I am presently writing a book about US history over the past two decades or so, basically the 21st century. The overwhelming point that is emerging for me about the last twenty years has been not just the scale of change – social, economic, and above all technological – but also its extraordinary speed. Matters of race, gender, and sexuality have of course been in constant flux. This sets off many thoughts about extrapolating those changes to the near future,... Read more
Feminist anthropologist Jessica Johnson has just published a fascinating study, Biblical Porn: Affect, Labor, and Pastor Mark Driscoll’s Evangelical Empire, with Duke University Press. She joins us today at the Anxious Bench to discuss her timely new book. What led you to decide to write a book on Mark Driscoll? I never decided to write a book on Mark Driscoll; this project chose me, I did not choose it. The first time that I stepped into the Mars Hill sanctuary I... Read more
While evangelicals rarely perceive Christian influences on the New Deal, a recent religious biography argues that FDR absorbed a "Jesus-based theology" from his Episcopalian upbringing. Read more
My present book project is unusual, even by my standards. I am writing a history of the United States in a really distant and obscure era, namely since the year 2000. I’ll be talking about some themes arising from this in coming blogs, but today I want to look at a very specific and actually fundamental question about the country we are dealing with, about America. What, and where, is this America anyway? This issue emerged for me some years... Read more
I recently renewed an acquaintance with an old friend – a very old friend. For many years, I have been an enthusiastic advocate of the Brazilian work Os Sertões, or Rebellion in the Backlands (1902), by Euclides da Cunha. Despite its early date, it is a wonderful source for understanding modern day Global South Christianity, and especially Pentecostalism. The problem was that the best available translation was dated, and quite difficult. Recently, though, I read a more recent (2010) version,... Read more
From the Anxious Bench archives: Why should Christians (and other Americans) oppose the death penalty, at least as currently practiced in the United States? Not because it is unbiblical. A few years ago, Mark Tooley rather helpfully corrected a post of mine on this point. Prior to the particular laws given to Moses, God told Noah and his sons: “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.” One could debate the extent... Read more
I’m on a blogging break while conducting research in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I hope you find this post from 2014 to be an intriguing counter-narrative on this July 4 holiday. –David *** In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Attorney General of the United States John Ashcroft, a prominent advocate of the war in Iraq, wrote a song called “Let the Eagle Soar” (you can listen to it here). It is a deeply patriotic song, one he liked... Read more
Nowadays, we tend to associate the notion of the United States as a “Christian nation” with politically and theologically conservative evangelicals, like those analyzed in John Fea’s new book. But as I’ve continued my research on Charles Lindbergh, I’ve come across a very different kind of “Christian nation” argument — one made by a political and theological progressive who was horrified by the racialized language Lindbergh used to oppose American participation in World War II. Embed from Getty Images A... Read more
The Second Vatican Council (1962-65) is widely recognized as one of the most important religious events of the twentieth century—even if its reception has often proven polarizing among Catholics. Called into being by Pope John XXIII (r. 1958-63) and regarded as the twenty-first ecumenical council by the Catholic Church (the first was Nicaea in 325AD), the council ushered in major theological and liturgical modifications. Too often, however, the Council is narrated and analyzed only at the elite level, i.e., from... Read more
The United States just passed a critical statistical landmark, one that I think – I fear – has immense implications for the nation’s religious life. If I am right, and we are dealing with early days, we might seriously be looking at the opening stages of a large scale process of secularization. After being reported and speculated about for decades, that secularization might finally be happening. As I will argue, the term “secularization” over-simplifies the process, but let that stand... Read more
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