Christmas is a time to look back on the year almost passed by, and the findings and discoveries of that year. So what was new or unexpected? In 2020, the short answer was: a huge amount of the unexpected, and virtually none of that good. As Charles Dickens said, it was the worst of times, it was the … oh wait, no, it was just the worst of times. Having said that, on a personal level, I have a literary... Read more
For many of us, this is a Christmas without family celebrations, mall Santas, rousing performances of Handel’s Messiah, and Christmas Eve candlelight services. All is not lost, however. Starbucks has come through with a lovely selection of red-and-green holiday cups, one of which contains the word “merry,” thank goodness. Because of course in the midst of everything, we can once again say “Merry Christmas,” and as a reminder, feel free to secure your own (free, with a $45 donation) ornament... Read more
On December 14, 2016, I published this post as The Peace of Christmas During the Pain of Life. It was a critical moment for me. If you decide to read my forthcoming book, The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth, you will read about this moment in the introduction. It is the moment I affirmed my belief in the Gospel. It is the moment I admitted my complicity in perpetuating oppressive systems that run contrary... Read more
One year ago, in my post God’s Christmas Gift to Women, I reflected on how a nativity sermon written by the late medieval preacher John Mirk reveals the significance of God choosing Mary. As I wrote, “the Christmas story tells women we are more. Because God used Mary to be the mother of Jesus, God made sure that women would always have a seat at the Christian table. Because of Christmas, women can never be written out of God’s story.” ... Read more
While less than 1% of the Japanese population followed Christ when John Hersey's account of Hiroshima was published in 1946, Chris is struck that three of his six eyewitnesses were Christians. Read more
This is another in my posts on “reading” churches and their denominations to find what they can tell you about local and regional history, with a strong emphasis on ethnicity. Although I will focus on one area, namely in Central Pennsylvania, a lot of what I say (I think) has much wider application. When I was growing up in Wales, churches supplied me with a very large part of my education. These were the long lost days before the dark... Read more
Through the years, I have posted repeatedly at this site on religious images in art, and what they can tell us about ideas and debates in earlier eras. Scholars still pay insufficient attention to the incredible resources that lie in such visual imagery: we can be a very text-bound lot. As an example, I offer William Hogarth’s astonishing picture of religious fanaticism in eighteenth century England, his 1762 response to the Methodist Revival – and every point applies to the... Read more
Aaron Griffith is assistant professor of history at Sattler College and the author of God’s Law and Order: The Politics of Punishment in Evangelical America, just published by Harvard University Press. Thank you, Aaron, for stopping by The Anxious Bench to discuss matters that are both persistently relevant and timely. Let’s start with some big-picture questions, and I apologize for the deluge! The United States has a prison and jail population of more than two million people and the world’s highest incarceration rate.... Read more
As the “Make America Great Again” movement demonstrates, the need for resistance remains. Read more
How do we celebrate Christmas during a pandemic? Chris looks back to December 1918, when Americans made merry in between waves of influenza. Read more
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