DUALIST CHRISTIANITY
May 24, 2013 By Philip Jenkins Leave a Comment
I have been writing on the persistence of alternative forms of Christianity through the long Middle Ages. In my next couple of postings, I will be focusing on one remarkable and powerful movement that flourished in South-Eastern Europe, namely the Bogomils, and their truly ancient ideas. When we look at the alternative Christian worlds of the second and third centuries, we find to our surprise that they never went away, but simply moved their centers of operation, and endured for at least a … [Read More...]
Christians on Campus
May 23, 2013 By johnturner Leave a Comment
"Christians are ousted wherever possible on campus," complained Campus Crusade for Christ (Cru) founder Bill Bright a few years before his 2003 death. With some regularity universities make news for de-recognizing student campus ministries that require their leaders to adhere to certain religious criteria (most often a statement of faith). This, a number of high-profile universities have maintained, violates policies of non-discrimination. In some instances, campus ministries have … [Read More...]
Recovering the Ars Moriendi*
May 22, 2013 By Miles Mullin Leave a Comment
“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” – Luke 24:5b NRSV According to the accounts found in the Synoptic Gospels, the female disciples that travelled to Jesus’s tomb the first Easter morning expected nothing spectacular. They merely intended to … [Read More...]
Do Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God?
May 21, 2013 By Thomas Kidd Leave a Comment
The Boston Marathon bombings and the faiths of the Tsarnaev brothers have renewed the debate about the nature of Islam, so this week I am reposting my review of Miroslav Volf's Allah: A Christian Response, from the Patheos archives. -- President George W. Bush created a boiling controversy … [Read More...]
RED EASTER
May 19, 2013 By Philip Jenkins Leave a Comment
I originally wrote the following piece for my church’s newsletter. Bear with me if my remarks are obvious. I hope it might be of interest. On May 19, the church celebrates the great feast of Pentecost, with all its rich imagery of fire from heaven, tongues of flame, and speaking in tongues. In … [Read More...]
THE GOSPELS OF ISLAM
May 17, 2013 By Philip Jenkins 2 Comments
I have been tracking the ancient “lost gospels” through the Middle Ages, when these alternative scriptures continued to exercise a remarkably wide influence. This was especially true in the cultures of Islam, which emerged in a largely Christian world fascinated by apocryphal writings. Even in … [Read More...]
How does God still speak?
May 16, 2013 By johnturner 4 Comments
Until recent decades at least, nearly all Americans have believed in an unchanging God, "the same yesterday, today and forever." If God does not change, does God's manner and rate of revelation change over time? Typically, those who have wrestled with the issue of canon in the history of American … [Read More...]
Bourbon Fudge and Trappist Caskets
May 15, 2013 By David Swartz 2 Comments
This past semester for me focused inordinately on death. I taught a course called “War in the American Memory” and covered the Holocaust in World Civilizations. And then—even though commencement was already over—fellow blogger Miles Mullin piled on with a terrific post on how modern … [Read More...]
Benjamin Franklin, George Whitefield, and the Founding of the University of Pennsylvania
May 14, 2013 By Thomas Kidd 6 Comments
Many people are not aware of the vital friendship between Benjamin Franklin and George Whitefield. Franklin became Whitefield's key publicist and printer in the colonies in the early 1740s, and their relationship lasted until Whitefield's death in 1770. They also exchanged friendly letters on many … [Read More...]
Protestant Reformation Approaching 500
May 13, 2013 By Thomas Albert Howard 2 Comments
On October 31, 2017, the Protestant Reformation will turn 500. How ought one commemorate such an epochal, complex, and influential historical development? While the date is still a while off, I have been thinking about the question a lot lately. In part, because my colleague Mark Noll at Notre … [Read More...]
Welcome New Anxious Bench Blogger David Swartz!
May 11, 2013 By Thomas Kidd Leave a Comment
This coming week we are welcoming another new blogger to the Anxious Bench roster, David Swartz of Asbury University. From David's website : David R. Swartz is an assistant professor of history at Asbury University. He earned his Ph.D. in American history at the University of Notre Dame under the … [Read More...]
