I’m pleased to welcome Doug Rossinow, a professor of history at the University of Oslo, to the Anxious Bench. In 1998 he wrote one of my all-time favorite books, a model piece of scholarship entitled The Politics of Authenticity: Liberalism, Christianity, and the New Left in America. A beautifully written, close study of Students for a Democratic Society at the University of Texas at Austin, it illuminates broader trajectories in the New Left and of the 1960s. He is also… Read more
Believe Me… You Should Read John Fea’s Book on Evangelical Support for Donald Trump
June 19, 2018 By Chris Gehrz
0 Comments
Chris reviews Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump, in which John Fea explains how evangelical instincts for fear, power, and nostalgia led them to support Trump. Read more
Choice after Humanae Vitae
June 18, 2018 By Agnes Howard
0 Comments
This summer marks the fiftieth anniversary of Humanae Vitae, the encyclical from Pope Paul VI in 1968 confirming Roman Catholic rejection of birth control. The decision was important for both American Catholics and Protestants. For many of the former, it presented a crisis of conscience, exacerbating tensions among tradition, reason, and authority. It became a significant cultural marker for the latter too, though they were not bound by it–and indeed, earnest evangelicals whose sexual morality resembles Roman Catholic expectations often… Read more
The Inklings and King Arthur
June 15, 2018 By Philip Jenkins
0 Comments
It’s hard to ignore the Inklings. They are a huge force both in high culture and popular culture, and the works of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien have generated income for their estates at a mind-bogglingly vast level that either of those two authors would have found hilarious. My own personal favorite among that group remains Charles Williams, who many consider a modern-day Anglican saint, besides being a major and under-acknowledged influence on canonical figures like T. S…. Read more
There Was No Good Biblical Reason to Give Mike Pence the SBC Stage
June 14, 2018 By Chris Gehrz
0 Comments
New Testament passages about honoring and praying for secular authorities, argues Chris, shouldn’t have led to the Southern Baptist Convention hosting a Mike Pence stump speech for Donald Trump. Read more
The Problem with “Welcoming the Stranger”
June 14, 2018 By Kristin Du Mez
0 Comments
Today we are pleased to welcome a new contributor to the Anxious Bench, Melissa Borja. A specialist in Asian American studies, religion, and migration, Melissa is an assistant professor at the University of Michigan in the American Culture program. Her first book, Follow the New Way: Hmong Refugee Resettlement and Practice of American Religious Pluralism, “explores the religious dimensions of American refugee care—how governments have expanded capacity through partnerships with religious organizations and how refugee policies have shaped the religious… Read more
Sorry, John Piper, (Medieval) Christianity Doesn’t Have A Masculine Feel
June 13, 2018 By Beth Allison Barr
0 Comments
A carved image, about two feet tall, stands alone in a glass case in the Cluny Museum in Paris. At first it seems a typical image of the Madonna and Child. Both look straight ahead, holding the gaze of the viewer. Their matching golden robes fade so easily into the golden background that it is easy to miss how mother and child are seated on an elaborately carved throne. Only the red apple loosely held in Mary’s hand stands out…. Read more
The Anxious Bench’s Favorite Historic Sites in Europe
June 12, 2018 By Chris Gehrz
0 Comments
For many of us, summer is a time to leave home and explore other places. Last year we shared several of our favorite historic travel destinations in the United States. Today, we’re teaming up to suggest a few must-see sites in Europe. (See also David’s recent post about Iceland and Tal’s essay inspired by a trip to Italy and Istanbul.) Embed from Getty Images Some of the absolute best places to see in the United Kingdom are in Wales, the… Read more
The Mysteries of Reading
June 11, 2018 By Philip Jenkins
0 Comments
I have been posting about the 1668 novel The Adventures of Simplicius Simplicissimus, by Johann von Grimmelshausen, a wonderful source for understanding the Early Modern period. Oddly, it also has a lot to say about contemporary global Christianity, in the sense that there are some remarkable parallels between the social and cultural worlds of Europe then, and portions of Africa (for instance) today. One striking parallel involves the whole business of literacy and learning to read, and how that affects… Read more
Goads and Gods
June 8, 2018 By Philip Jenkins
0 Comments
Today we have a guest column. Some time ago, I referred to the Book of Acts, and began an intriguing correspondence with Mr. Jesse Elison. Focusing especially on one key phrase, Mr. Elison made a strong case for showing how Luke was drawing directly on secular Greek literature, and moreover that he might even have been using the work of Euripides as a model for the story he was trying to tell. After all, did not his play The Bacchae… Read more
get the latest from
Anxious Bench
Sign up for our newsletter
Browse Our Archives
TRENDING AT PATHEOS Evangelical
