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** Religious trauma, religious joy
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One of the ways I help with the magazine is gathering feedback from our readers—usually through letters to the editor they send by email—for our Letters & Comments section. I love this part of my job, because I love learning what content delights you, moves you, angers you, or sparks your curiosity. We just wrapped our September issue, and it includes a moving letter from someone who identified closely with McKenzie Watson-Fore’s essay ([link removed]) , which I shared with you two weeks ago, about the damaging theology at the evangelical church camps she attended in her youth.

For our video of the week, I talked to Watson-Fore—and it was one of the liveliest and most enjoyable conversations ([link removed]) I’ve had for the Century. This is partly because her experiences and insights relate so clearly to my own journey. It’s a powerful thing when a person or idea comes along and connects to our own spiritual history. As you can see in some of our new pieces, this kind of resonance can come from a host of sources: from a retelling of Superman’s origin story ([link removed]) , or perhaps from a renaissance of the groundbreaking ideas of Teilhard de Chardin ([link removed]) .

Scroll down for even more new content, like an editorial on the performance of narratives in US politics ([link removed]) , a call for churches to become sanctuaries for endangered stories ([link removed]) , a punchy double book review from yours truly ([link removed]) , and more.

Jon Mathieu
Email me (mailto:[email protected]?subject=A%20spiritual%20connection%20I%20made&body=Jon%2C%20) : Describe a time when you thought, “That person really gets my faith journey.”
Click to schedule ([link removed]) a Friday lunch chat with Jon (it’s okay to book again if you’ve done it before!)
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** VIDEO: What was happening theologically at evangelical youth retreats? ([link removed])
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McKenzie Watson-Fore and Jon chat about their evangelical youth group experiences and how to make sense of them.
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** When Superman deconstructs ([link removed])
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“While this change to Superman’s origin story has proven controversial for some, it was this moment that resonated most powerfully with my own experience, causing me to reflect on my journey of faith, identity, and deconstruction.”

by Christopher Thiessen
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** Science is finally catching up with Teilhard de Chardin ([link removed])
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“What Teilhard dreamed about 50, 60, 70 years ago—the inclusion of subjectivity in scientific studies, even the sciences working together and with other disciplines, becoming less siloed and fractured—is now important to the conversation and cannot be ignored.”

Jessica Mesman interviews Frank and Mary Frost
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** In the Lectionary for August 3 (Ordinary 18C) ([link removed])
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Putting on the clothing of the new self is a metaphor of extravagance.
by Lilia Ellis

Ordinary 18C 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]) .


** The politics of performance ([link removed])
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“Fighting disinformation is difficult, discouraging work. Correcting the record on policy can feel like screaming into the void. But we who seek the common good also need to perform different stories from the dominant ones in our politics. Truthful, lifegiving stories.”

by the editors


** A sanctuary for banned stories ([link removed])
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“The stories we tell, or refuse to tell, matter.”

by Kelly Brown Douglas


** Evangelical idols and ideologies ([link removed])
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Two new books critique evangelicalism from within. But does the authors’ continued connection to the tradition make it impossible for them to go far enough?

Jon Mathieu reviews Mike Cosper and Jeff Mikels
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