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Obviously there were stories Kelly missed while he was drinking with characters like "Samir, the Jordanian hustler." (See for example Harold Fickett's account of Iraqi martyrs in The Living Christ, reviewed in Books & Culture.) But it occurred to me as I was re-reading Martyrs' Day that I could rarely recall finding the harsh but tonic realism of Kelly's reporting from Iraq in a Christian publication.

Is "Christian" a synonym for either martyrdom or ineffectual posturing? Will there be Christian writing that takes the measure of the "unfinished war" Kelly describes? Will there be Christian writing about what is unfolding in Iraq right now that has the hard-earned authority and the commitment to unvarnished truth-telling that Kelly at his best exemplified? I hope so. It's about time.

Copyright © 2003 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

On Friday, The Atlantic Monthly released a statement on the death of Michael Kelly. A biography and an archive of his "What Now?" columns and other Atlantic articles are available at the magazine's site.

The Washington Post also reported Kelly's death Friday, ran an editorial about him this weekend, and has an archive of his Post columns. His recent columns from Kuwait and Iraq include:

Across the Euphrates (Post, April 3, 2003)

Limited War, So Far (Post, March 30, 2003)

A 'Much Tougher' Fight (Post, March 26, 2003)

Warriors at Work (Post, March 19, 2003)

The Calm Before (Post, March 12, 2003)

Battle Stations For the Press (Post, March 5, 2003)

Christianity Today sister publication Books & Culture presents Books & Culture Corner and Book of the Week Mondays at ChristianityToday.com. Earlier editions of Books & Culture Corners and Book of the Week include:

Letter from Spain | A former resident returns to find that it is still stony ground for the Gospel. (March 31, 2003)

Lessons in Nation-Building From a Fledgling Democracy | Shays's Rebellion describes a time when revolution was no longer cool. (March 24, 2003)

Whose Reality TV? | Tune in this week to Frederick Wiseman's PBS documentary, Domestic Violence, to see some real survivors. (March 17, 2003)

Oh, Brother | Most everyone agrees that the James ossuary is a significant find. Ask what it means, however … (March 17, 2003)

Vanity Fair  | A chronicler of religion plays the straight man. (March 10, 2003)

Diagnosing "The Doctor" | A new assessment of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, preacher. (March 3, 2003)

Taken Prisoner | Stories from the far-flung frontiers of the British Empire, 1600-1850, challenge our preconceptions. (Feb. 24, 2003)

Another Third Way? | The mixed record of Catholic social thought. (Feb. 17, 2003)

Divine Numbers | Can you say "Christian" and "mathematics" in the same sentence? (Feb. 10, 2003)

Getting Beyond Victimology | A provocative collection of essays for "the black silent majority." (Feb. 3, 2003)

Strange Bedfellows | Christopher Hitchens and Christopher Caldwell collaborate on a collection of political writing. Has the millennium arrived unnoticed? (Jan. 27, 2003)

Encounters of the Gods | Christianity and Native American religion in early America. (Jan. 20, 2003)

Books Present, Books Past, and Books to Come | Plus: A new format for this column. (Jan. 13, 2003)

Double Indemnity Meets Dead Souls | A conversation with novelist Richard Dooling. (Jan. 6, 2003)

Books of the Year | The top ten. (OK—make that twelve.) (Dec. 30, 2002)

Entertain Us | Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and the rapture of distress. (Dec. 16, 2002)

Boys Will Be Boys | A new book by a leading Christian feminist scholar inadvertently reveals the flawed assumptions underlying much talk about "flexibility" in gender roles. (Dec. 9, 2002)

Street Cred | Dave Eggers: The portrait of an artist as a … what? (Dec.2, 2002)

Epicurus'—and Darwin's—Dangerous Idea | How we became hedonists. (Nov. 18, 2002)

Weird Science? | A Darwinian debate continues. (Nov. 11, 2002)

Of Moths and Men Revisited | A Darwinian debate. (Nov. 4, 2002)

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April (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47