1893: Reading the Bible Through the Eyes of Anthropology

Last updated on: June 6, 2025 at 2:17 pm By Philip Jenkins

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

Summer Reading with Elie Wiesel

Last updated on: June 11, 2025 at 12:38 am By Michael Jimenez

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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

Evangelicals, CRT, and the Genetic Fallacy

Last updated on: June 9, 2025 at 12:46 am By Paul Thompson

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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

Why the Grandparent Effect Still Matters Today

Last updated on: June 9, 2025 at 12:03 pm By Lisa Clark Diller

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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

Fire From Heaven: Whitsun and Pentecost

Last updated on: June 5, 2025 at 9:38 pm By Philip Jenkins

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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

Listening to Archival Silence: History and Hidden Voices

Last updated on: May 21, 2025 at 3:57 pm By Lynneth Renberg

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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

A Rise in Black Christian Nationalism?

Last updated on: May 29, 2025 at 3:30 pm By Ansley Quiros

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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

1893: Feminists, Hidden Gospels, Witches, and Occult Powers

Last updated on: May 29, 2025 at 6:48 am By Philip Jenkins

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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

Chronicling the Elusive Joseph Smith

Last updated on: May 28, 2025 at 7:54 am By Daniel K. Williams

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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

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Who Can Be Called “Pastor”?

Last updated on: May 23, 2025 at 4:17 pm By Jacob Randolph

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It’s almost Southern Baptist Convention season again and, as the argument over women’s roles in the church is destined to come to the floor again this year, I thought it might be apropos to bring this piece from 2023 back around. (If you’d like another angle, I also wrote a complementary piece [no pun intended] for Baptist News Global a few years ago.) Who Can Be Called “Pastor”? On Southern Baptists, Ancient Bishops, and What Goes without Saying Pope Callistus... Read more