By now, I’m sure you’ve all seen this video. If you haven’t, here you go. You’re welcome. I could write about all the reasons I find this video so absurdly funny, but instead I suggest you read Jonny Cooper’s “Anatomy of a Masterpiece.” Again, you’re welcome. Everybody in the world is laughing at—or let’s say with—this charming family. Except some feminists, apparently. Did you think this was a tragically funny moment that we can all relate to? Silly you. This... Read more
The newest issue of Christian History Magazine explores the effects of the two world wars on Christianity. Read more
Across the political spectrum, most Americans would automatically describe the country’s religious heritage as “Judeo-Christian.” Rarely, though, do they think about the origins of this term, or how exceedingly odd it would have appeared before the 1950s (and still does to many non-Americans). In fact, the Judeo-Christian concept has a highly political origin, and was a deliberate response to ugly conflicts that had badly tainted the simple “Christian” label. The Judeo-Christian label apparently originated with George Orwell, writing as recently... Read more
Thinking about Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos' advocacy of school choice in light of the history of race and gender in American higher education Read more
If, after my last post Did Medieval Christians Know Jesus?, you realized you had no framework for understanding the Investiture Controversy, Fourth Lateran Council, or even transubstantiation; or, while eating a stack of pancakes for dinner last Tuesday (Fat Tuesday), you realized you had no idea why you were doing so; or, maybe, as one of my readers commented, it never occurred to you to realize that medieval Catholicism was different from modern Catholicism (stay tuned!); or, perhaps you totally embarrassed yourself... Read more
Americans rarely think about the end of life, but Lent gives Christians the chance to contemplate death and dying - and their history is full of spiritual resources to aid such meditation. Read more
Imagine American cities under siege by extreme Right-wing movements and paramilitary groups calling for armed violence, and actually attacking Jews and other minorities in the streets. You might think that such horrors would be hard to conceal, and the resulting soul-searching would give abundant material to later historians. But here is a mystery. The situation I am describing actually happened in the late 1930s and early 1940s, on a national scale, and the crisis lasted for some years before it... Read more
This post concerns an authentically frightening figure in US history, and one whose career speaks powerfully to contemporary debates about religious and ethnic prejudice. If our history had traveled in somewhat different directions, he might have become very powerful indeed. Be very grateful that you have never heard of Paul Meres Winter. A hundred years ago, anti-immigrant sentiment in the US was ferocious, and it was intimately linked with religious zeal. A great many mainstream Protestants were passionately anti-Catholic, seeing... Read more
When I ask students to read and generate questions about the Gospel of Mark, someone always asks about the beheading of John the Baptist? What sort of mother asks her daughter to ask her father for a prophet’s head? (I can also count on a question about the fig tree, for which I never have an adequate answer). According to Mark, John the Baptist criticized Herod Antipas for having married Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife. Just to be clear, the... Read more
Today we are pleased to welcome Elesha Coffman to the Anxious Bench. Elesha is an Assistant Professor of History at Baylor University. Her first book, The Christian Century and the Rise of the Protestant Mainline, was published by Oxford UP in 2013 and her current book project is a spiritual biography of Margaret Mead. “These pro-lifers are headed to the Women’s March on Washington,” the Atlantic announced. “Is there a place at the Women’s March for women who are politically... Read more
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