by | Dec 20, 2023 | Uncategorized
Our most-read stories from around the world, from Brazil to Cambodia to Germany.
Read 20 of Christianity Today’s most popular international stories of 2023. For regions where the church suffered significant disaster or violence, we’ve added additional context from our wider coverage:
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As the war in Ukraine hit the one-year mark, only a tiny minority of Russian Christian leaders had voiced complaint publicly. The response from authorities has been uneven: Minor church figures were fined or jailed, while others continue to use their names on social media.
Others decided to flee after denouncing the conflict. In August, authorities filed charges against Yuri Sipko for publicly disseminating “knowingly false information” against the Russian military. They raided his home and temporarily detained his son. The 71-year-old former president of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists escaped to Germany the week after.
Above, read the story of Mikhail Manzurin, a mid-20-something pastor who broke from his longtime spiritual mentor over the war.
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More than five dozen members of Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church made a permanent move to America earlier this year after failing to find long-term asylum in South Korea and Thailand, having collectively escaped from China in 2019. These “Mayflower” Christians arrived as thousands of migrants from the mainland are trying to enter the United States through various countries in Latin America, deeply disillusioned and dissatisfied with the political and economic realities of today’s China.
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by | Dec 20, 2023 | Uncategorized
The year brought news of revival and tragedy, with ongoing coverage of denominational divides and allegations of abuse in ministry.
This past year may be defined for some evangelicals by the bits of duct tape put over the word United on so many United Methodist Church signs. Or the 152 bullets fired at a Christian school in Nashville, killing six people. Or by the hymns that Tim Keller chose to have sung at his funeral.
There were moments of grace amid a lot of darkness. There was also a lot of darkness. There were tragedies, prayers, votes, big decisions, and little decisions made with great determination, contributing to the ongoing, unfolding shifts in evangelicalism.
As 2023 draws to a close, here are 10 stories that stood out to us as pivotal.
10. New York City Christian College Closures
A number of evangelical colleges saw record enrollment in fall 2023, but Christian higher education still suffered from long-term trends. This year New York City watched the closing of its only two evangelical colleges, The King’s College and Alliance University (formerly Nyack College). Nyack in particular was a historic loss; the Christian and Missionary Alliance school was 140 years old.
9. Mass Shooting at Nashville Christian School
The Covenant School in Nashville was targeted in the most high-profile attack on a Christian school in US history, with a shooter killing three students and three staff during an attack in March. The tragedy led some Covenant families to call for stricter “red flag” laws to prevent gun violence.
8. Church of England’s Same-Sex Blessings
In a long-awaited and long-debated compromise, Anglicans approved on a trial basis special services to bless same-sex couples. Evangelicals feared the decision could split the Church of England, and conservatives from the Global …
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by | Dec 20, 2023 | Uncategorized
This year’s favorite print articles chosen by the editorial team.
In 2023, we published nearly 100 articles in our nine print issues, including 51 feature-length essays. It’s hard to choose, since they’re all of our favorites, but we attempted to narrow down 10 pieces that we felt everyone should read. Here are our print editors’ feature picks for 2023:
Check out the rest of our 2023 year-end lists here.
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by | Dec 20, 2023 | Uncategorized
The major biblical archaeology stories of 2023 contain a lot of doom, destruction, and disappointment. They also contain mysteries that may be resolved by future excavations—and perhaps, in one case, the resolution of an ongoing controversy that has dogged New Testament scholars for the past decade.
The truly important discoveries of 2023, of course, may not be known for years, as it takes time for archaeologists to carefully study the results of their research and then publish their findings in scientific journals. But these are some of the stories that generated headlines for biblical archaeology in 2023.
10. Lost graves in Gaza
Near the end of September, archaeologists in Gaza announced the discovery of graves in a Roman-era cemetery. Crews working under French archaeologist René Elter uncovered important information about the lives of inhabitants along this coastal trade route 2,000 years ago. They found two extremely rare lead coffins—one decorated with ornate grape leaves, the other with images of dolphins—suggesting social elites had been buried there.
“An inconspicuous construction lot—surrounded by a grove of nondescript apartment buildings—has become a gold mine for archaeologists,” the Associated Press reported.
Two weeks later, Hamas militants from Gaza attacked Israel, precipitating a costly war that has probably leveled those nondescript apartment buildings, displacing and perhaps killing their inhabitants. The fate of those working on the site and the site itself is currently unknown. Elter responded to a query about his safety but did not elaborate on the excavation.
The war, of course, disrupted the work of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) across Israel. Some …
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by | Dec 19, 2023 | Uncategorized
Must-reads for those eager to learn the origins, development, and tensions within a faith common to many Punjabis.
Manvir Vohra teaches world religions at seminaries in northern India and trains pastors and leaders in Punjab and other areas of North India. He also led the team that authored the first New Testament dictionary in the Punjabi language.
In A History of the Sikhs, Vol. 1, the firebrand writer, lawyer, diplomat, journalist, and politician Khushwant Singh presents a well-researched work about the origins and early history of the faith. Written in easy-to-understand language, this book is of immense value for its non-hagiographic and pragmatic approach.
The book’s early chapters address the religious, cultural, and political environment of India and include a discussion of the ten gurus who founded and developed the faith. Then Singh recounts the main developments of the religion, dedicating chapters to important characters in Sikh history like the warrior Banda Bahadur. The book investigates the early organization of the Sikhs into loosely organized armed units, their skirmishes with political powers and invaders of Punjab and North India, and the formation of the first Sikh empire under the leadership of Ranjit Singh.
This particular volume serves as a great introduction for readers who want to learn about the Sikh religion and its development. It recounts the initial period of the origins of the faith, its transformation from a purely devotional religion to one that also bears arms, and its ascendancy into a kingdom under an able leader.
Singh’s second volume opens with the death of Ranjit Singh and the beginning of the Anglo-Sikh wars. It goes on to discuss the struggles faced by …
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