An apology and an excited share

In last week’s email, I accidentally messed up one of the links. Many of you who tried to read our new article about Taylor Swift were sent elsewhere. I’m sorry! I hope you found your way to the piece, but if you didn’t, here is Amy Julia Becker’s reflection on the religious experience of attending a Taylor Swift concert.

I am so, so happy to share one of our new pieces with you this week. It is a list of recommended Christmas gifts from the team here at the Century. Part of the reason I love the piece, I’m sure, is that I know and admire the staff here. But I also like the fact that through these quirky (and let’s be honest, often nerdy) gift ideas, you will get to know them a bit more too!

Plus more great new content. Scroll down for Debie Thomas’s ode to learning church history, Yolanda Pierce’s essay on following her vocational calling, and much more.

Email me: What is a gift you’re excited to give someone this year?

Jon Mathieu
[email protected]

The best books and other readeable gifts to consider for Christmas this year.

Between the Bible and me

“The version of Christian history I grew up with hit fast-forward after John’s Revelation and held it until the late 20th century.”

Settling into the joy of vocation

“My vocational calling is inextricably bound to my identity, whether I am in running shoes and yoga pants or in clerical garb in the pulpit.”

In the Lectionary for December 10 (Advent 2B)

There is a clear distinction between being comfortable and receiving comfort.

When stagnant waters become fresh

“If we can liberate these watersheds, just imagine what other forms of un-mastery might be possible.”

by Derek Taylor

The tree of God’s mysteries

“The Kabbalistic Tree is not an easy read, but it is a fascinating, in-depth look at this unique dimension of Jewish thought—including its profound overlap with medieval and Renaissance Christianity.”

by Mordechai Beck