My current series of posts concerns what I call the first discovery of lost gospels and scriptures, which became a major force in both scholarship and religious life at the turn of the twentieth century – the start of that century, rather than the end.. Today, I look at a critical component of this sweeping cultural change, namely the vital role played by esoteric movements, and especially the Theosophical Society. To oversimplify, the ideas they presented in the late nineteenth... Read more
Stepping under the 13th-century painted ceiling from the chancel of the church in Ål housed in Oslo’s Historical Museum is a breathtaking experience for a medievalist. The space is small, probably only 15 feet by 30 feet. The community that worshipped in this space was also small: while it is difficult to figure out exact population numbers, the entire population of Norway at the time was only a few hundred thousand people. Ål was not a major metropolitan center and... Read more
I have been describing the abundant discovery of lost scriptures and gospels from the later nineteenth century, which is long before the time that most people think they became available. In fact, not only were such texts “found” after long periods of disappearance, but most were brought out in accessible vernacular translations. The pace of publication was deeply impressive, with scarcely a break from the 1880s through the 1930s. If you were interested in such matters, and had some middle-class... Read more
James Dobson’s death last week marked the end of a particular era in conservative evangelical politics. It was certainly not the end of the Christian Right, but it was the conclusion of a particular phase of it, because it was the death of the last evangelical leader who was a direct orchestrator of the Sunbelt-centered marriage of Reagan Republicanism and the culture wars that occurred in the late 1970s. For those who want to know more about Dobson’s career, I... Read more
Reformed Evangelical Concerns About Comer Escalate Over a hot summer August weekend in 2025, evangelicals on X engaged in a lively conversation about crucicentrism when Denny Burk went after John Mark Comer for his views on Penal-Substitutionary Atonement (PSA). Burk expressed less immediate concern with the biblical, theological, and social implications of Andrew Remington Rillera’s recent publication, Lamb of the Free (Wipf and Stock, 2024), which Comer lauded in an Instagram post as the “knock out blow to PSA [penal-substitutionary... Read more
When I was in college, my Southern Baptist church back home went through a years-long conflict over musical styles in church. While the particulars of my church’s situation were unique, the battle lines in their iteration of the “worship wars” were drawn in similar places: the propriety of drums in the sanctuary, the prominence of guitars over a brass section, the potential loss of the choir and, most of all, the priority of “new songs.” Many of the congregants who... Read more
I have been writing about the modern rediscovery of ancient Jewish and Christian scriptures, including Lost Gospels. We usually tend to think of such finds in the context of the 1940s, with the Nag Hammadi library in Egypt in 1945, and the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran in 1947. In reality, people already knew a very great deal about such things long before that point, and the great age of rediscovery occurred between the 1880s and the 1920s. Today, I... Read more
[This is the third part in a three-part series that delves into the story of Zion, Illinois, and its founder, John Alexander Dowie. This series explores the oft-misunderstood relationship between charismatic Christianity and modernity. Click here for the first part, or here for the second part.] They had removed two of the three bullets from his body, but Senior Sergeant Sauer was now refusing further treatment. “Do not touch me,” he said, “I want no drugs. Telephone Dr. Dowie and... Read more
Who Reads Scripture Better: Scholars or Disciples? Who reads the Scriptures better—Bart Ehrman or my grandmother? One is a world-renowned scholar of the New Testament and textual critic, the other has no degrees in biblical studies nor any publications in the field. With this in mind, most would likely say Ehrman comes out victorious—sorry, grandma! But is this the best metric for reading Scripture rightly? To complicate things, Ehrman is famously an atheist, while my grandmother has been a faithful... Read more
“I pray and strive for this bell of peace to continue ringing until the last day of the world.” – Nagasaki survivor and Servant of God, Dr. Takashi Nagai (1908-1951) I’ve always considered August 15 a beautiful day. In the Catholic calendar, it’s the day we commemorate the Virgin Mary’s bodily Assumption into heaven. I’ve celebrated this feast in the Roman Catholic tradition in Italy and in Mexico, where faithful surround statues of the Virgin Mary with apples. I’ve also... Read more
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