The Weekend - 10-12-24 - Christianity Today

October 10, 2024

This edition is sponsored by DK Matthews

weekend reads

A new book about the internet “wrongly presumes that technologies are neutral tools,” writes Bonnie Kristian this week at Christianity Today. “We do have agency. We do wield the hammer. But day in and day out, it works on us while we work with it. Our hands grow calloused. Our backs habitually bend, then strain to straighten. Our minds, as the old saying goes, begin to see everything as a nail.” | Read the rest.

CT’s editor in chief Russell Moore also wrote about the internet this week. “On the other side of our digital lives are intelligences seeking to question us—nameless, faceless algorithms designed to test us with just one question, ‘What do you want?’” The Bible’s stories, by contrast, aren’t “direct, controllable, and consumable” bits of information, but unsettling and mysterious invitations requiring “a certain kind of participation, a certain lack of control.”

“When one finds authority amid the algorithms, revelation among the consumption, that can feel creepy,” Moore observes, “just as after a time of starvation, the smell of baking bread can seem nauseating.” | Read the rest.

P.S. Are you a writer based in South Asia or East Asia with a heart to elevate the stories of the global church? If so, apply today to become a freelancer for CT! If selected, we’ll provide basic journalism training and payment for published articles. Applications due Nov. 14.

The Internet’s Sins Are Our Sins. But It Shouldn’t Escape All Blame.

The Bible Doesn’t Fit an Information Age

weekend listen

On this week’s special episode of The Bulletin, Mike Cosper speaks with American Jewish journalist Yossi Klein Halevi. Together, they mark the one year anniversary of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel.

“Since October 7, we’ve really lost a sense of time. I almost never know what date it is.” | Listen here. | Also this week: How Hamas’s October 7 terror attack and Israel’s response have exhausted a group of evangelical Bible professors pursuing unity on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

October 7, 2023, Remembrance with Yossi Halevi

Gaza War Strains Bible Scholars’ Model of Christian Conversation

Paid content

About four-in-ten U.S. adults believe humanity is “living in the end times.” But what if our cosmic story is bigger than we imagined?

D.K. Matthews’ A Tale of Three Cities challenges both doomsday preppers and kingdom-now triumphalists. Matthews argues that the cosmos faces not annihilation or mere restoration, but resurrection–a perspective that revolutionizes our approach to culture and politics, even amid rising antichristism.

Drawing on centuries of Christian thought, Matthews charts a “Third City” approach to cultural engagement. This isn’t about predicting the rapture or building utopia, but about living in light of cosmic resurrection. Praised as “timely and masterfully executed” by leading theologians, this book offers a fresh lens for navigating our polarized world. Check out Matthews’ groundbreaking work today.

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editors’ picks

Kate Shellnutt, editorial director, news: John Robeson is a Christian and a photographer in South Carolina who works with my husband. His photos humanize and honor the people who have sacrificed to help us get our power back in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

Stefani McDade, theology editor: I’ve recently rediscovered the work of Alexander Maclaren, a Scottish theologian from the 1800s.

Kara Bettis Carvalho, ideas editor: I love these cards and often give them to my friends’ kids for Christmas or birthdays.

prayers of the people

For the clean water crisis in Appalachia; for the victims of hurricanes grieving the loss of home and searching for small ways to help.
For the churches today facing the same temptations and challenges—from syncretistic compromise to conflict with fellow believers—as the ancient cities Jesus rebukes in Revelation.
For the increased accessibility of Scripture around the world.

5 Lessons Christians Can Learn from the Barmen Declaration

How a wartime confession resisted Hitler’s Nazification of the German church, and why its principles are still relevant today.

Back at Shooting Site, Trump Supporters Pray for His Protection

Still shaken by the tragic attack, Butler, Pennsylvania, welcomed the former president back with cheers of triumph and a memorial for the previous rally’s victim.

You Don’t Need a Rule of Life

What you need is a church.

You Are the Light of the Public Square

American Christians can illuminate our country’s politics—if we engage with moral imagination, neighborliness, boldness, and humility.

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IN THE MAGAZINE

Our September/October issue explores themes in spiritual formation and uncovers what’s really discipling us. Bonnie Kristian argues that the biblical vision for the institutions that form us is renewal, not replacement—even when they fail us. Mike Cosper examines what fuels political fervor around Donald Trump and assesses the ways people have understood and misunderstood the movement. Harvest Prude reports on how partisan distrust has turned the electoral process into a minefield and how those on the frontlines—election officials and volunteers—are motivated by their faith as they work. Read about Christian renewal in intellectual spaces and the “yearners”—those who find themselves in the borderlands between faith and disbelief. And find out how God is moving among his kingdom in Europe, as well as what our advice columnists say about budget-conscious fellowship meals, a kid in Sunday school who hits, and a dating app dilemma.

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