A few years ago I was put in charge of our department’s introductory course for graduate students, Historian’s Craft. I was like a kid in a candy shop. Feel free to ask my students what they think, but, hey, I love it. It’s an opportunity to reflect on the big questions of why and how historians do what they do. The course does cover the traditional overview of different schools of historiography (different ways historians ask questions and analyze evidence).... Read more
As usual, I celebrated the end of Daylight Saving Time (DST) this past weekend by waking up an hour earlier than I wanted to start any Sunday morning. But for once, I put that extra hour to good use: by reading up on the origins of daylight saving. It’s not the farmers’ fault, explained the New York Times last week. On the contrary, DST is “a disruptive schedule foisted on them by the federal government.” And it’s not really Ben... Read more
Of the many churches in the Byzantine capital of Constantinople, only one retained its Orthodox Christian function after the Ottoman conquest of 1453, and it survives today. It bears the startling name of St. Mary of the Mongols, a dedication that recalls the history of a remarkable woman of the Middle Ages. I posted last time about the great Mongol Empire, and the very prominent role of Christian women in ruling and shaping it, whether as queen, as queen mother,... Read more
My Baylor colleague and friend Beth Barr writes regularly about the critical importance of women in Christian history. I would here like to offer some prime examples of that historical reality, and instances that are really not known by non-specialists. I will discuss four Christian women in particular, all from roughly the same era, who in their day enjoyed vast political power and influence. On a minor note, their stories are so dramatic, and so packed with incident, as to... Read more
“On the road from Galway to the Cliffs of Moher on the west coast of Ireland, you might notice a nun in a telephone booth at Liscannor.” With this sentence—perhaps my favorite opening sentence of an academic book–Lisa Bitel introduces us to Saint Brigit of Kildare. For those of you who don’t know, Lisa Bitel is the Dean’s Professor of Religion and Professor of History at the University of Southern California. She is a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of... Read more
It had been a twenty year stretch of economic and political disquiet. Not surprisingly, perhaps, the nationwide birth rate declined significantly during this period. And in addition to the usual concerns that this decline raised, it was accompanied by an outcry in some sectors over the devaluing of marriage and an utter jettisoning of traditional sexual mores. Welcome to Rome in the late first century BCE and the early first century CE, better known as the Age of Augustus. And... Read more
While off-year elections like today’s are normally the domain of school boards, sheriff’s offices, and municipal referenda, Virginians choose their governors the year after they vote for president. So let me break the political fast I’ve kept for almost all of 2021 in order to say some words about a gubernatorial election that is not only important to the inhabitants of my second home state, but an early test of how American democracy is doing in the wake of the... Read more
On July 6, 1944, exactly a month after the Allies’ D-day landing at Normandy, the circus arrived in Hartford, Connecticut. Six thousand or so locals flocked to the entertainment, war-weary and heat-dazed, ready for distraction. Around about the time trapeze artists started to dazzle the crowd, the band struck up “Stars and Stripes Forever”–a circus-staff cue that something was bad wrong. The tent was on fire. Animal cages blocked exits as attendees ran to escape. Some hacked their way through... Read more
I have a strictly seasonal reading recommendation, and one that is highly appropriate for the topic of this blog, in Christian history. If you have any interest in the themes of Halloween – ghosts, horror, and the thin space between worlds – you must read Walter De La Mare’s short story All Hallows (1926). You can easily find the story full text at multiple locations. It is a fast read if that is what you are looking for, but the... Read more
As a devout Halloweenie, I regard it as my fundamental duty to recommend at least one essential film for the season. Although I have a number of strong candidates, I will focus on one magnificent example, which is simply a classic. That is the Korean film The Wailing (2016), directed by Na Hong-jin. My relationship with the horror genre goes back many years, to the time when my wonderfully generous/irresponsible mother decided there was no harm in me watching very... Read more
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