I have been thinking about how Paul’s letters came to be collected and remembered. If anyone says the following post is pure speculation, which can neither be tested nor proven, they would be right. It’s an imaginative exercise, no more. Think of it as a detective story. To begin with solid facts, or things we can say with high confidence. Probably in the 90s AD, Luke was composing his Book of Acts, and he certainly did not know Paul’s letters... Read more
This past weekend, nearly 2,000 people made the annual pilgrimage to Manzanar, one of the concentration camps where the U.S. government incarcerated Japanese Americans during the Second World War. The pilgrimage was partly an act of historical commemoration: this year marked the fiftieth anniversary of the first pilgrimage to Manzanar, and 77 years have passed since President Roosevelt’s issuing of Executive Orders 9066, which authorized the forced removal of thousands of Japanese Americans on the West Coast. But in... Read more
This is revised from my Ancient Bench archives. I wanted to post it again, however, because it really belongs in my Disrupting Christian Patriarchy series. It shows that Christian women speaking out on behalf of women is not a new “feminist” agenda, it has roots deep in the Christian past. It shows how a woman recognized that ideas about women matter; that ideas about women shape the treatment of women. I wish more evangelical women would realize this today.... Read more
Citing a changed name for Fort Snelling, Minnesota legislators recently voted to slash the budget of the state's impressive historical society. Chris explains why such critics misunderstand history in general and military history in particular. Read more
I have been writing about different traditions of the Resurrection and what I understand to be the late appearance of stories involving Mary Magdalene as a witness of the Resurrection. Modern scholars devote much attention to the developing story of Mary Magdalene, commonly emphasizing how her early importance was denied and denigrated by a patriarchal church. I wonder if we have this upside down? Instead of being demoted and denigrated, women were rather being advanced and built up as the... Read more
A golden rule when reading the New York Times is never to be shocked by idiocy. That is what they are, and what they do. But I do confess to breaking my own rule in reading a recent Eastertide article about depictions of Jesus, by one Eric Copage. I am by no means the only person to point this out, but how the article got through the editorial process defies belief. Yes, I’m shocked. The vast majority of Mr. Copage’s... Read more
Puritan New England’s reputation for rigidity and intolerance goes back almost all the way to Plymouth Rock (that’s another myth for another time). By 1624, several of the English financial backers of New Plymouth had received complaints from settlers who did not share the separatist principles of the colony’s leaders. The Pilgrims allegedly were “condemning all other churches, and persons but yourselves and those in your way, and you are contentious, cruel and hard hearted, among your neighbours and towards... Read more
A New York Times report earlier this year on trends of stylish Brooklyn moms put me in mind of Puritan sumptuary laws. The article notes, “in Brooklyn recently, a decidedly more bohemian expression of middle-aged fashion has emerged.” The specs: you buy moderately expensive chunky shoes and a very expensive purse, which you rusticate by attaching a patterned strap. “This ensemble is made up of two accessories: Part 1 is the No. 6 clog, which has become ubiquitous in upscale... Read more
Chris proposes that we might better understand the purpose of the Christian liberal arts if we think about them by analogy to baptism, eucharist, and other Christian sacraments. Read more
Pence's invitation to speak at Taylor University's commencement reveals an evangelical populism that has been there all along. Read more
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