FINDING THE DIATESSARON
May 10, 2013 By Philip Jenkins Leave a Comment
My current research involves the history of alternative gospels and scriptures, and how these supposedly “lost” works in fact survived and exercised their influence many centuries after they supposedly disappeared. One classic example of a “lost” text is the Diatessaron, a valuable … [Read More...]
Evil, Evil, Everywhere
May 9, 2013 By johnturner 5 Comments
Evil has seemed everywhere over the past several weeks. The Boston bombings. Gruesome murders of babies who survived failed abortions. The kidnappings, forced rapes, and forced miscarriages of the women in Cleveland. Sometimes I've found that my students -- often steeped in relativism -- have to … [Read More...]
Outsourcing Death and Dying in America
May 8, 2013 By Miles Mullin 7 Comments
Once an intimate family affair, death and dying are now outsourced in America. Set in different centuries, stories from two of America’s greatest storytellers highlight the manner in which American encounters with death and dying have changed over the last two hundred years. Culled from Stephen … [Read More...]
“An Army of the Living God”: Stonewall Jackson’s Death and Southern Memory
May 7, 2013 By Thomas Kidd 8 Comments
This week marks the 150th anniversary of the tragic death on May 10, 1863, of Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson from wounds sustained at the Battle of Chancellorsville. Along with Robert E. Lee, Jackson occupies a special place of veneration in the memory of the Confederate cause. It is hard to say how … [Read More...]
JEWISH-CHRISTIAN GOSPELS
May 6, 2013 By Philip Jenkins 7 Comments
I have been posting recently about the survival of the so-called lost gospels into the Middle Ages and beyond. When scholars discuss these texts, they pay special attention to the so-called Jewish-Christian gospels as precious survivals of the earliest Jesus movement. Actually, this Jewish-Christian … [Read More...]
THE HIRED HAND
May 5, 2013 By Philip Jenkins Leave a Comment
I recently posted on oddly profound theological currents in Western films. This past February, Scottish novelist and screenwriter Alan Sharp died. Among his many scripts was the 1971 film The Hired Hand, directed by Peter Fonda, a film that includes one of the oddest religious moments in … [Read More...]
Welcome New Anxious Bench Blogger Miles Mullin!
May 4, 2013 By Thomas Kidd 1 Comment
This coming week we are welcoming Miles Mullin of the J. Dalton Havard School for Theological Studies (Southwestern Baptist Seminary) as the latest addition to the Anxious Bench's blogging roster! From Miles's faculty profile at SWBTS: Miles S. Mullin, II is Assistant Professor of Church … [Read More...]
IRELAND’S LOST GOSPELS
May 3, 2013 By Philip Jenkins 1 Comment
I recently posted on the wide range of alternative scriptural materials that survived in the early Irish church – and apparently, in very few other places in the Christian world. But it is in the realm of gospels that Ireland produces the most surprising findings. Throughout the Middle Ages, … [Read More...]
Neutering God
May 1, 2013 By johnturner 13 Comments
God reveals Godself... My ears pricked up during a recent sermon at a local Presbyterian church. I've heard "Godself" used by mainline ministers with some regularity since I went to seminary some dozen years ago, but I'm not used to it. I've long been fascinated by the liberal Protestant quest … [Read More...]
Three Cheers for the Twidiocracy
April 30, 2013 By Thomas Kidd 7 Comments
The latest issue of The Weekly Standard includes a rant against Twitter by Matt Labash, who does not have a Twitter account. I am on Twitter, and I like it a lot. Of course, it has its vapid and vicious aspects, but all in all, I find that Twitter is the most useful means of staying apprised of a … [Read More...]
Discovering Saints and Sisters
April 29, 2013 By Agnes Howard Leave a Comment
In 2005 some visitors to a German museum accidentally found themselves in an exhibit called “Crown and Veil,” a dazzling collection of art and artifacts from women’s monastic houses. Perhaps guessing the title would hold out to them something glamorous and familiar—princesses? wedding … [Read More...]
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