Today I am sharing a hard story of how a woman, simply because of her sex, faced significant barriers in following the call God placed on her life. But today I am also filled with hope because, for the first time in our nation’s history, a woman is being sworn in as our Vice President. May we soon have a world where women can not only serve in our highest political offices but be free to serve in whatever way... Read more
As the Trump presidency enters its last day, we look back at some of the books from 2016-2020 that served as artifacts or analyses of Christianity in those tumultuous years. Read more
I post from time to time about books that I believe tell us a lot about American religion and religious history, whether or not they can properly be counted as “religious” in their orientation. This about an author who is woefully under-studied and under-rated, namely Harry Sylvester (1908-1993), whose books tell us so much about American Catholicism, and specifically as that relates to such very contemporary issues as scandal and corruption, race and racial intolerance. The books offer a great... Read more
This is going to be intriguing. In 2019, it was announced that the terrific director Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, The Favourite) will be directing a version of Jim Thompson’s 1964 novel Pop 1280. I have no idea where that project stands in light of the current maelstrom in the movie industry, but I will be interested to see if and when the film does emerge. Apart from being one of my favorite modern novels, it is also an authentic American... Read more
Today we welcome Janel Kragt Bakker to the Anxious Bench. Janel is Associate Professor of Mission, Evangelism, and Culture at Memphis Theological Seminary and the author of Sister Churches: American Congregations and Their Partners Abroad. Her current project responds to the culture wars in the U.S. with a missiology of repair, based on Jesus’ image of the basileia tou Theou (realm of God’s justice, love, and peace). In the winter of 1998, I piled into a car with group of... Read more
Three members of the Anxious Bench community also serve on the Executive Board of the Conference on Faith and History (CFH)–Beth Allison Barr, Chris Gehrz, and Dan Williams. During our annual meeting on Monday, January 11, 2021, the Conference on Faith and History board members voted unanimously to support the American Historical Association condemnation of the violent assault on the United States Capitol perpetrated one week ago today. As a professional organization bound not only by our commitment to history... Read more
A conversation with Hillary Kaell about her book that traces the movement of money, letters, and images, along with a wide array of child sponsorship’s lesser-known embodied and aesthetic techniques, such as playacting, hymn singing, eating, and fasting. Read more
As the Trump era ends, Chris talks to political scientist Andy Bramsen, a comparative politics specialist who offers an international perspective on the challenges facing American democracy. Read more
In the stories, images, and video footage of last week’s insurrection at the Capitol, two details drew my attention. First, there was the open display of Christian nationalism. Pro-Trump activists erected a cross at the Michigan Capitol in Lansing, and they danced to Christian music (and sometimes played shofars) in Washington, D.C. As Robert P. Jones argued afterward, the “seditious mob was motivated not just by loyalty to Trump, but by an unholy amalgamation of white supremacy and Christianity that... Read more
I’ve read much nastier negative comments in my time as a blogger, but few that cut so deeply as the one response I got to my Thursday afternoon post on pastors serving in Congress: An historic insurrection occurs in the US capital building, it’s invaded for the first time since 1814, and the insurrectionists are parading around inside waving confederate flags, and this is all you can think of to post? Disappointing to say the least. Also an abdication of... Read more
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