“To go on pilgrimage is not simply to visit a place to admire its treasures of nature, art or history. To go on pilgrimage really means to step out of ourselves in order to encounter God where he has revealed himself, where his grace has shone with particular splendour and produced rich fruits of conversion and holiness among those who believe.” – From the Address of the Holy Father Benedict XVI on November 6, 2010 during his Apostolic Journey to... Read more
My recent blogs have focused on the year 1893, which I believe marked multiple critical landmarks in American history – social, cultural, and above all religious. Some of those events are famous and well studied, such as the World Parliament of Religions held that year in Chicago, but other developments are not well known, even to specialists. Today I will talk about a very important study of Native American spirituality that appeared in that year, one that almost surreptitiously offered... Read more
It is summer time and it is usually the season I try to get as much reading done as humanly possible. One personal goal is to make time for a couple of novels. Last summer I read Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and a little later The Goldfinch. A nice follow up in analyzing Tartt’s Catholic themes is the chapter by Jennifer Frey in Women of the Catholic Imagination:Twelve Inspired Novelists You Should Know (edited by Haley Stewart). This summer... Read more
Recently I was discussing Critical Race Theory with a professor colleague of mine who in every sense of the word is more conservative than me. When interrogating the intellectual pedigree of CRT, one must address critical theory and eventually the biggest boogeymen of all – Marxism, and Karl Marx himself, words that are viewed by white evangelicals and political conservatives as the very epitome of evil itself. My friend pointed out that CRT’s Marxist roots are a “huge obstacle” for... Read more
The Grandparent Effect I didn’t grow up with a grandparent nearby. And while my parents have ten grandchildren, they only live within a two-hour drive of one of them; most of the rest are at least a two-day drive away. Our family (while bigger than many) is not unusual. One of the challenges of modernity is how separated from our families we often are. The ease of movement and economic mobility, while very useful to careers and personal choice regarding... Read more
This post offer a translation between British and American English, and suggests why you really should know about “Whitsun.” Although the name does survive in parts of the USA, it is no longer anything like as common as it once was in this country. I see my spellcheck identifies Whitsun as a likely error for something else, presumably an actual English word. This coming Sunday, Christians around the world celebrate the feast of Pentecost, the origins of which can be... Read more
Today’s post is a mix of methodological and personal musings, thinking about how our work as historians should shape our practices as Christians (and vice versa). Some of this grows out of thinking about silence– not just because with two little ones at home, silence is in short supply, but because many of my recent and ongoing research projects grapple with archival silences: an article on dancing mania and archival silencing, my book project on emotion and lay communities in... Read more
If you follow data and polling around religion and American politics, you’ve probably (whether knowingly or unknowingly) utilized the work of the Public Religion Research Institute. PRRI, an organization founded by Robbie P. Jones and directed by CEO Melissa Deckman, aims “to help journalists, scholars, thought leaders, clergy, and the general public better understand debates on public policy issues and the important cultural and religious dynamics shaping American society and politics.” In addition to creating space for academics and analysts... Read more
I have been describing the cultural and spiritual transformations that occurred in the United States in the critical year of 1893. These include the US encounter with Global Faiths in the World Parliament of Religions, and the popular discovery of Biblical Higher Criticism during the heresy trial of scholar Charles August Briggs. Today I want to talk about what was arguably a still more important theme that was epitomized by a book that appeared in that year, namely Woman, Church... Read more
A review of John G. Turner, Joseph Smith: The Rise and Fall of an American Prophet (Yale University Press, 2025) Few figures in American religious history are as difficult to write about as Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That’s not because of a lack of records. Smith left behind numerous writings, including sermons, books, prophetic revelations, and personal correspondence. Numerous friends and acquaintances (as well as personal enemies) left behind their own... Read more
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