Anxious Bench - Page 4 of 183 - The Relevance of Religious History for Today

Hobby Lobby Evangelicalism

September 6, 2018 By Kristin Du Mez

Is evangelicalism a political movement? There’s been a lot of talk about how to define evangelicalism of late, much of it centering around this quesion. I’ve been guilty of contributing more than my share to this seemingly endless (and to me, endlessly fascinating) conversation. (In recent months, I’ve considered evangelicalism’s problem of whiteness, examined the changing linguistic meaning of the term, and posed the idea of thinking of evangelicalism as an imagined religious community.) Today I want to consider “Hobby… Read more

Surviving the Academic Job Market: Two Baylor History Success Stories

September 5, 2018 By Beth Allison Barr

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It is difficult to achieve a full-time faculty appointment in History. A 2017 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education ran with the straightforward title: History Jobs Flat: Teaching jobs for historians are down, but data suggest their opportunities outside the professoriate are on the rise. 1145 history doctorates were awarded in 2015-2016 for the 571 full-time job positions sent to the American Historical Association. Sobering. Of course, the article reminds, while chances of getting a university job are poor,… Read more

Poetry of the Air

September 4, 2018 By Chris Gehrz

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Since the dawn of aviation, certain pilots have turned to poetry to express the inexpressible aspects of flight. Chris introduces us to two: both the children of pastors, and one a pastor himself. Read more

The Green Isle of the Great Deep

September 3, 2018 By Philip Jenkins

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Through authors like C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, fantasy literature has not only reached a mass audience, but it is widely recognized as a vehicle for addressing critical issues of culture, and of religious debate. But besides those celebrities, plenty of other authors deserve our attention. One long standing favorite of mine is the Scottish author Neil M. Gunn (1891-1973), who is all but unknown in the US although, as we might say, he was world famous… Read more

The Deadest Orthodoxy of American Evangelicalism

September 2, 2018 By Chris Gehrz

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Over the weekend, Twitter has hosted a debate about the resurrection — a belief that many evangelicals affirm… and then deny by the way they live. Read more

Writing and Publishing in Academe

August 31, 2018 By Philip Jenkins

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In my teenage years, I used to loathe “Back to School” signs in stores. I know it’s going to happen, like I know we all have to die someday, but do you have to remind us? Anyway, by late August, that fact has become an undeniable reality (back to school, I mean, not death) and we have to cope by turning our minds back to the process of education. In this instance, I am offering something that I believe to… Read more

Evangelicalism: A Political Movement?

August 30, 2018 By johnturner

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John Fea, in what has become a must-read age-of-Trump blog about American religion, quotes from C.S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters in a recent post: Let him begin by treating the Patriotism or the Pacifism as a part of his religion. Then let him, under the influence of partisan spirit, come to regard it as the most important part. Then quietly and gradually nurse him on to the stage at which the religion becomes merely part of the “cause”, in which Christianity… Read more

The Apocalyptic Billy Graham

August 29, 2018 By David Swartz

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Franklin Graham, Eric Metaxas, and other court evangelicals remind us of the apocalyptic side of Billy Graham. Read more

The Smell of History

August 28, 2018 By Chris Gehrz

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What does the past smell like? Chris shares a couple of historically evocative aromas from his research and teaching experiences. Read more

What Exactly is “Tradition”?

August 27, 2018 By Thomas Albert Howard

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I am currently preparing an edited book manuscript for publication with the working title of The Idea of Tradition in the Late Modern World: An Ecumenical and Interreligious Conversation. It was based on a conference that I helped host at Valparaiso University to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Christ College, the University’s humanities-based honors college. Conference speakers (and book contributors) include David Bentley Hart (Eastern Orhodox), James L. Heft (Roman Catholic), Ebrahim Moosa (Muslim), David Novak (Jewish), and Sarah Hinlicky… Read more