Transubstantiate

A decade later, I became a Christian.

My upbringing and education were secular, with no serious consideration of religion. Although my family was nominally Anglican and my parents felt obliged to take us to Sunday school and have us christened, my mother told us she did not believe in God’s existence. Stories about arks and miracles seemed like fables for children.

As a teenager with a minimal understanding of Scripture, I decided that Christianity was a superstitious and limited worldview, and that a miracle-working god-man could only be nonsense. (It is easy to reject teachings when you know them only at a trivial, superficial level.)

As a young adult, I became interested in philosophies like existentialism, Stoicism, and nihilism, viewing them as possible avenues of finding meaning in life. I was driven to answer the fundamental question of whether our lives have meaning, as opposed to being merely random events that end in death. And for roughly 10 years, I searched for answers in the findings of modern science as well as in a wide range of humankind’s belief systems, both philosophical and religious. Both paths would ultimately converge, leading me to an unlikely faith in Christ.

My study of religious traditions brought me into contact with Daoism, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, forms of mysticism and meditation, and various Eastern gurus. Each system offered glimmers of insight, but none felt intellectually satisfying. I wondered whether I would ever find one unified truth about life and the cosmos.

At various points in my research, I encountered references to the “cosmic Christ.” And I decided that a truly objective study would involve familiarizing myself with Christian Scripture, just as I’d done with texts like the Quran. While …

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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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Forgiveness, photography, and funeral feasts: these nuanced and lesser-known stories are worth a read.

One of my favorite aspects of my role as CT’s senior editor of audience engagement is that I get to read every article we publish. One impact of that reading is that I know when a story doesn’t get the attention it deserves. Perhaps that’s because it’s explaining a complex theological concept, offering a nuanced cultural or historical argument, or reporting on a little-known reality in the global church—all of which can be hard to distill in a headline, a social media post, or a line in our daily newsletter.

As you read and reflect at the close of 2023, I offer this list of stories you may have missed this year in our print and digital pages.

Check out the rest of our 2023 year-end lists here.

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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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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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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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Here is the content readers were most engaged with this year.

Amid wars, political chaos, and church controversies, Christianity Today’s readers came to our site in 2023 for faithful reflections and trustworthy reporting.

In both its topic and reception, our most-read article of the year is a reminder of how God is still at work: Tom McCall’s report from the revival at Asbury University was translated into six additional languages and read by over 470,000 people. And beyond revival coverage, CT readers were particularly interested in church splits, Tim Keller’s legacy, and war in the Holy Land.

Our 10 most-read stories of the year are listed below in descending order. You can find these and other top CT stories of the year here, many of which are also offered in CT Global translations.

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Check out the rest of our 2023 year-end lists here.

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Through Nativity art, the Word takes on flesh across diverse Eastern cultures.

Jesus was born in Asia. He was Asian. Yet the preponderance of Christian art that shows him at home in Europe has meant that he is embedded deeply in the popular imagination as Western.

The artists in this photo essay bring him back to Asia—but not to ancient Israel. They make the birth a local event, translating the story into their own cultural contexts. And so we see Jesus wearing, for example, the bone necklace of an Igorot chief (the Indigenous people of northern Luzon, Philippines) or greeted by water buffalo at a roadside pavilion in Thailand.

Some may object to depicting Jesus as anything other than a brown male born into a Jewish family in Bethlehem of Judea in the first century, believing that doing so undermines his historicity. But Christian artists who tackle the subject of the Incarnation are often aiming not at historical realism but at theological meaning.

By representing Jesus as Japanese, Indonesian, or Indian, they convey a sense of God’s immanence, his “with-us–ness,” for their own communities—and for everyone else, the universality of Christ’s birth.

However, it should be noted that not all Asians prefer Asian-specific representations of Christ. In fact, Christians in Asia tend to prefer the traditional European-style art with which many were introduced to the faith; they consider it the most authentically Christian. Part of this preference has to do with how closely tied certain Asian art styles and forms are to other religions, which most Christian converts want to distance themselves from.

That means that the Asian Christian artist who feels called to depict biblical themes, and to do so in an indigenized way, often does not find widespread support in their own …

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The hope of union that helps us persevere today

The Christmas season isn’t always jolly and merry. In fact, it can be filled with heartache, sorrow, tears, and pain. I understand this intimately. Ever since June 30, 2021, my family’s holidays have been marked by tears and sadness. On that day, our 20-year-old daughter died in a tragic car accident while we traveled home from vacation together. Within seconds, our firstborn child was taken from us.

Death is our enemy. I hate death—I am tired of tears. And yet, if that June day is my greatest day of sorrow, then Revelation 21 is my greatest source of hope and comfort. It can be yours as well.

In these words, we find the assurance of the eternal victory that Jesus has secured for his people. The loving Shepherd will wipe away our tears and eradicate sin, death, and the devil forevermore. That is our future reward and the destiny of all those who are people of faith.

The scope of the gospel of Jesus Christ isn’t limited to the salvation of our souls. It includes the restoration and redemption of all that was lost at the fall of man in Genesis 3. This restoration will involve a new heaven, a new Jerusalem, and perfected bodies that are resurrected to inhabit a glorious new earth. We eagerly await a transformation of the entire universe.

The vision of what is to come, captured in Revelation 21, will be new in quality and superior in character to what we have now. Just as the text predicts this present earth’s passing away, it immediately speaks of the ushering in of a new and magnificent beginning. This new earth is the place where Christ’s kingdom will be revealed in its fullness, where God himself will reign as the sole King over it all, dwelling in peace and power with his people.

This is the …

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This piece was adapted from Russell Moore’s newsletter. Subscribe here.

Before I begin, let me tell you that I hate what I am about to do. That’s because few things exasperate me more than the people who Well, actually Christmas songs. True, there was no innkeeper in the gospel Nativity accounts. We don’t know how many wise men there were, but we know they weren’t there at the same time as the shepherds. But nobody wants to be under the mistletoe with the guy arguing about how much Mary knew.

You no doubt know that the idea of a “Silent Night” is Victorian sentimentalism more than biblical reality. “The little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes” assumes that a baby’s cry is a sin rather than part of the good human nature the Son of God assumed. We shouldn’t stop singing those songs, but at the same time, maybe we should ponder exactly why the screams from the manger really do matter for us.

The Gospels reveal that the Nativity scene was in the middle of a war zone. Joseph was trekking to the City of David with Mary to participate in the very thing—a census—for which God had repudiated David himself. And he was doing so at the command of a pagan Roman government occupying the throne of David, seeming to invalidate the promise God made to his people. The puppet bureaucrat warming that seat—King Herod—was so enraged by the Davidic prophecies that would threaten his position that he, like Pharaoh of old, ordered all the baby boys of the region to be killed.

This mass murder was, Matthew reveals, a fulfillment of the words of the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing …

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