Christianity and Evangelicalism

Last updated on: April 19, 2018 at 12:56 pm By Kristin Du Mez

As prominent evangelical leaders gather this week at Wheaton, IL, to discuss how the Trump era “has unleashed [a] ‘grotesque caricature’ of their faith,” historian James Bratt of Calvin College joins us today at the Anxious Bench to weigh in with some thoughts on Christianity and Evangelicalism, and the death (and resurrection) of a movement. I recently attended a conference at Notre Dame honoring the career of Mark Noll. As one of the most accomplished scholars of American religious history,... Read more

Scamming for God? The Tale of (Another) Huckster Preacher Kirbyjon Caldwell

Last updated on: April 18, 2018 at 7:57 am By Beth Allison Barr

Today I am pleased to welcome Jonathan Root to The Anxious Bench. Jonathan Root is currently a postdoctoral teaching fellow at the University of Missouri. He received his PhD in history in spring 2016 at Mizzou. His dissertation is a history of the relationship between the prosperity gospel and American popular culture. The phrase, “I’m going to beat this case like a rented mule,” is not one you would expect to hear at a church service, let alone an Easter... Read more

41% of Americans Don’t Know What Auschwitz Was?!?

Last updated on: April 17, 2018 at 8:41 am By Chris Gehrz

What a dismal headline for Holocaust Remembrance Day: Americans are forgetting the Holocaust. At least, that seems to be the takeaway from a survey released last Thursday by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. As publications like the New York Times reported, 41% of its respondents can’t say what Auschwitz was. Now, what actually happened is that share of respondents couldn’t answer a survey question asking if Auschwitz was an extermination camp, concentration camp, or forced labor camp. But there’s plenty... Read more

On Getting Churches Totally Wrong

Last updated on: April 16, 2018 at 10:33 am By Philip Jenkins

There is a widespread impression that the US mass media are deeply anti-Christian, and that this hostility echoes through film and television. I am not arguing with that basic idea, but the situation is actually worse than that. Generally speaking, the people who write scripts and make movies honestly have no idea of what Christianity is, or its most basic concepts, themes and institutions. This came to me forcibly when I saw yet another film in which fanatical Christians emerge... Read more

The Dancer and the Hero

Last updated on: April 13, 2018 at 7:42 am By Philip Jenkins

In April 1968, Martin Luther King jr was assassinated in Memphis, and we have heard a great deal recently about the half-century anniversary of that event. But here is a story of events following the murder. I stress that is according to some accounts, and other scholars may well correct legendary elements – but it is a striking tale. As the story goes, King’s widow Coretta wanted someone to replace Martin as the symbolic head of the movement he had... Read more

The Politics of “Christianity”: An Interview with Matthew Bowman

Last updated on: April 9, 2018 at 12:42 pm By johnturner

Matthew Bowman is a historian whose work ranges widely over the intersection of religion, politics, and culture in the United States of the past two centuries. Today’s post is an interview with him about his most recent book, Christian: The Politics of a Word, just published from Harvard University Press. Let’s start at the end of the story. One of the things I like about your book is your reminder that words matter a great deal in politics, and that the... Read more

Falwell vs. Claiborne: A Report from Lynchburg

Last updated on: April 11, 2018 at 12:16 am By David Swartz

What Liberty University and the Red Letter Revival in Virginia can tell us about the state of the evangelical left and the religious right Read more

Evangelicals in Lynchburg: A Photo Essay

Last updated on: April 9, 2018 at 10:34 pm By David Swartz

We recently returned from Lynchburg, Virginia, home of Liberty University and the site of the progressive evangelical Red Letter Revival. Read more

Christianity and Other Religions

Last updated on: April 9, 2018 at 8:05 am By Thomas Albert Howard

Growing religious diversity, global conflicts that have a religious dimension, and the modern rise of “interreligious dialogue” suggest the importance of sound Christian theological thinking about other faiths. Permit me to sketch here a three-fold typology of Christian-theological approaches to other religions. For theologians conversant in these matters, these categories will come as old news, but they are also helpful for lay Christians to keep in mind as they engage friends and neighbors of other faiths. Briefly put, we may... Read more

Remembering a Lost Holy City

Last updated on: April 6, 2018 at 2:20 pm By Philip Jenkins

My last post looked at arguments for the dating of the four canonical gospels as we have them. The standard view holds that all four gospels are later than 70 AD, though some very credible scholars hold other views. I argued that an overwhelming weight of evidence forces us to place Mark’s Gospel after the Fall of Jerusalem in 70, and if that is correct, that means post-70 dates for all the other gospels, as these rely on Mark. That... Read more

Who passed by in the Parable of the Good Samaritan before the Samaritan helped?