The Weight of Words–Medieval Jangling to Modern Tweeting

Last updated on: September 4, 2019 at 12:15 am By Beth Allison Barr

I am so pleased to welcome back Lynneth Miller Renberg. Lynneth is an assistant professor of history at Anderson University in Anderson, SC. She teaches a range of courses, including classes on medieval Europe, Europe in the Reformation, and the history of women in the church. She is currently working on a monograph on dance, sacrilege, and gender in late medieval England and an edited collection on the tale of the cursed dancing carolers. I’ve been thinking a lot about words lately.... Read more

Red State Christians

Last updated on: September 2, 2019 at 7:57 pm By Chris Gehrz

Chris talks to journalist-pastor Angela Denker about her new book, based on extensive interviews with evangelicals and other Christians who voted for Donald Trump. Read more

Shifting Images of Terror: The Road from Arlington Road

Last updated on: September 2, 2019 at 8:59 am By Philip Jenkins

This is the voice of historical memory speaking, through the channel of Professor Jenkins. Last time, I described how views of terrorism have shifted over time, between internal enemies (usually domestic far Right) and external (Communists or Islamists). Such oscillations are dangerous when they involve a kind of blindness toward the kind of terror we decide to underplay or ignore. In the 1990s, the total focus on white supremacist and far Right terrorism led to a catastrophic official neglect of... Read more

Shifting Images of Terror

Last updated on: August 29, 2019 at 6:41 am By Philip Jenkins

For some thirty years, I have written and taught about the topic of terrorism, including in my 2003 book Images of Terror. I talk about specific movements and actions, but more broadly about the larger issues of interpretation that are so vital in determining official responses. Centrally, how do we know what we think we know about terrorism? We presently stand at a critical turning point in attitudes to terrorism, although the core issues at stake are receiving nothing like... Read more

Wild Evangelicals

Last updated on: August 29, 2019 at 12:15 am By johnturner

As a teenager, I twice went to Young Life‘s Saranac Lake summer camp. These were amazing weeks. Worship, fun and games, and talks by hip young speakers. The ostensible reason for the camp was evangelism. The talks culminated in an invitation for people to confess their sins to God and invite Jesus Christ into their lives as Lord and Savior. If we were already Christians, we should more fully devote ourselves to Christ. On the final night each year, the... Read more

Elisabeth Elliot, Missionary Rebel

Last updated on: August 22, 2019 at 10:40 pm By David Swartz

How a conservative missionary came to question the American missionary enterprise Read more

Kashmir and Hindu Nationalism

Last updated on: August 27, 2019 at 10:54 am By Thomas Albert Howard

By abrogating the constitutional provisions that granted the state of Kashmir a measure of autonomy, India has placated its own Hindu nationalists while provoking predominantly Muslim Pakistan, which like India possesses nuclear weapons. The volatility in this region of the world is worrisome, to say the least. To understand why, one must have some grasp of the rise of Hindu nationalism in Indian politics in recent decades. Here is an article on it, “The Dangers of Hindu Nationalism,” that I... Read more

The Last Days of Charles Lindbergh

Last updated on: August 25, 2019 at 2:47 pm By Chris Gehrz

On the 45th anniversary of Charles Lindbergh's death, Chris considers what the pilot's last days reveal about his "spiritual, but not religious" beliefs. Read more

The Damnation of Theron Ware

Last updated on: August 23, 2019 at 7:37 am By Philip Jenkins

When I am in conversations about American religious history – and specifically issues concerning teaching – I am surprised to find how many well informed people seem not to know one really fine source, and resource. I am referring to Harold Frederic’s The Damnation of Theron Ware (1896), a superb novel that is a treasure trove for many aspects of American religious life in that era. Through the 1920s, it was commonly regarded as one of the great American novels,... Read more

The Importance of Knowing Your Religious Neighbors

Last updated on: August 22, 2019 at 2:32 pm By Melissa Borja

When I was conducting oral history interviews for my current book project about Hmong refugee resettlement, I had the opportunity to meet a vivacious woman named Dorothy, who lived in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The granddaughter of Norwegian immigrants and the daughter of a Lutheran minister, Dorothy was born in her church’s parsonage and maintained a deep commitment to church involvement throughout her entire life. At the same time, she was intensely curious about the other ethnic and religious groups that... Read more

What does "Pentateuch" mean in Greek?