Mormons Will Vote Trump

September 1, 2016 By johnturner

The 2016 will go down in the annals of American political history as highly unusual. A real estate mogul and reality television star winning the Republican nomination? A Vermont socialist even sniffing the Democratic nod? Voting blocs, however, are far more predictable. Pundits have written great length about Donald Trump’s weakness with Mormon voters. Not surprisingly, most Latter-day Saints are cool toward a candidate who brags about his affairs with married women. Trump also has little appeal for either libertarians... Read more

The Space Between and the Migration of Identity

August 31, 2016 By David Swartz

Today’s guest post comes from Jenny McGill. She is the author of Religious Identity and Cultural Negotiation: Toward a Theology of Christian Identity in Migration (Pickwick 2016). I had the pleasure of reading the book in manuscript form. Here’s my endorsement: “This genre-bending book, drawing from social science and theology, considers the identity construction of Christian immigrants who straddle continents and cultures. Grounded in rigorous research spanning multiple countries, it is a cogently argued and theologically profound meditation on how... Read more

Incarnate, Crucified, Resurrected: What It Means to Be the Body of Christ

August 30, 2016 By Chris Gehrz

What the Body of Christ has in common with the historical body of Jesus — and what that means for the project of Christian higher education. Read more

The Place Called Dagon

August 29, 2016 By Philip Jenkins

I have been posting abut the modern mythology that tried to understand witchcraft as an authentic underground survival of ancient paganism, and how those myths of witchcraft and devil worship evolved into the modern farrago of Satanism. Throughout, I stress the role of academics, and of fiction-writers, whose ideas came to be believed as sober fact. Here, I want to look at one of the most influential books in this process, albeit one that is today largely forgotten. This is... Read more

European Films on Faith

August 26, 2016 By Philip Jenkins

My colleague Chris Gehrz recently did a valuable blogpost on films that treat religious topics well, basing his findings on a non-scientific survey of reader suggestions. The resulting list of the top seven films is very good, in the sense that they are all well worth seeing, although everyone will have their complaints about omissions. (No Groundhog Day? No Green Pastures? No Blood of Jesus? Really?) And obviously, it focuses on Christian productions. There are in fact plenty of great... Read more

History, Empathy, and Race in America

August 25, 2016 By Kristin Du Mez

In the white paper “Measuring College Learning in History” (a surprisingly good read as far as literature on assessment in higher education goes), Lendol Calder and Tracy Steffes discuss the virtues of historical inquiry. “History offers a critical perspective on the present and satisfies a natural longing most people have to situate themselves in a larger context and stream of time,” they write. And “a historical consciousness fosters perspective taking and empathy.” In the wake of a recent spate of... Read more

Of Pastors and Power: Mark Driscoll and the Avignon Papacy

August 24, 2016 By Beth Allison Barr

I made the mistake recently of reading Mark Driscoll’s 2008 Crossway book On Church Leadership. For those of you who have forgotten, or just blocked it, Mark Driscoll was the former pastor of the Mars Hill megachurch. He resigned deep in scandal in 2014, but has recovered somewhat and started a new church in Scottsdale, Arizona. My curiosity about his teachings was soon replaced by a fascinated horror. Driscoll’s obsession with pastoral power–the “first among equals,” as he wrote–reminds me... Read more

#fav7films on Faith

August 23, 2016 By Chris Gehrz

Our social media followers helped compile a list of seven favorite films about faith, religion, and belief. Read more

“History is Hot”

August 22, 2016 By Chris Gehrz

Many historians have been given prominent public platforms of late. Is history "hot" right now? And if so, what does that mean for the declining number of history majors? Read more

Up on the Downs

August 22, 2016 By Philip Jenkins

I have been posting about the creation of modern myths about paganism, human sacrifice and other dark rural deeds in twentieth century Britain. Throughout, I have emphasized how artificial these ideas are, in the sense of being literary or artistic creations, commonly reinforced by the growth of sensationalist tabloid media. Many of the works in these genres are well known, but a few of the really good pieces are not. Here I will discuss a personal favorite of mine, an... Read more