# public theology (news sources) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 1 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover public theology. Page: Feed: --- ## [The Dolly Parton Songs That Revealed Her Faith, Doubt, and Hope](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/08/dolly-parton-christian-songs-faith/) _2026-08-27 · Andy Olsen · Christianity Today_ “One day as I prayed in earnest, I broke through some sort of spirit wall and found God,” Dolly Parton wrote in her 1994 autobiography. “Not as a chastising, bombastic bully but as a friend I could talk to on a one-to-one basis. He is our father, after all.” The multi-award-winning country singer, songwriter, actress, Read more... The post The Dolly Parton Songs That Revealed Her Faith, Doubt, and… ## [Feeling Good Is Not the Point of Worship](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/08/feeling-good-is-not-the-point-of-worship-formation-emotions/) _2026-08-27 · Bonnie Kristian · Christianity Today_ I’m starting to feel worse about feeling better after worship. Okay, mostly that’s a joke—and yet the more I eavesdrop on livestreamed worship services, the more sermon clips I watch on social media, the more contemporary Christian music I hear on Spotify, the more it seems to me that what many congregational leaders are aiming Read more... The post Feeling Good Is Not the Point of Worship… ## [Worship Leaders Feel the Strain of Performance Pressures](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/08/worship-leader-mental-health-burnout-study/) _2026-08-27 · Andy Olsen · Christianity Today_ Seth Short has led worship for years. For the past seven months, the South Dakota native has been an associate pastor at The Point Church, a Wesleyan congregation in New Brunswick, Canada. His duties include directing the music ministry and leading worship, overseeing tech and production, managing youth ministry, and occasional preaching. Music ministry is Read more... The post Worship Leaders… ## [Dolly Parton Didn’t Need You to Love Her (and That’s Why Most of Us Did)](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/08/dolly-parton-always-love-you-music-self-respect/) _2026-08-26 · Elise Brandon · Christianity Today_ This piece was adapted from Russell Moore’s newsletter. Subscribe here. Sometimes, when telling someone how to get to my house, I will say, “I’m just down the road from Dolly Parton.” For almost everybody in Nashville, that is almost a better locator than a pin on a GPS map. And it has never occurred to me, ever, Read more... The post Dolly Parton Didn’t Need You to Love Her (and That’s Why Most… ## [Why America Doesn’t Have Insane Asylums Anymore](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/08/why-america-doesnt-have-insane-asylums-anymore-homelessness/) _2026-08-26 · Bonnie Kristian · Christianity Today_ In 1887, Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World published one of my favorite series in the history of journalism. It sported these headlines: “Inside the Madhouse.” “Feigning Insanity in Order to Reveal Asylum Horrors. The Trying Ordeal of the New York World’s Girl Correspondent.” The author, Nelly Bly, 23 and brave, wrote about her time in the city asylum on Blackwell’s Island Read more... The post Why… ## [The False Dichotomy Between Protest and Prayer](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/08/charlie-dates-the-false-dichotomy-between-protest-and-prayer/) _2026-08-26 · Haleluya Hadero · Christianity Today_ The writer of Proverbs tells us “faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful” (27:6, KJV). What a friend evangelicals have in Charlie Dates. Dates, the senior pastor of Salem and Progressive Baptist Churches in Chicago, is among the most gifted preachers in the country. He pulls no Read more... The post The False Dichotomy Between Protest and Prayer appeared first… ## [Listening to Readers, Episode 4](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/08/listening-to-readers-episode-4/) _2026-08-26 · Grant Dutro · Christianity Today_ Earlier this summer, CT started running an occasional feature on reader responses. Here’s a new installment. Body Surveillance Shames What God Calls Good I am reminded of 1 Samuel 16:7, where Samuel is told that people judge by outward appearance but God looks at the heart. Nothing seems to have changed in today’s world. Instead Read more... The post Listening to Readers, Episode 4 appeared first… ## [The Christians Who