
January/February 2026
Volume 70, Number 1
new issue now available
When Jesus taught, he used parables. The kingdom of God is like yeast, a net, a pearl. Then and today, to grasp wisdom and spiritual insight, we need the concrete. We need stories. In this issue of Christianity Today, we focus on testimony—the stories we tell, hear, and proclaim about God’s redemptive work in the world. Testimony is a personal application of the Good News.
You’ll read Marvin Olasky’s testimony from Communism to Christ, Jen Wilkin’s call to biblical literacy, and a profile on the friendship between theologian Miroslav Volf and poet Christian Wiman. In an essay on pickleball, David Zahl reminds us that play is also a testament to God’s grace. As you read, we hope you’ll apply the truths of the gospel in your own life, church, and neighborhood. May your life be a testimony to the reality of God’s kingdom.
Featured Stories
If I asked, could you summarize the entire story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation in five minutes or less? Could you tell me what God made on eachu0026hellip;
u0026ldquo;My office or a big room?u0026rdquo; Miroslav Volf asked. His Blundstone boots carried his tall frame to a sputtering coffee machine. Before Volf got the last words out, his friendu0026hellip;
On our way to church every weekend, my family and I pass two sets of tennis courts, one municipal and one belonging to the local university. Weu0026rsquo;ve been taking thisu0026hellip;
Jennifer Bute, the executive partner at a large general practice in Southampton, UK, was driving to her office in 2004 when she got lost. Suddenly, the 59-year-old doctor couldnu0026rsquo;t rememberu0026hellip;

Build Bridges Across the Lines That Divide Us
“CT is building bridges across dividing lines by writing more articles that are of interest to the minority community, hiring writers who can speak to the minority community, and sponsoring events to engage the non-white community.” – Pastor John Jenkins
The church was meant to be one body—united in Christ, rich in diversity, and marked by love. Christianity Today’s Big Tent Initiative is helping believers listen with grace, engage across differences, and rediscover what unites us.
Through redemptive storytelling, diverse voices, and courageous conversations, this work is fostering unity across the lines that so often divide the church. Your gift to the One Kingdom Campaign fuels this vital work.
Your gift today will help the church model humility, truth, and love in a divided world. Give Now.
columns & essays
Who am I? And how might I know?u0026nbsp; These questions are as old as humanity, asked in the ancient world just as today. Already in the fourth century BC, theu0026hellip;
Several episodes in season 5 of The Chosen begin with Jesus and the apostles gathered for the Last Supper, a Passover meal. In a ritual familiar from my Jewish childhood,u0026hellip;
By the time Day Sibley decided to embrace Ifa, a divination practice from the Yoruba people of Nigeria, she had long been on a search for identity that she couldu0026hellip;
Ryan Burge u0026ldquo;stumbledu0026rdquo; into ministry, as he put it. He left the pastorate with his church in decline, but he has not yet given up on reviving religion in America.u0026nbsp;u0026hellip;
On our way to church every weekend, my family and I pass two sets of tennis courts, one municipal and one belonging to the local university. Weu0026rsquo;ve been taking thisu0026hellip;
Certain Bible verses demand to be quoted in the King James Version, and Hebrews 10:25 is one of them. Following calls to u0026ldquo;hold fast the profession of our faith withoutu0026hellip;
New Atheists like Richard Dawkins spent the better part of two decades preaching that science, not religion, was our key to unlocking the mysteries of the universe. Disenchantment was supposedu0026hellip;
I remember the first time I heard Craig Keener speak. The world-renowned scholar had recently published Miracles, a two-volume work providing a philosophical, biblical, and experiential case for the supernaturalu0026hellip;
Among the 56 men who gathered in Philadelphia in the summer of 1776 to sign the Declaration of Independence, 8 were immigrants to the American colonies. Two were born inu0026hellip;
Science fiction from my high school English class should have prepared me for a postliterate culture. We were assigned to read Ray Bradburyu0026rsquo;s Fahrenheit 451 and Walter M. Miller Jr.u0026rsquo;su0026hellip;
One of the great pleasures of our work at Christianity Today is getting to spend so much time with booksu0026mdash;with the scholarly discoveries, impassioned arguments, and pastoral encouragements shaping evangelicalu0026hellip;
A disciple was someone who followed a rabbi around not only to learn doctrine but also to see its application in life. Jesus was one such rabbi, as we seeu0026hellip;
Every quarter, my churchu0026rsquo;s book club meets to discuss a novel. Weu0026rsquo;ve read (among others) Mary Shelleyu0026rsquo;s Frankenstein, Homeru0026rsquo;s Odyssey, Flannery Ou0026rsquo;Connoru0026rsquo;s Wise Blood, Percival Everettu0026rsquo;s James, and Leif Engeru0026rsquo;su0026hellip;
Got a question? Email advice@christianitytoday.com to ask CTu0026rsquo;s advice columnists. Queries may be edited for brevity and clarity. Q: What do you do about pastors whose preaching isnu0026rsquo;t good? Iu0026hellip;
When frontier evangelist u0026ldquo;Raccoonu0026rdquo; John Smith shared his testimony for the first time, he was nervous.u0026nbsp; In the early 1800s, he recounted his experience in typical fashion: He had beenu0026hellip;
u0026nbsp;New data from the federal government shows that spending on new construction of churches and other houses of worship increased by 17 percent from June 2024 to June 2025, evenu0026hellip;
A group of disparate disciples, now made kindred, stood atop the Mount of Olives processing revelations from Jesus (Acts 1:12). They had very little uniformity before, and now they hadu0026hellip;
Two years ago, CT declared New Atheism dead, referring to an angry and vitriolic form of unbelief that arose in the early 2000s. Writer and editor Christopher Beha tackles todayu0026rsquo;su0026hellip;
I grew up in an interfaith home in Seattle, a city cradled between mountains and water, where belief often felt like a patchwork quilt. Our house had a little Christmas,u0026hellip;
Sometimes being an editor is like being a sculptor. Thatu0026rsquo;s how it felt to work on Isaac Woodu0026rsquo;s essay u0026ldquo;Faith After the Floodu0026rdquo; (p. 42) in our September/October 2025 issue.u0026hellip;
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