1893: What Would Jesus Do To Improve the Race?

Last updated on: July 9, 2025 at 7:39 pm By Philip Jenkins

In 1893, Congregationalist minister Josiah Strong (1847-1916) was a leading figure in the Social Gospel movement that was such a prominent feature of American Christianity in the late nineteenth century. The great church historian Sidney Ahlstrom calls him “a legend in American history, as both a religious and a secular figure.” But by modern standards, his ideas combined two approaches that to us seem utterly irreconcilable, of radical social reform and scientific racism. His story epitomizes a critical moment in... Read more

Min Jin Lee and the Art of Historical Fiction

Last updated on: July 9, 2025 at 2:12 pm By Michael Jimenez

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Last month’s post I briefly discussed the topic of summer reading. Before that post, I also wrote about how I plan on using historical fiction to craft a faith integration project. In about a month, I will be presenting that model at a conference. An essay that I looked at to help prepare my upcoming presentation is writer Vanessa Chan’s “It’s Time to Rewrite the Rules of Historical Fiction.” According to Chan, whose debut novel The Storm We Made just... Read more

Does the Declaration of Independence Still Matter?

Last updated on: July 4, 2025 at 3:46 am By Lisa Clark Diller

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We love a nice round number—and 250 years since the U.S. War of Independence began is too significant to pass up. Somehow in fifty years of living on the East Coast, I haven’t toured Philadelphia’s historical sites, and doing so this year seemed appropriate. While at the Museum of the American Revolution, a well-organized museum and very accessible—highly recommend!—I was struck with what an opportunity this celebration is for us to join together across the culture wars and political divide.... Read more

1893: The Making of the American Empire

Last updated on: July 3, 2025 at 5:45 am By Philip Jenkins

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Dealing as it does in broadly national and patriotic themes, I think the following post is appropriate for the day before Independence Day! My recent blogposts have concerned the transformational developments that occurred in the US in 1893, which increasingly emerges as one of those years when the world changed utterly. That was especially true in terms of the US empire, another topic on which I have written a good deal of late. Virtually all accounts of that empire focus... Read more

The Cats of Cyprus (Church History on Vacation)

Last updated on: July 1, 2025 at 3:52 pm By Lynneth Renberg

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On a recent trip to Turkey and Greece, where I loved the churches, mosques, and museums we were able to tour, my daughter had a very different highlight for her trip: the feral cats found in abundant number everywhere we went. While these cats marked every stop on our trip (much to her delight), on Cyprus, these cats came with a fascinating story that overlapped with church history, much to my delight. According to legend, Helena, the mother of Constantine,... Read more

1893: Crash, Crisis, and Anti-Catholicism

Last updated on: June 26, 2025 at 9:17 am By Philip Jenkins

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In my current project on the early 1890s, I have written a good deal about new religious ideas and movements, some of which were very influential. But religious issues, broadly defined, went far beyond the realm of heated discussion in parlors and seminaries, and contributed to making the years 1893-94 politically perilous, with serious threats of violence, and rip-roaring conspiracy theories. Time and again, anyone studying that era must be powerfully aware of the close parallels with the much better-known... Read more

The Real Significance of Dobbs

Last updated on: June 24, 2025 at 12:51 pm By Daniel K. Williams

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When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade three years ago today in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, both sides in the abortion fight expected the results to be momentous. Some pro-lifers jubilantly predicted that numerous unborn human lives would be saved, while some abortion rights advocates envisioned a dark future in which women across much of the United States would be forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term or would seek out illegal abortion providers. Other... Read more

Trump’s God-Gilded Realpolitik Ended the 12-Day War

Last updated on: June 24, 2025 at 11:02 am By Joey Cochran

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Apparently, the 12-day War is ending, all thanks to Trump’s God-gilded realpolitik. What do I mean by this? Allow me to show you by recounting recent geopolitical events that demonstrate how Trump has ushered in a new era of God-gilded realpolitik. At 5PM on Monday, June 23 President Trump announced the end to what he has dubbed “the 12-Day War.” His announcement on Truth Social states: CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE! It has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran... Read more

Southern Baptists and the ‘Main Thing’

Last updated on: June 20, 2025 at 5:04 pm By Jacob Randolph

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If you pay any attention to Southern Baptist media surrounding the SBC’s annual conventions, you won’t have to wait too long to hear calls from denominational leaders to “keep the main thing the main thing,” that is, keep the focus on Southern Baptist mission work and evangelism. In what has almost become a liturgical tradition, Southern Baptist presidents, seminary presidents, entity heads, and influencers will call for unity amid all the controversy and political tension that threatens Southern Baptist cooperation.... Read more

1893: The Spiritual Revolution of New Thought

Last updated on: June 18, 2025 at 10:06 am By Philip Jenkins

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A current project of mine focuses on the year of 1893 as a critical turning point in American culture and thought, and especially in religion. I am not of course suggesting that everything started on January 1 that year, but the chronology does serve as useful focus for understanding some quite revolutionary changes that were then in progress. Today I will discuss a movement that is forgotten except by specialists, but at the time it was phenomenally important and widely... Read more