If you are not familiar with the Christian Century, please read a couple issues before submitting a query. To order a back issue of the print edition, call 800-208-4097.
Articles
We seek to illuminate the public meaning of faith, bringing the resources of religious tradition to bear on an array of topics related to politics and society, arts and culture, theology, scripture, church bodies, and the life of faith. We publish articles grounded in original journalistic reporting, research, opinion, critical commentary, firsthand experience, or a combination of these. We welcome ideas that find fresh meaning in old traditions and adapt or apply them to new circumstances.
Writers should assume that readers are familiar with major themes in Christian history and theology, are accustomed to the historical-critical study of the Bible, and are already engaged in relating faith to social and political issues. Many of our readers are ministers or teachers of religion at the college or seminary level.
If you would like to write an article for the Century, please send a query to submissions@christiancentury.org. Please allow up to a month for a response from our editors. Simultaneous submissions are discouraged and should be disclosed.
We do not accept unsolicited submissions for our regular columns (First Words, In the Lectionary, Voices, Screen Time).
Book reviews
Book reviews are solicited by our books editor; unsolicited submissions will not be considered. If you are interested in becoming a reviewer for the Christian Century, please send your résumé and a list of subjects of interest to
Attn: Book reviews
The Christian Century
104 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 1100
Chicago, IL 60603-5901
Poetry
We suggest reading the poems in the past several issues to gain a clearer idea of the kinds of poetry we are seeking. We do not seek poems that express a particular orthodoxy, but we do want poems that connect with something larger than the self, that revitalize language (especially theological language), and that upset the usual modes of expression and offer up new angles of vision. We prefer poems that are grounded in images, that attempt to enflesh the abstract, and that pay attention to the sounds of language and the forms of poetry even when the poems are written in free verse.
Please submit up to three poems as Word attachments to poetry@christiancentury.org.