On the campaign against loose morals in the 1920s and how contemporary support for Roy Moore and Donald Trump show just how political the term "evangelical" has become Read more
On the campaign against loose morals in the 1920s and how contemporary support for Roy Moore and Donald Trump show just how political the term "evangelical" has become Read more
I’ve often said that I try to approach blogging as “thinking in public.” But this post, I’m afraid, will be more like me having a bad dream in public. The dream starts peacefully enough, with a person who loves what he does. That’s me. As a history professor at a Christian university, I get to teach a wide array of courses with a diverse group of students who are generally serious, hard-working, and earnest. But it gets better: my best friends in... Read more
After World War II America’s economy roared to life. Wartime energies found themselves redirected to fuel a boom time in the nation’s history. In 1949 my grandfather opened a business in Tuscaloosa, Alabama: Business Supply Company, a business for businesses as it were, selling office products, printing, and more. My father took it over in the 1960s. Growing up in the 70s and 80s, I knew it simply as “the store.” It will close its doors on December 31. My... Read more
Now this is a treat! I was recently corresponding with the excellent English scholar of religion Linda Woodhead, who made some very interesting comments about the importance of divination as a badly under-studied theme within religion – in fact, within all religions. At my request, she put together a summary of her views, and it is a privilege to include her guest contribution to the blog. As you see, she ranges widely in the examples she offers. Reading her observations... Read more
Today’s guest post comes from Raully Donahue. Donahue took a PhD in European history from Notre Dame into upper Michigan to raise three boys. Now that the boys are grown, he is trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life. Here he shares his observations on Christian scholarship and the Christian public. One of my standard conversation openers at parties is to ask this question: “Why is C. S. Lewis one of the most revered... Read more
This is from my Anxious Bench archives. It is still one of my favorites, even though I wrote it two years ago. Stay tuned for my next post on more Xmas traditions. I literally stumbled across St. Bride’s church in London this summer. Walking down Fleet Street toward St. Paul’s Cathedral, I was considering eating at Ye Olde Chesire Cheese when I looked up and saw the wedding cake spire designed by Christopher Wren. It wasn’t until I saw the sign... Read more
Is evangelical identity based on a shared story, a religious version of a national narrative? Read more
At the recent meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Boston, I spoke on a panel that reviewed the major new collection edited by Tony Burke and Brent Landau, New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 2016). These were my remarks. I make two statements that might sound contradictory. First, the praise. This book is a wonderful treasure house. Despite all the difficulties of coordinating and marshaling so many different contributions, it maintains... Read more
Last time, I talked about the collapse of the old Roman order in Britain in the fifth century, and what we can reliably say about such an obscure period with so few written sources. (Although it is not a fashionable term, I do use the concept of the Dark Age, properly defined). For historians of Christianity, this is a matter of some moment because out of this world comes the whole world of the Celtic church of Britain and Ireland,... Read more
In 1676, the residents of Plymouth feasted not on turkey and cranberries, but on the severed head of their enemy. The government of New Plymouth asked the colony’s churches to keep August 17 as a day of thanksgiving. The day followed on the heels of many days of “humiliation,” on which colonists had fasted and prayed that God would forgive them for their sins that had provoked God to punish them with war and sickness. For much of the prior... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In