Want to Give Former Prisoners the Vote](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/08/voting-rights-restoration-former-incarcerated-felony-virginia-question-three/) _2026-08-26 · Harvest Prude · Christianity Today_ When Sammy Perez was released from federal prison, his worldly goods amounted to “a $25 check and a bus ticket, and pretty much a ‘good luck.’” He was a changed man from the 19-year-old whose grand larceny conviction had landed him a sentence of 11.5 years. His cellmate, Clarence, consistently shared the gospel with him, Read more... The post The Christians Who Want to Give Former Prisoners the… ## [What Your Generosity Made Possible](https://www.christianitytoday.com/about/stories/what-your-generosity-made-possible/) _2026-08-25 · Anne Kerhoulas · Christianity Today_ When Christianity Today launched The One Kingdom Campaign, the Church was navigating deep division, cultural upheaval, political polarization, and spiritual uncertainty. We believed there was an opportunity to help the Church rediscover the beauty of Christ and his kingdom. Because of you, that vision became reality. Over the course of the campaign, 4,029 partners invested Read more... The post… ## [Our God Hosts Parties and Tells Jokes](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/08/our-god-hosts-parties-tells-jokes-happiness/) _2026-08-25 · tberglund@christianitytoday.com · Christianity Today_ In an art museum in the beautiful Tuscan city of Siena hangs a 500-year-old oil painting that captures nearly everything that is wrong with our view of God. It was painted in 1513 by the Renaissance artist Domenico Beccafumi as an altarpiece for a hospital chapel and entitled the Trinity Triptych. In the center is Read more... The post Our God Hosts Parties and Tells Jokes appeared first on… ## [Crypto Payments, No Custody (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/gQQqIKTjevzP) _2026-08-25 · **Sponsored**_ Send crypto to merchant wallets via API with real-time updates and automatic fees. ## [The Malnourished Ministry of Relational AI](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/08/the-malnourished-ministry-of-relational-ai-chatbot-pastor/) _2026-08-25 · Bonnie Kristian · Christianity Today_ E. M. Forster’s 1909 short story “The Machine Stops” depicts a dystopian world of individuals kept apart from one another in pods. The culture Forster imagined discourages leaving one’s pod for embodied, human interaction, and—relieved of the need to work and having learned to frown upon original ideas—people entertain themselves by offering “lectures” on subjects using information Read more...… ## [Died: Bryant Myers, Who Walked with the Poor](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/08/bryant-myers-tribute-obit-world-vision-fuller-seminary/) _2026-08-25 · Emily Belz · Christianity Today_ Bryant Myers passed away on August 15 after many years of helping Christian relief and development organizations, seminaries, churches, and practitioners see poverty and the people experiencing it in new ways. He worked in both the practical setting of World Vision and the academic world at Fuller Theological Seminary. What stands out to me is Read more... The post Died: Bryant Myers, Who Walked… ## [The ‘Terrorist Charity’ of Late Antiquity](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/08/the-terrorist-charity-of-late-antiquity-early-church-young-men/) _2026-08-24 · Bonnie Kristian · Christianity Today_ When we think about early Christianity, we often imagine a group of radical believers huddled in a shadowy catacomb, communicating surreptitiously to avoid Roman persecution. In the popular imagination, somehow these tiny churches survived and spread little by little until Constantine made Christianity the state religion (for better or worse). The truth is far more Read more... The post The… ## [Why Didn’t You Cover XYZ?](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/08/why-didnt-you-cover-xyz-journalism-christianity-today/) _2026-08-21 · Bonnie Kristian · Christianity Today_ Why didn’t you cover XYZ? This is a common question for journalists, including at CT. A buzzy news story goes around, perhaps with some connection to Christianity, and our readers wonder—fairly!