The Weekend – 8-2-25

August 1, 2025
August 1, 2025
CT Weekly

weekend reads

Maybe you’ve had this experience on a recent vacation—warm sand, good fish tacos, pretty sunsets. Everything is great! And yet underneath these “bountiful sources of delight,” there’s a lingering existential despair.

The Book of Ecclesiastes can help us navigate this tension, argues a new book, offering a “mature and nuanced view of human happiness” that “stands in stark contrast to the shallowness that pervades so many visions of the good life in contemporary culture.”

Despair is a danger to our life in Christ. So is cynicism. “Sometimes we get a little glimpse of how hardened we’ve become, how little we expect the Spirit to move in us or in others,” writes our editor in chief. “Every once in a while, though, someone reminds us.”

Or something—like the perfume Mary poured over Jesus’ feet, filling the house with the fragrance of sweet earth, warm wood, and sharp spice. “The aroma of Christ is not something we manufacture. It rises when we forget to be impressive, when we stop trying to win at faith and simply return, again and again, to the Person whom the story is about.”

That’s the note Ecclesiastes ends on too. Says our review: “Happiness can never be earned or bought. It can only be received.”

We Want What the World Can’t Give

How a YouTube Atheist Helped Me Out of Cynicism

To Know Christ, Use Your Sense of Smell

weekend listen

It’s week two of The Bulletin’s miniseries on artificial intelligence, with conversations on how governments might use AI to persecute religious minorities and how we should (and shouldn’t) use AI tools at church. 

“These kinds of content-digestion uses [of AI in church] I think are either unnecessary or they are the church staff not doing things that really are properly their job.” | Listen here.

Artificially Intelligent, Part 2

editors’ picks

Isabel Ong, East Asia editor: This summer, I’ve been reaching for cozy fiction, books that offer a sense of comfort and emphasize connection and camaraderie among their characters. Two I read on vacation recently: Hwang Boreum’s Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop and Richard Osman’s We Solve Murders. 

Kate Shellnutt, editorial director, news: I love The Sporkful podcast—well-researched deep dives into food history and food culture. Some of my favorite episodes cover the origins of tacos al pastor (my go-to Mexican order) and a church on Martha’s Vineyard that serves the perfect lobster rolls.

Nathaniel Rabon, editorial project coordinator, print: Summerland by half•alive is my go-to summer song. They’re an indie-pop band—and I think all of them are Christians?

August Is Make-A-Will Month!

Need to create or update your will but not sure where to start? Christianity Today has a trusted partnership with PhilanthroCorp, a Christian charitable will and estate planning firm, to provide you with free, no obligation, and confidential help based on your needs, values, and financial situation. 

How does it work? 

    1. A representative contacts you to arrange a phone appointment.

    2. On your first call, you answer basic questions for the estate planning specialist to learn how to best serve you. Additional calls are scheduled as needed. 

    3. You are given a plan for your attorney to draft final legal documents or PhilanthroCorp can refer you to an attorney in their network at reduced rates. 

prayers of the people

more from CT

Pastors Aren’t Politicians

I only talk politics when it helps me attend to deeper concerns among those I serve.

How QAnon Lives On Under Trump 2.0

And why Christians who subscribe to the “deep state” conspiracy aren’t more upset about the Epstein files.

Jesus People and the Vibe Shift

Half a century ago, established churches looked askance at young men newly interested in Jesus. Let us welcome and exhort them today.

When Praise Is Power, Secular Songs Are the Enemy

Christian artists and influencers draw from a theology of worship as battle to warn about music’s dark side. 

IN THE MAGAZINE

As developments in artificial intelligence change daily, we’re increasingly asking what makes humanity different from the machines we use. In this issue, Emily Belz introduces us to tech workers on the frontlines of AI development, Harvest Prude explains how algorithms affect Christian courtship, and Miroslav Volf writes on the transhumanist question. Several writers call our attention to the gifts of being human: Haejin and Makoto Fujimura point us to beauty and justice, Kelly Kapic reminds us God’s highest purpose isn’t efficiency, and Jen Pollock Michel writes on the effects of Alzheimer’s . We bring together futurists, theologians, artists, practitioners, and professors to consider how technology shapes us even as we use it.

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