On July 24, 2020, Muslims held Friday prayers in the nave of Hagia Sophia for the first time since the grand structure had been converted into a museum in 1934. In a United States consumed with the coronavirus pandemic, it might be easy to overlook the significance of this development. Few places, however, have mattered as much to the history of Christianity as Hagia Sophia, and it is worthwhile to review its contested history. The foundations of Hagia Sophia date... Read more
In the 1990s Harold Caballeros was minister of a church of 350 members in Guatemala City. It was growing and going well, and they had found valuable real estate at an affordable price on one of the main avenues of the city. Caballeros exulted that it was “an absolute miracle.” Then everything went wrong. As he prayed one day in his office, leaning on a stool in front of a bureau, the stool began to elevate and then disappeared. In... Read more
Chris previews a new devotional he edited with Beth, in which Anxious Bench members and other contributors read the Bible in light of their work as historians. Read more
Among the many fascinating cultural phenomena of the Covid-19 pandemic, the most intriguing to me has been the burst of ritual creativity borne by the requirements of social distancing. In April, for example, I participated in a virtual toast in celebration of a newborn’s bris; in June, I witnessed a wedding streamed via Facebook Live. Every Sunday, my parents watch Mass on YouTube, and I attend worship services through Zoom, where the gregarious types who like to whisper during church... Read more
American Christians often display the phrase WWJD? or “What Would Jesus Do?” This challenging question was originally the subtitle of In His Steps, a vastly influential novel published by Congregational minister Charles Sheldon in 1896. Sheldon’s work is rightly remembered as a bold attempt to insist that contemporary believers work seriously to follow Jesus’s teachings in politics as much as personal behavior. Much less known is another book that appeared at almost exactly the same time, which is even more... Read more
Today we welcome Abram Van Engen to the Anxious Bench. Abram is Associate Professor of English and holds a courtesy appointment in the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis. He is the author of the recently published and critically acclaimed City on a Hill: A History of American Exceptionalism. On June 1, President Trump cleared peaceful protestors with tear gas and rubber bullets in order to pose with a bible by a church. This... Read more
In the classic romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally, Harry famously asserted, “Men and women can’t be friends because the sex part always gets in the way.” The popularity of the “Billy Graham rule”—that a married man should never be alone with a woman who is not his wife—would seem to indicate that many Christians today agree. This summer I’ve enjoyed participating in a discussion group on male-female friendships in the American church that challenged that proposition. Fellow participants all... Read more
Reading Daniel Immerwahr's impressive history of the "Greater United States" made Chris rethink American empire — and the role Christians played in it. Read more
SPOILER ALERT: Despite my title, this blogpost is not about the modern-day Baptist denomination. These aren’t the Baptists you’re looking for. You can go about your business. When we look at the early Christian world, we usually draw a straightforward line between Christians, Jews, and pagans. At the time, matters seemed more complicated, especially when we look beyond the strict confines of the Roman Empire, and some of the divisions that people drew should surprise us. I will here be... Read more
I have been posting about using poetry as a resource for studying and teaching American history. Up to now, I have been writing about using poems as first hand primary sources for the periods in which they are living. But several major writers have been fascinated by history, and their well informed comments help us approach some historical (and religious) celebrities. I think of Robert Lowell (1917-1977), with his utter saturation in New England history and culture. See his For... Read more
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