—why we don’t have the story when other outlets do. In my experience, readers often guess that such a coverage gap is a deliberate, maybe Read more... The post Why Didn’t You Cover XYZ? appeared first on… ## [A Community Mourns Nolan Wells and Declares ‘God Always Reveals the Truth’](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/08/nolan-wells-mississippi-jamal-bryant-ame-declares-god-always-reveals-the-truth/) _2026-08-21 · Haleluya Hadero · Christianity Today_ Crowds walked through metal detectors and into the navy pews of Greater St. John African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church on Wednesday evening to celebrate what would have been Nolan Wells’s 19th birthday in a service that included worship, prayer, and calls for truth about how the Black teen died. The event drew local residents, Wells’s Read more... The post A Community Mourns Nolan Wells and… ## [Justin Giboney: ‘Our Allegiance to Jesus Is Bigger Than This’](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/08/justin-giboney-our-allegiance-to-jesus-is-bigger-than-this-video/) _2026-08-21 · Bonnie Kristian · Christianity Today_ From our member-exclusive livestream on August 6, hosted by CT deputy editor Bonnie Kristian and featuring Justin Giboney. They discuss Justin’s recent article, “Working Out the Grand Experiment,” and explore how the American church can move beyond culture-war gridlock to model genuine unity across political and cultural differences as America marks its 250th anniversary. The post Justin Giboney:… ## [Recovering Catechesis for the Next Generation](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/08/recovering-catechesis-for-the-next-generation/) _2026-08-21 · tberglund@christianitytoday.com · Christianity Today_ This piece was adapted from CT’s books newsletter. Subscribe here. Charlotte and Andrew Ollerton, God’s Story, Our Story: A Family Journey Through the Bible (The Good Book Company, 2026) God’s Story, Our Story is a fun and energetic journey through the Bible, designed for parents and children to enjoy together. Starting in Genesis and ending in Read more... The post Recovering Catechesis for the… ## [A Christian Is Suing His Employer over Fossil Fuels in His 401(k). Does He Have a Case?](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/08/christian-fossil-fuel-401k-lawsuit-thermo-fisher/) _2026-08-21 · jpanyard@christianitytoday.com · Christianity Today_ Andrew Hartley bikes to work, eats a plant-based diet, and involves himself in multiple organizations that help him do what he thinks the Bible tells him to do: care for the Earth. His employer, Hartley argues in a new lawsuit filed last week, does not share his mission. Now he is suing the company in Read more... The post A Christian Is Suing His Employer over Fossil Fuels in His 401(k). Does He… ## [Federal Appeals Court Upholds Ban on ICE Arrests at Some Houses of Worship](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/08/federal-court-ruling-immigration-enforcement-churches/) _2026-08-20 · Harvest Prude · Christianity Today_ A day after President Donald Trump took office, the Department of Homeland Security released a memo reversing a policy that had discouraged immigration officials from making arrests “in or near so-called ‘sensitive’ areas”—places that include churches, schools, and hospitals. Concerned about their immigrant members and the threat posed to religious liberty, some religious groups quickly Read… ## [The Biggest Group Getting Baptized in the SBC? Older Adults.](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/08/southern-baptist-convention-baptisms-adult-increase-research/) _2026-08-20 · Emily Belz · Christianity Today_ As baptisms in Southern Baptist congregations increase, a growing percentage of those entering the baptismal pools are adults. In the 2025 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Church Profile (ACP), baptisms grew for the fifth straight year to reach 263,075, the highest total since 2016. This was the first time in 75 years that the SBC saw five consecutive Read more... The post The Biggest Group… ## [Never miss a game (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/qHkOpK2d0mGy) _2026-08-20 · **Sponsored**_ Follow any team; get an hour and one-minute web and email reminders. ## [Kenyan Christians Debate US-Sponsored Ebola Facility](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/08/kenyan-christians-debate-us-sponsored-ebola-facility/) _2026-08-20 · Julie Smyth · Christianity Today_ On June 9, 45-year-old Emanuel Kemboi, a long-distance truck driver in Nairobi, Kenya, woke up to see social media exploding about protests in in Nanyuki town. Local media outlets had reported that Kenya and the United States