Like many of us, I am thinking a great deal right now about the impact of our current virus crisis on religion and faith. Will our current constraints and limitations prove just a passing thing to be remembered grimly, or has the crisis massively accelerated a series of trends that were under way anyway? Are we already seeing a new normal? There are so many aspects to think about, obviously, so here are a couple of ideas that arise. Throughout,... Read more
From the Anxious Bench archives: From 1560 until well into the seventeenth century, the Geneva Bible was the most widely read translation of the Christian scriptures into English. Itself building upon but surpassing the prior efforts of William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale, the Geneva Bible exerted a strong influence on the language of the King James text and through it on English translations down to the present day. The Geneva Bible, as its name suggests, was a project conceived of... Read more
During a hard week for his university, Chris thinks ahead to how two of his fall courses will use the liberal arts to help his students see more clearly through "the fog of war." Read more
Like many others during the COVID-19 pandemic, Chris has found himself baking bread — and thinking about the historical and religious meanings of that activity. Read more
A Review of Alexander Norman, The Dalai Lama: An Extraordinary Life. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt, 2020. 410pp. In the not-too-distant future, the current Dalai Lama will pass away and a new one will be selected. Beijing has already warned Tibet that China must approve of the choice and might possibly announce its own candidate. No doubt, this will be a sensational geopolitical and religious event full of palace intrigue, the resurfacing of ancient rites and customs, and the rueful remembrance... Read more
Some twenty years ago, I was working on the writer Charles Brockden Brown, the first American to earn a successful living as a novelist. In 1798, he wrote the novel Arthur Mervyn, which has a setting that we today find relevant to the point of shocking. It concerns life in a US city during a dreadful epidemic, and how that experience spurs hideous racial fears and stereotypes. At the same time, that panic also laid an essential foundation for the... Read more
Why astronauts had trouble seeing God in outer space Read more
Back when work clothes were still necessary for work and academics were doing normal academic things, like attending the lectures of guest speakers and participating in intellectual symposiums, I bought a new skirt–black with embossed blue roses that went beautifully with my strappy blue heels. I wore it for my presentation during a symposium I had organized through the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University. The symposium was Women and the Bible: A Historical Perspective, and it was... Read more
This is from my Anxious Bench archives and is a placeholder until my post goes up for later today. I chose this not only because I love the place–Lilleshall Abbey–but also because the theme is so central to my current book project: forgetting Christian history is dangerous, but forgetting Christian history, unfortunately, is exactly what evangelical Christians have done….stay tuned for my new post later today Because It is Time for Christian Patriarchy to End–A Reading List. Seventeen years ago... Read more
As we look forward to the day when there's a coronavirus vaccine, Chris considers the importance of vaccination in light of the history of polio. Read more
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