The Conference on Faith and History is celebrating its 50th anniversary this October, with a conference that features plenty of Anxious Bench connections. Read more
The Conference on Faith and History is celebrating its 50th anniversary this October, with a conference that features plenty of Anxious Bench connections. Read more
Perhaps you’ve heard. One month ago, evangelical women “hit pause” on the culture wars. It might surprise you to hear that this olive branch was extended in response to President Trump’s proposed Supreme Court pick. While many evangelicals were celebrating this victory, “evangelical women” raised a voice in protest. The strategy to dominate the court, they contended, “will result in a loss for the pro-life movement and for people of color sitting in the only growing segment of the evangelical... Read more
I was sitting on a picnic bench outside of the Navajo Nation capital when I read Scot McKnight’s tweet about Willow Creek. His comment that, “mismanagement, powermongering, threatening, and offering money for silence” should be themes “central to church leadership discussions” in seminaries really caught my attention. If you have followed my blogs for a while, then you know that pastoral accountability is important to me. For Christians who loudly proclaim the “priesthood of all believers” and that “all have... Read more
As many of us prepare for the start of another school year, guest blogger Rachel Neiwert introduces us to the educational philosopher Charlotte Mason — and her notion that "education is a life." Read more
I have been sketching the (Christian) religious worlds of 1968, and the many critical changes then in progress. In many ways, circumstances of that time closely resembled other eras of radical transformation, and here I will try to draw out some of the general themes, to create a model for understanding such crisis eras. Please note that the following account is fairly theoretical, and the concrete examples on which I base my statements are found in those earlier blogposts. I... Read more
I ended my last post with a cliffhanger. I was writing about the religious dimensions of that critical year of 1968, noting how radically the common expectations that people of that time held about the future differed from what actually occurred. They got it wrong in so many ways, but one trend in particular – and one key event that December – symbolized the gap between vision and reality. So what was the event? Let me end the suspense. I... Read more
In the fall of 1658, Massachusetts passed a law that threatened banished Quakers with death. Over the next three years, the colony executed four Friends — including Mary Dyer — who violated that law. Alongside the Salem Witch Trials, Massachusetts’s executions of Quakers have done much to cement the reputation of New England puritans for cruelty. In addition to the executions, several of the New England puritan colonies whipped Quakers. In 1661, Massachusetts enacted a law according to which “vagabond”... Read more
Nearly 40 years ago, on July 15, 1979, President Jimmy Carter went on national television to share with millions of Americans his diagnosis of a nation in crisis. “All the legislation in the world,” he proclaimed, “can’t fix what’s wrong with America.” He went on to call upon American citizens to reflect on the meaning and purpose of their lives together. Carter made several specific policy prescriptions. But in a presidency animated by spirituality perhaps more than any other in... Read more
Chris suggests "what a Christian patriotism might look like under a president whose love of self trumps any love of country." Read more
Driving home from an evening out several weeks ago, a debate broke out in the backseat among my children of whether life existed on other planets. My son is interested in astronomy, so we have had this discussion several times. But this debate took an unexpected theological turn when speculation arose that if life existed on other planets would these extraterrestrial creatures have developed “religions”: would they know God? Would God have communicated to them? We moderns, drenched in sci-fi... Read more
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