The City-State of Boston

Last updated on: June 12, 2019 at 4:09 pm By johnturner

I am used to thinking of the New England colonies as commonwealths, as what Michael Winship (in Hot Protestants) calls “quasi-republics.” Mark Peterson, in his remarkable City-State of Boston, uses this language as well. The Massachusetts Bay founders “erected a commonwealth remarkable for its autonomy,” he writes, “including an independent religious order free from the Church of England’s scrutiny, and a self-governing republic centered in Boston.” Peterson’s lens is different, though. He traces “the long-term fate of the efforts that... Read more

Cracks In The Foundation: Why American Evangelical Christianity Soured

Last updated on: June 20, 2019 at 4:15 pm By David Swartz

Chuck Redfern: "It’s time for evangelical myth busting. I say that as the not-so-secret secret unravels: White American Evangelical Christianity has plunged into a theological, spiritual, and moral abyss. Many claiming the evangelical label laud an obviously decadent president while jettisoning the movement’s time-honored convictions: Lifeway Research found that majorities believe the Holy Spirit is an impersonal force, that Jesus was a created being, and that family worship is an acceptable swap for regular church attendance. I gladly pinned on the evangelical badge in the early 1980s as liberation’s insignia. The term signaled a more ecumenical, gracious, and intellectually viable species of back-to-the-Bible Christian. Wesleyan-oriented nineteenth-century evangelicals pushed for reform. They advocated abolitionism; they intentionally dwelled in slums and befriended the poor; they were the first to ordain women. Now? Not so much. Two questions: What went wrong and what’s the remedy? An inevitable third question flows from the second: Should we fight to preserve the evangelical tag or was Russell Moore right in 2016: “In many ways the word itself is at the moment subverting the gospel of Jesus Christ.”" Read more

What Southern Baptists Can Learn From Canadian Baptists……

Last updated on: June 18, 2019 at 12:32 pm By Beth Allison Barr

Just last week I found myself at the corner of Burrard Street and Nelson Street in Vancouver, British Columbia. I was making my way from the airport to my hotel, via the Vancouver metro system. I know most folk just grab a cab, especially when luggage is in tow. But using public transportation orients me to a new city and I really wanted to get my bearings as quickly as possible. The Canadian Society of Church History had invited me... Read more

Learning from the Nuns

Last updated on: June 13, 2019 at 12:13 pm By Agnes Howard

For a few years now, Catholic sisters and religiously unaffiliated young-ish people have been finding common ground, making common cause, and building community. As Nellie Bowles reported recently in The New York Times, millennials have been gathering together with Catholic Sisters of Mercy for conversation, study, and fellowship.It’s exactly what should happen, and lauds are due to both Nuns and Nones for willingness to engage the other, to appreciate each other’s vision and gifts. As Bowles narrates, the project was... Read more

The Census, Religion, and Citizenship

Last updated on: June 14, 2019 at 12:10 pm By johnturner

The U.S. Constitution mandates a decennial census, used to allocate representatives in the House and any “direct taxes … apportioned among the several states.” The U.S. government undertook its first census in 1790 and has done so every ten years since. The first census counted individuals by household, noting whether individuals were free or enslaved and whether or not white men were above or under sixteen years of age. The precise questions and procedures for the decennial census have changed... Read more

Counting the Slave Trade

Last updated on: June 15, 2019 at 7:09 am By Philip Jenkins

No worthwhile account of American history – or of its religious history – can fail to pay proper attention to the impact of slavery and its legacies. I recently came across some specific information about that topic that took me aback. Perhaps I am ill-informed here, and others will know this better, but let me present what I found. I’ll also include a suggestion about how we might revise our teaching of US history in light of all this. A... Read more

Men Without Chests: On Weaponizing C.S. Lewis

Last updated on: June 19, 2019 at 11:41 am By Kristin Du Mez

Today we welcome Josh Parks to the Anxious Bench. A recent graduate of Calvin College with majors in English literature and violin performance, Josh is an MA student in medieval studies at Western Michigan University. “Because there is very little honor left in American life, there is a certain built-in tendency to destroy masculinity in American men.” – Norman Mailer “A man’s got to have a code, a creed to live by, no matter his job.” – John Wayne... Read more

Because Complementarianism Is About Power

Last updated on: April 27, 2021 at 4:47 pm By Beth Allison Barr

On Sunday, June 2, the world buried Rachel Held Evans. She was 37 years old and died, very unexpectedly. Like so many others, I remember the moment I found out she was gone. I was tying my shoes, about to go walking with a friend, when my husband told me. We are very domestic on Saturday mornings—he reads the news while I make the waffles. So he saw the post first, and for a few seconds, everything stopped. I didn’t know... Read more

Welcome To Our New Blogger, Dr. Andrea Turpin!

Last updated on: June 3, 2019 at 10:17 am By Beth Allison Barr

I am so pleased to introduce you to my Baylor colleague, Dr. Andrea Turpin. Andrea has been my women’s history counterpart at Baylor since 2011. She teaches the American Women’s history courses while I have been teaching the European Women’s history courses. Andrea is also one of the most thoughtful and brilliant Christian scholars I know. Her research focuses on Religious and Intellectual History, History of the U.S. Higher Education, U.S. Women and Gender, and the Gilded-Progressive era. Her first... Read more

She Treasured It In Her Heart

Last updated on: June 13, 2019 at 3:11 pm By Philip Jenkins

I’m wondering when it is possible to argue from silence when reading historical sources, and particularly in a Biblical context. I have for several years been writing and posting about the Virgin Mary in early Christianity, and have from time to time been taken aback to find how even I tended to attribute statements to the wrong gospel, and thus the wrong historical tradition. It underlined for me the problem all Bible readers have of overcoming the “Harmony Principle” –... Read more