Well, this is not the kind of subject matter that people normally address when planning their Christmas sermons, but bear with me… Scholars differ on the exact birth-date of Jesus of Nazareth, though a fair consensus holds that it was not in the year 1. Many favor a date in or around 4 BC, and for the sake of argument, let us take that as accurate. If so, the birth occurred during or near a truly dreadful time in the... Read more
This has been a year of very big changes for the Williams family, as my oldest graduated high school, I walked away from academia after 15 years, and then Dan began a new job. This last development also necessitated our move from Carrollton, Georgia to Ashland, Ohio. Sure, some families would have also thought that this would be a great time to get a puppy too—because, why not? Rest assured; we still had enough sanity left to say: that’s a... Read more
I shouldn’t be surprised by now but I still am. As both a pastor and a scholar, I continue to face what I can only describe as sloppy modes of thinking about race. I’m sure you see it too. It came to my mind recently in considering the controversy over the statements of university presidents concerning the Israel/Hamas war, but specifically Michael Harriot’s tweet (yes, I will continue to call them tweets and I will call the platform Twitter): I... Read more
They say confession is good for the soul, so I am going to confess that as a “never Trumper” I’m getting pretty worked up about the 2024 presidential election, and I need to use this post to process some of my thoughts. In addition to Trump’s continual non-presidential sounding rhetoric and attitude, trial delaying tactics, and just plain craziness, there is a spate of recent and forthcoming articles issuing dire warnings about a second Trump term. My problem is that... Read more
I’m 50 my next birthday, and it seems a time for taking stock and for thinking a bit about the arc of my life, for locking down a bit of my personal archive. This has been harder than I would have thought. In spite of the ways we are always digging through the files of other lives, considering our own in this way isn’t as straight forward. In fact, it appears that memoir doesn’t always come easily to the historian.... Read more
Today we have a guest post on an important historical topic, to which I will offer a short introduction. I have blogged before on debates over the European settlement of the Americas, and the religious nature of those conquests. One of the greatest turning points in the history of Christianity came with the Iberian conquests in the New World during the sixteenth century, and the spread of the new faith across the whole of those vast continents. Unquestionably, the whole... Read more
[Article Updated, December 19, 2023: Some words have been added/altered to recognize that Stackhouse disputes the charges against him. A paragraph has also been added to clarify that this article is not about Stackhouse himself or alleges, accuses, or defames him. Rather this article focuses on a certain kind of history writing and history that never gets told about evangelicals. All changes are bracketed [ ], as a service to those who are curious about how this article has been... Read more
Tinsel halos and cardboard wings, bathrobes and blankets and staffs, giggles, somewhat out-of-tune singing, and general chaos around a manger: we can likely all imagine the scene in our heads if we’ve ever seen a nativity play, whether in person or in a movie. Christmas plays or pageants are a staple of the Christmas season, today often performed by the young people of a church or community. And perhaps there is a reason that plays are particularly fitting during Advent,... Read more
With all that’s happening: war(s), strife, homelessness, inequality, even still, even here, a moment for gratitude. Like so many of you, I’ve been practicing thankfulness this week. Of the many, many things I have to be thankful for: health, life, loved ones near and far, my students, a dog at my feet and glass of Gruner Veltliner in my hand (specificity, I’m told, aids in gratitude), that Michigan won The Game, the Bible and faith to believe it, a job– ... Read more
I recently posted on the sizable literature on the scientific explanations for religious behavior. As I noted there, “being human makes us naturally understand things in religious ways, even if we reject any formal or institutional religious affiliation. We are conditioned to look for things that we understand as holy, to project holiness onto particular people or places, to feel awe in their presence, to deny the reality of barriers separating life and death, and we will continue to do... Read more
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