In my historical research I try to find a balance between the beautiful and the terrible. This Christmas post, an ode to biblical history and Wesleyan history, focuses on the beautiful. Read more
In my historical research I try to find a balance between the beautiful and the terrible. This Christmas post, an ode to biblical history and Wesleyan history, focuses on the beautiful. Read more
Devotional literature is everywhere. It might be found on your grandma’s bookshelf, the catalogue of a Christian publisher, or the ‘religious book’ section in your local Walmart. While there might be disparity between the quality of certain devotionals, these works are meant to foster and encourage spiritual discipline, expand our understanding of the biblical text, or simply bring comfort amidst a challenging season. While the format of most modern devotionals is unique, this practice is anything but. Christians have long... Read more
Hi! I am a sociologist on a tour of Texas Megachurches. Check out my first post here. When I first began this tour, I set out looking to document how Texas churches do (or do not) advance what sociologists call Christian Nationalism. Per sociologists Sam Perry and Phil Gorski, “Christian nationalism is an ideology that idealizes and advocates a fusion of American civic life with a particular kind of Christianity.” At its core, Christian Nationalism expresses a priority for Christianity... Read more
I have been struggling lately. Grief that generally rests quietly in my heart has been swelling up at unexpected, inauspicious moments. It began at the end of Divine Liturgy on the third Sunday in November. Sorrow had filled my heart that morning, though I wasn’t sure why. When our priest came out to name those whose anniversary of “falling asleep in the Lord” occurred in November, I stiffened. Glancing in my direction, he mentioned Ana Verónica, the daughter I lost... Read more
Well, this is not the kind of subject matter that people normally address when planning their Christmas sermons, but bear with me… Scholars differ on the exact birth-date of Jesus of Nazareth, though a fair consensus holds that it was not in the year 1. Many favor a date in or around 4 BC, and for the sake of argument, let us take that as accurate. If so, the birth occurred during or near a truly dreadful time in the... Read more
This has been a year of very big changes for the Williams family, as my oldest graduated high school, I walked away from academia after 15 years, and then Dan began a new job. This last development also necessitated our move from Carrollton, Georgia to Ashland, Ohio. Sure, some families would have also thought that this would be a great time to get a puppy too—because, why not? Rest assured; we still had enough sanity left to say: that’s a... Read more
I shouldn’t be surprised by now but I still am. As both a pastor and a scholar, I continue to face what I can only describe as sloppy modes of thinking about race. I’m sure you see it too. It came to my mind recently in considering the controversy over the statements of university presidents concerning the Israel/Hamas war, but specifically Michael Harriot’s tweet (yes, I will continue to call them tweets and I will call the platform Twitter): I... Read more
They say confession is good for the soul, so I am going to confess that as a “never Trumper” I’m getting pretty worked up about the 2024 presidential election, and I need to use this post to process some of my thoughts. In addition to Trump’s continual non-presidential sounding rhetoric and attitude, trial delaying tactics, and just plain craziness, there is a spate of recent and forthcoming articles issuing dire warnings about a second Trump term. My problem is that... Read more
I’m 50 my next birthday, and it seems a time for taking stock and for thinking a bit about the arc of my life, for locking down a bit of my personal archive. This has been harder than I would have thought. In spite of the ways we are always digging through the files of other lives, considering our own in this way isn’t as straight forward. In fact, it appears that memoir doesn’t always come easily to the historian.... Read more
Today we have a guest post on an important historical topic, to which I will offer a short introduction. I have blogged before on debates over the European settlement of the Americas, and the religious nature of those conquests. One of the greatest turning points in the history of Christianity came with the Iberian conquests in the New World during the sixteenth century, and the spread of the new faith across the whole of those vast continents. Unquestionably, the whole... Read more
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