Boole, Science, and Faith

Last updated on: March 4, 2019 at 8:31 am By Philip Jenkins

Recently I talked about Charles Babbage as a pioneer of modern computing, and as someone whose brilliant scientific ventures were explicitly designed to support belief in the existence of God, His power, wisdom and goodness. This is only one of many examples we might look at to refute the idea of religion, and specifically Christianity, being anti-science and anti-progress. One excellent book on this theme is Daniel J. Cohen, Equations from God: Pure Mathematics and Victorian Faith (Johns Hopkins University... Read more

Muskrat Feasts and the Food Politics of Lent

Last updated on: March 7, 2019 at 4:20 pm By Melissa Borja

In the upper Midwest, Lent is not simply a season for fasting—it’s a season for fish fries. While they’re supposed to be solemn days of self-denial and sacrifice, Lenten Fridays have provided the opportunity for people to gather together for festive events that offer a delicious diversion from the dreariness of the late winter months. In many cities, local newspapers publish the times and places of all the fish fries in the area, and beginning at mid-afternoon, an ambitious (devout?)... Read more

“Let Me Be A Woman” Revised? Elisabeth Elliot and Beth Moore

Last updated on: March 7, 2019 at 1:36 am By Beth Allison Barr

In 1976, Elisabeth Elliot published her landmark book Let Me Be A Woman: Notes to My Daughter on the Meaning of Womanhood. If you remember, Elisabeth Elliot’s first husband Jim was one of five missionaries speared to death in Ecuador in 1956. Let Me Be A Woman was a gift to her daughter, Valerie–Elliot’s only child who was 10 months old when Jim Elliot died. In Let Me Be A Woman, Elliot draws a clear line in the sand. Women are different from men,... Read more

In Search of the Primitive

Last updated on: March 4, 2019 at 9:03 pm By Chris Gehrz

In 1973 anthropologist Stanley Diamond published a series of essays meant “as a modest antidote to the alienation, guilt, anxiety and fear to which human beings are condemned in modern imperial civilization.” Calling his book In Search of the Primitive, Diamond contended that The longing for a primitive mode of existence is no mere fantasy or sentimental whim; it is consonant with fundamental human needs, the fulfillment of which (although in different form) is a precondition for our survival… The... Read more

Lent and Fasting, Then and Now

Last updated on: March 6, 2019 at 10:49 am By Philip Jenkins

This coming week, we will enter the season of Lent. Thinking about the history of this time tells us a lot about the church’s changing attitudes to those very Biblical ideas of fasting and penance. To understand where this time came from, it’s helpful – oddly – to look first at Muslim practice. Muslims today have a month-long-season called Ramadan that looks quite ferocious to most Christians. Between the hours of dawn and dusk, Muslims can eat or drink absolutely... Read more

Charles Babbage and the Miracle Program

Last updated on: February 22, 2019 at 8:43 am By Philip Jenkins

I wrote recently about the silly contemporary myth that portrays religion, and particularly Christianity, as implacably opposed to science and progress. In contrast, I emphasized the tradition of seeking “the Wisdom of God manifested in the works of Creation,” a phrase associated with the seventeenth century natural scientist John Ray. The legend of Christian obscurantism and ignorance is thoroughly disproved by an abundance of counter-examples, but some of the available correctives are so powerfully convincing that they startle. It is... Read more

Historians and Their Publics

Last updated on: February 27, 2019 at 11:23 pm By johnturner

Recently historians have been debating each other. Actually, this has been going on for quite some time. Max Boot observes the following in a Post op-ed: 1) History majors are declining; 2) Many Americans do not know when the War of 1812 began; 3) Americans elected Donald Trump, who does not know there was a War of 1812; 4) Historians bear some blame for these things because they have abandoned political and military history and because they fail to speak... Read more

“This Was Not Always Our Land”

Last updated on: February 26, 2019 at 8:59 am By David Swartz

In the nineteenth century, our white ancestors took Kanza land. What do we do about that now? Read more

How Podcasts Help Historians “Speak to a Larger Public”

Last updated on: February 26, 2019 at 9:20 am By Chris Gehrz

Chris recommends five examples of a medium that helps connect historians to the larger public: podcasts. Read more

Demons at work

Last updated on: February 24, 2019 at 3:24 pm By Agnes Howard

Jonathan Malesic‘s stunning reflection on life with the monks of New Mexico’s Monastery of Christ in the Desert crystallizes the problem of Americans and work. When Malesic goes out into the wilderness to spend a few days with the Benedictines, he knows he might encounter demons. He remembers that Desert Father and third-century monk St. Antony “said that if you go to the desert but don’t renounce all the things of this world, the demons will tear at your soul in... Read more