Ever since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the 1940s, many writers have tried to draw connections to Christian origins. Read more
Ever since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the 1940s, many writers have tried to draw connections to Christian origins. Read more
As I remarked, the early twentieth century was a thrilling time for anyone interested in the Bible or early Christianity, and especially for “lost” alternative versions of the faith. New textual discoveries were appearing, and were having an enormous popular impact. much less well known is the strictly parallel developments that were occurring in the study of the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible in exactly these years. And as in the case of alternative gospels, we might be startled to... Read more
Amid the semester’s end, the following is adapted and slightly updated from the Anxious Bench archives… One of the big surprises of 2017 was the extent of evangelical support for Donald Trump. During the Republican primaries, evangelicals might well have divided their support among a number of candidates who spoke persuasively about their Christian faith, including Ted Cruz, John Kasich, and the now-defunct Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, and Jeb Bush. Nevertheless, in many early primaries, Trump attracted a plurality of the Republican... Read more
Guest blogger Andrea Turpin reflects on the value of diversity in Christian higher education, as seen in two of her courses this semester at Baylor University. Read more
Teaching as an act of wonder: wondering at, wondering if, wondering while, wondering with, and wondering into existence. Read more
George Saunders’s novel Lincoln in the Bardo springs from an actual historical event, but ends up with more to say about loss and the afterlife than historical record. Abraham Lincoln’s son Willie died of typhoid in 1862. President Lincoln made nighttime visits to the boy’s tomb, and around that report Saunders builds a strange world of souls in denial of death–literally and conceptually—who greet the boy in Oak Hill Cemetary. Saunders renders this a bardo, in Tibetan Buddhism a liminal stage between... Read more
It is difficult to think of a modern "radical" theory about Christian origins that was not pretty standard and mainstream in the decades before the First World War. Read more
For nearly half a century, American Christians have, to greater and lesser degrees, embraced the role of culture warriors. As evangelicals began to stake a claim on American culture and politics, they invoked the language of rights while lamenting the purported decline of “Christian America.” They pushed back against encroaching secularization and federal government “overreach” as they sought to carve out space to live out their faith in the manner they saw fit. Issues such as abortion, the ERA, school... Read more
Recently, I was writing about issues of mission, migration and religious change. It occurs to me that some polymath should write a global, cross-religious history of mission and evangelism. Yes, I know that last word is Christian, but let’s take it in the general sense of “spreading the good news,” however defined. Historically, I can think of three great religions that at various times invested heavily in expanding their flocks by evangelizing non-believers, namely Buddhism, Islam, and Manicheanism. Together with... Read more
The verses we emphasize say a lot about what we believe as Christians. So what were the top verses in medieval Christianity? Read more
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