Catarina de San Juan

Last updated on: August 25, 2020 at 11:58 pm By johnturner

Sometime around the year 1610, Portuguese slave traders seized a young girl, by tradition on the southwestern coast of India. Her name became Catarina. Sold in the Manila slave markets, she was brought to Mexico. After her death, Catarina was venerated as a saint, though never canonized. Although many details of her life are uncertain, she is extremely well-known for an Asian slave in New Spain. Her confessors Alonso Ramos and José del Castillo ensured her remembrance through their hagiographies.... Read more

When Baptists Believed in the Bible—and Bourbon

Last updated on: December 11, 2021 at 8:43 pm By David Swartz

The surprising origins of Kentucky's spirit Read more

A Christian and a Socialist

Last updated on: August 24, 2020 at 8:44 am By Chris Gehrz

He shows up in my spiritual biography of Charles Lindbergh, but I wish I knew more about a man who ran for president in the 1930s and 1940s. Not Franklin D. Roosevelt, but Norman Thomas, the Presbyterian pastor-turned-Socialist leader who lost to FDR four times—and to Herbert Hoover in 1928 and Harry Truman in 1948. He never received more than 2.2% of the popular vote (1932, when he was marked on more ballots than any American socialist not named Eugene... Read more

In Praise of Church Ladies, Faithful Stewards of Our Democracy

Last updated on: August 24, 2020 at 5:14 pm By Melissa Borja

A couple weeks ago, when the nation was abuzz with the news that Joe Biden had chosen Kamala Harris as his running mate, my social media feeds abounded with political talk about the decision. I saw a lot of celebration, especially from women and people of color. I saw statements of criticism and concern, especially from groups who had hoped for a more progressive running mate. And, most difficult for me to ignore, I saw some very vocal (and ugly)... Read more

Lovecraft’s Home Country

Last updated on: August 21, 2020 at 5:54 am By Philip Jenkins

The HBO series Lovecraft Country is reviving interest in the author H. P. Lovecraft, in whom I have a deep proprietorial interest. He and I go back a long way. When I first discovered him back in 1968, I assumed I was the only person in the world who had heard of him. Later, I found there were plenty of others making the same assumption, until he finally entered a cultural mainstream. He is even in Penguin Modern Classics. This... Read more

Dangerous Christian Nationalism? A conversation between Abram Van Engen and Os Guinness

Last updated on: August 18, 2020 at 4:51 pm By Kristin Du Mez

Last month, Abram Van Engen contributed a post here at the Anxious Bench on “Os Guinness, Eric Metaxas, and Their Dangerous Mythos of American History.” That post prompted Os Guinness to respond to Abram, which generated a fascinating conversation exploring points of connection and dissonance. Both have graciously agreed to publish this conversation as a follow-up post. Their correspondence reveals both generational and interpretive differences, even as both work to establish common ground. It’s a longer post than usual, so... Read more

Recent Books on Women & Gender in American Religious History

Last updated on: August 18, 2020 at 11:48 pm By Andrea L. Turpin

Next week Baylor’s fall semester begins. Courtesy of the pandemic, stress among both students and professors is higher going into this school year than into any other one in recent memory. Nevertheless, I am excited to return to teaching. One of my favorite things to do at Baylor is offer my biennial graduate course “Women, Gender, and Sex in American Religious History”—and this semester is the lucky one out of four! Every time I teach the course, I rotate about... Read more

The Religious History of the 19th Amendment

Last updated on: August 7, 2020 at 5:52 pm By Chris Gehrz

For the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, Chris reviews a few ways that religion shaped the American debate over women's right to vote. Read more

The Quest for the Crown of Creation

Last updated on: August 15, 2020 at 9:18 am By Philip Jenkins

Some years ago, I wrote a book called The Many Faces of Christ: The Thousand-Year Story of the Survival and Influence of the Lost Gospels. Rarely have I enjoyed writing a book more. That project involved pursuing a lot of odd historical byways through multiple cultures and different languages, and confronting some real historical mysteries. Here is one of my favorites, and one that still puzzles me. So here is a medieval religious mystery. I didn’t want to detect a... Read more

Remembering the Martyrs of the Pacific War

Last updated on: August 7, 2020 at 6:20 am By Philip Jenkins

This year commemorates the 75th anniversary of Japanese surrender in the Second World War, VJ Day, Victory over Japan. Different countries date it differently, choosing either the actual date of surrender – August 14/15 – or the signing of the surrender document on September 2. Whatever date we choose, this was an epochal moment in world history. It also commemorated a horrible and tragically neglected time in Christian history. In 1998, London’s Westminster Abbey dedicated an evocative gallery of statues... Read more