The Sins of Early Evangelicalism

Last updated on: January 23, 2019 at 4:52 pm By Kristin Du Mez

Today Peter Choi, author of the new book George Whitefield: Evangelist for God and Empire joins us at the Anxious Bench. Historians, journalists, and pundits debating the nature of contemporary evangelicalism often set the politicization of recent evangelicalism against an idealized historical evangelicalism. With his history of Whitefield and eighteenth-century evangelicalism, Choi complicates that narrative in ways that help reframe our contemporary conversations. For many evangelicals, George Whitefield (1714-1770) represents the very best of their tradition. He remains one of... Read more

Christians Must Face The Reality Of Rape Culture

Last updated on: January 22, 2019 at 11:23 pm By Beth Allison Barr

I am so pleased to welcome guest blogger Leslie Hahner, PhD, to The Anxious Bench today. Leslie is a brilliant thinker, writer, and professor. I know this because we have been in an interdisciplinary writing group together since 2011. She has two recently published books, To Become an American: Immigrants and Americanization Campaigns of the Early Twentieth Century and Make America Meme Again: The Rhetoric of the Alt-right. Her current book project, which she is writing with fellow Baylor professor Scott Varda, focuses... Read more

A Brief History of the Time Machine

Last updated on: January 21, 2019 at 6:06 pm By Chris Gehrz

The time machine is a staple of science fiction... but do some machines actually help us move our minds back in time? Read more

Faith, Fertility, and the Remaking of Islam

Last updated on: January 15, 2019 at 9:02 am By Philip Jenkins

I am using a map to illustrate some long term megatrends in the history of religion. Although the map specifically concerns Islam, many of the same lessons apply to Christianity. The map appeared in Samuel M. Zwemer, The Moslem World (New York: Young People’s Missionary Movement of the United States and Canada, 1907-1908). Samuel Marinus Zwemer (1867-1952) was an exceptionally important figure in the US missionary world at that time. “Sixteen years a missionary in Arabia,” he earned the title... Read more

Which Western Civilization?

Last updated on: January 18, 2019 at 4:05 pm By Philip Jenkins

The world of Classics is currently facing intense debates over race and racism, and the recent meeting of the Society for Classical Studies included a panel that apparently degenerated into ugly name-calling. Rather than addressing the many issues at stake there, I will focus on one, namely the whole question of “Western Civilization.” Briefly, conservatives in these debates are anxious to defend Classics as representing core values in the defense of Western Civilization, while critics see that whole concept as... Read more

John Myles, the early New England Baptists, and Liberty

Last updated on: January 17, 2019 at 1:51 am By johnturner

John Myles (sometimes written Miles) was among the most important Baptist ministers in seventeenth-century New England. I first encountered Myles in an essay by my co-blogger Philip Jenkins, who wrote about the role of Miles in opposing the spread of Quaker beliefs and practices in southern Wales.[1] Back in 1649, Myles had gained the pulpit at Ilston, near Swansea, turning its parish church into a magnet for those who rejected infant baptism in the area. As Philip notes, the first... Read more

“Joe Brown, Joe Brown, He’s a Mean White Man”: Southern Baptist Seminary and the Convict-Lease System

Last updated on: January 17, 2019 at 11:34 am By David Swartz

An evangelical seminary tries to reckon with its history of white supremacy Read more

12 Books by Women You Should Read This Year

Last updated on: January 15, 2019 at 4:08 am By Chris Gehrz

An Anxious Bench book club: 12 books by - and mostly about - women that Patheos Evangelical readers should read this year. Read more

Remembering Gary Knoppers (1956-2018)

Last updated on: January 11, 2019 at 9:24 am By Philip Jenkins

This past Christmas season was darkened by the loss of a great friend who was also an excellent Biblical scholar, Gary Knoppers. He was only 62 at the time of his death. I had known Gary for thirty years, mainly through his time at Penn State, where he variously belonged to Religious Studies and CAMS (Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies), and he headed that latter unit. We also belonged to the same Episcopal church, of which he was an ever-dependable... Read more

Marie Kondo: Magical Asian Sage for Our Untidy Times

Last updated on: January 10, 2019 at 2:58 pm By Melissa Borja

The families, homes, and clutter habits featured on the Netflix reality show Tidying Up with Marie Kondo are as diverse as America, but Japanese home organizing consultant Marie Kondo always begins her tidying projects in the same way: with a ritual in which she greets and thanks the house. This ritual is one of the most dramatic and poignant moments in the episode, and it follows a consistent script throughout the show. After Kondo explains her intent and offers instructions... Read more

What was the primary marriage dowry in Biblical times?