The Forgotten History of “Christian” Political Activism

Last updated on: March 9, 2017 at 9:15 am By Philip Jenkins

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

Betsy DeVos, HBCUs, and the History of Christian Higher Education

Last updated on: March 9, 2017 at 12:03 am By Chris Gehrz

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

A Reasonable Reading List for Medieval Christianity: Part 1

Last updated on: March 8, 2017 at 1:41 am By Beth Allison Barr

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

The Good Death: How Do Christians Learn to Die?

Last updated on: March 4, 2017 at 9:56 am By Chris Gehrz

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

Forgetting American Terror: The Christian Front

Last updated on: March 6, 2017 at 8:26 am By Philip Jenkins

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

Paul Winter: Of Anti-Catholics, Anti-Semites, and Nazis

Last updated on: March 2, 2017 at 4:35 pm By Philip Jenkins

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

Where is John the Baptist’s Head?

Last updated on: March 1, 2017 at 2:43 pm By johnturner

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

Margaret Mead: Christian, Pro-life Feminist

Last updated on: March 1, 2017 at 9:00 am By Beth Allison Barr

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

Temperance after Prohibition

Last updated on: February 27, 2017 at 10:14 pm By Chris Gehrz

While Prohibition is a byword for failed legislation, temperance concerns survived the ratification of the 21st Amendment. But in recent years, more restrictions on the sale and consumption of alcohol have been disappearing. Read more

The Benedict Option, New England Edition

Last updated on: April 3, 2017 at 9:40 pm By Agnes Howard

Ian Lovett’s recent Wall Street Journal essay traces a growing trend among traditional Christians to move to remote locations, often near a monastery, to recreate a kind of life that recalls Christian devotion in an earlier time, like the Middle Ages. In Oklahoma, California, Texas, and Arkansas, Lovett finds new outposts of Catholics who prefer the Latin Mass and want to live with like-believing neighbors. These people “are part of a burgeoning movement among traditional Christians. Feeling besieged by secular... Read more

How long was Israel in Egyptian bondage?