had partnered in building a 50-bed quarantine facility for Ebola patients in Laikipia County—about 185 miles north of Read more... The post Kenyan Christians Debate… ## [How to Forgive Someone Who Isn’t Sorry](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/08/how-to-forgive-grace-justice-joseph/) _2026-08-19 · Elise Brandon · Christianity Today_ This piece was adapted from Russell Moore’s newsletter. Subscribe here. Someone once came up to me, almost shaking in fear over one of Jesus’ Beatitudes. The one that troubled her was “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy” (Matt. 5:7, ESV throughout). Her problem was that she had once experienced what she considered betrayal from Read more... The post How to Forgive Someone Who… ## [Newly Found Augustine Sermons Explore Saul’s Necromancy](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/08/newly-found-augustine-sermons-king-saul-necromancy-witch-endor/) _2026-08-19 · Cody Benjamin · Christianity Today_ King Saul famously courts a medium in 1 Samuel 28, summoning the ghostly figure of the departed Samuel in a moment of distress and disconnection with God. This summer, German researchers summoned new insight on this mysterious passage after uncovering medieval sermon notes from Augustine of Hippo, one of the defining voices of the early Read more... The post Newly Found Augustine Sermons Explore… ## [Homelessness Is More Than ‘Mascots’](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/08/homelessness-is-more-than-mascots-addiction-responsibility/) _2026-08-19 · Bonnie Kristian · Christianity Today_ “We need a witness for a hearing. Can you get us a homeless family: mother, father—father out of work in the past four months from an industrial plant?” That’s the question many politicians and journalists addressed to “homeless advocates” in the 1990s, as described by economist Thomas Sowell in his powerful book The Vision of the Anointed. I Read more... The post Homelessness Is More Than… ## [Texas Should Not Define Religion Down](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/08/texas-should-not-define-religion-down-freedom-worship-dallas-islam/) _2026-08-19 · Bonnie Kristian · Christianity Today_ Religious liberty is for everyone. It is for Christians and Muslims, Jews and Mormons, Wiccans and neopagans and observers of whatever other strange rites people are inventing these days. It is for false religion as well as true, so long as its practitioners do not harm their neighbors. This is a fundamental principle of American society and governance: Read more... The post Texas Should Not… ## [US Missionary Freed After 9 Months Captivity in Niger](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/08/missionary-kevin-rideout-released-niger-kidnapping/) _2026-08-18 · Angela Fulton · Christianity Today_ Kidnappers released Kevin Rideout, an American missionary pilot held hostage for nine months in Niger, last Friday, according to his missions agency, Serving in Missions (SIM). Throughout Rideout’s captivity, one missionary familiar with ministry in Niger (we’re leaving out his name to protect his work and will call him M) gathered on Zoom every Wednesday Read more... The post US Missionary Freed… ## [Should My Attachment Style Affect My Relationship with God?](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/08/does-attachment-style-affect-relationship-with-god-faith/) _2026-08-18 · tberglund@christianitytoday.com · Christianity Today_ All of us are experiencing our lives through what we already know. That may seem like a simple statement, but once you start thinking about the complexity of your mind, it is hard not to feel overwhelmed by it. If you have raised children or been in a close relationship with a child from a Read more... The post Should My Attachment Style Affect My Relationship with God? appeared first on… ## [Jesus Doesn’t Govern with a Lightning Bolt](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/08/jesus-doesnt-govern-lightning-bolt-ryan-lokkesmoe-accidental-pagans-excerpt/) _2026-08-18 · Bonnie Kristian · Christianity Today_ What is God like? Is he a harmless grandfatherly figure, comfortably reclining on a cloud? A bohemian shouting about love (or wrath) through a megaphone on a street corner? An enigmatic entity who wound up the universe like a clock and now watches, disengaged, from afar? A scowling judge with a gavel? A thunderous tyrant Read more... The post Jesus Doesn’t Govern with a Lightning Bolt appeared…