failure to build offline, real-world power around concrete demands.”

review by Benjamin J. Dueholm


** Of Form and the Formless ([link removed])
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“When the celebrant raises the host,
I see the nucleus of every atom.
I see the sun, primordial earth . . .”

poem by Chris Ellery
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