Can an Authoritarian Political Regime Happen Here?

January 23, 2024 By Daniel K. Williams

As the slow pace of economic recovery left many people discontent, it looked like the Democratic president would face a demagogic, authoritarian-minded populist challenger in his bid for reelection. Millions of people were angry with democratic liberalism and were looking for more radical solutions. There was also international unrest. A European dictator had just invaded another country for no apparent reason – but few Americans had any desire to help. The United States didn’t need to get involved in other... Read more

The Snow Day as (Endangered) Holiday

January 22, 2024 By Melissa Borja

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A blast of arctic air hit much of the United States last week and brought snow, wind, and intense cold to much of the country. It was so cold that Republican presidential candidates worried that Iowans wouldn’t show up for the Republican caucuses, held on a day when wind chills were 40 degrees below zero. It was so cold that at the NFL playoff game between the Chiefs and the Dolphins—the fourth coldest game in NFL history—the Kansas... Read more

What A Paint Color Reveals About Christian History

January 19, 2024 By Jacob Randolph

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In 1602, the Italian painter Caravaggio completed one of the most moving paintings of the early Baroque period, The Incredulity of Saint Thomas. The subject matter was common enough. The image depicts the apostle Thomas meeting the risen Christ in John’s Gospel. Thomas, upon hearing the news that Christ had risen from the dead, fearing it too good to be true. “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands,” Thomas said, “and put my finger in his... Read more

Protestants, and Other Mythical Beasts

January 18, 2024 By Philip Jenkins

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Whatever be historical Christianity, it is not Protestantism. If ever there were a safe truth, it is this. … To be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant. Well, that is an explosive sentiment if ever there was one. I’ll come back to that quote shortly – it’s from Cardinal Newman – but let me explain why I ran up against this issue quite recently. I faced a challenging question in an Episcopal church group aimed at... Read more

“Each Separate Anguish”: Death, Influence, and Carrying On

January 17, 2024 By Wyatt Reynolds

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One of America’s greatest poets and bards, Billy Joel, told us only the good die young. I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the good and about dying young. This was triggered, you might say, by two events. Last semester, I had a fascinating conversation with one of my favorite professors about dying young. Many figures in the 19th century died young and often not in the ways one might expect. Nearly every person of color in the period... Read more

Naked Baptism in the Early Church

January 16, 2024 By Adam Renberg

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Christian liturgical practices have remained constant as much as they have changed. As early as the first century, we have a ‘manual’ of sorts, the Didache, which teaches Christians how to perform basic Christian rites and practices such as the eucharist, baptism, fasting, prayer, and ordination. Importantly, these practices not only take on a unique importance in different periods, but also take on unique forms. For instance, the way in which one should be baptized is discussed in the Didache:... Read more

Iowa Caucus Repeat: Trump wins the Evangelical Vote

January 16, 2024 By Erica Ramirez

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If the last eight years have shown anything, they’ve shown that the media, academics, religious leaders, and think tanks can collectively render Donald Trump profane, but they cannot make him less popular. Still, they try. Theologian Wayne Grudem, over on the Christian Post, offers ten reasons to vote for Ron DeSantis, one of which is: “Trump fatigue.” Over at Christianity Today, at this late hour (8pm CT), the leading story is still a piece that asks whether another influential Iowan... Read more

Introducing Mike Jimenez to the Anxious Bench

January 13, 2024 By Nadya Williams

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Earlier this week I announced my departure from the Anxious Bench. Today, it is my privilege to introduce my successor, Dr. Michael Jimenez, Associate Professor of History at Vanguard University, an involved member of the Conference on Faith and History, and the author of Remembering Past Lives: A Historiography from the Underside of Modernity and Karl Barth and the Study of the Religious Enlightenment: Encountering the Task of History. In other words, as the above list shows, Mike brings an... Read more

Did God Prepare Native Peoples in the Americas for Christ?

January 12, 2024 By Verónica A. Gutiérrez

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Guadalupe & the Flower World Prophesy: Did an Ancient Indigenous Tradition Prepare the Americas for Millions of Conversions to Christianity? Part I A month ago today, on December 12, just as dawn began to break, Catholics around the world sang “La Mañanitas” to Our Lady of Guadalupe to commemorate her appearance as an indigenous maiden to a Nahua reed mat seller named Juan Diego on a Mexican hillside in December 1531, leaving her image on his tilmatli, or maguey-fiber clock;... Read more

The Civil War Was Definitely About Slavery, Sort Of

January 11, 2024 By Philip Jenkins

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The Civil War and Reconstruction continue to fascinate Americans. Recently, witness the blowback against alleged presidential candidate Nikki Haley when she refused to identify slavery as a cause of the war. Just in the past couple of months, we also note the full special issue of the Atlantic on the theme of “To Reconstruct A Nation,” or Adam Hochschild’s review essay in the New York Review of Books on how pro-Confederate sympathizers established the orthodoxy that secession and war arose... Read more