The Relevance of Religious History for Today
Churches and their leaders generally don’t take kindly to outside scrutiny, but that scrutiny is something that all institutions sorely need. The “Mormon moment” brought forth a deluge (see this compilation) of articles, op-eds, and blog posts about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ranging from the scholarly to the uninformed and from [...]
Anxious Bench blogger John Turner asked me to republish this piece here. It originally appeared on November 8, 2012 at The Way of Improvement Leads Home. -JF Last night at Messiah College I heard Christian writer Eric Metaxas give a very entertaining, humorous, and inspiring lecture on the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The lecture was [...]
Many disappointed Romney supporters have suggested that his defeat spoke to an American culture in decline. For politics to change, they say, culture must change. Glenn Beck, for example, tweeted that “the time for politics is over. I’m doubling down on my efforts to shift the culture.” Evangelical Christians are especially attuned to talk of [...]
Members of religious orders who served as faculty on the first universities of the Middle Ages would certainly find it of more than passing interest that the term “university” today is often associated with adjectives such as “modern” and “secular” as in the “modern secular research university.” In the United States, pride of place [...]
Not long ago, John Turner ignited controversy when he challenged the idea that Mormonism was a “cult,” a concept I have myself written on at some length. (By the way, some scholars define “cult” as “a small unpopular religion,” without specifying whether the unpopularity is merited). For present purposes though, I am interested in another [...]
I have written here several times about thoroughly conservative evangelicals who are “reluctant” Republicans. I call these folks “paleo evangelicals.” I noted that some (though surely not all) of the paleo evangelicals are fans of websites such as the Front Porch Republic (which emphasizes “place, self-government, sustainability, limits, and variety” as key terms in any real [...]
I recently lamented the coverage of religious matters at scholarly conferences, the point being that academics tended to ignore faith-based dimensions even when they seem so essential to the story being told. I was specifically describing the proceedings of the recent conference of the Urban History Association, but I certainly don’t mean to pick on [...]
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Jackson Lears: Mormons and capitalism Alan Jacobs on the problems with political realism Humility and the renaissance of geographic history Governors and the “hurricane conversion.” Henry Louis Gates Jr. on growing up colored The writing addiction Brave thinking H.W. Brands on Ulysses S. Grant. Eric [...]
Academics do a curious job of treating religion. This point was brought home to me powerfully last week when I attended the excellent conference of the Urban History Association (UHA), meeting in New York City. (Very fortunately, we all escaped before the onslaught of Hurricane Sandy). Beyond the generally high standard of the individual panels [...]
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