What it's like to study the history of Islam as a Christian scholar? Bethel University professor Amy Poppinga shares her experience. Read more
What it's like to study the history of Islam as a Christian scholar? Bethel University professor Amy Poppinga shares her experience. Read more
“You have the best job.” So said an acquaintance at the Minnesota Historical Society earlier this month. Now, I happen to think that designing museum exhibits would be pretty cool, but I couldn’t argue. Not only did I have a sabbatical all fall, not only did I spend it with my wife, children, and parents, not only did it give us the chance to live in one beautiful part of the country and tour others, but… I’m going to spend the first three weeks of 2017 in Europe. (Note:... Read more
Welcome, new year! By the end of 2016 it had become a little too fashionable to express relief that that wretched year was over. But just turning a calendar page is cheap satisfaction, since lots of the trouble we carried in the previous year comes sloshing over into the new. Among those troubles, the trial of Charleston shooter Dylann Roof stretches on. Just before year’s end, Roof, convicted of killing nine people at Emanuel A.M.E Church in Charleston in June 2015, was ordered... Read more
Over the Christmas season, we naturally hear so much about Jesus’s mother, Mary, and in conversations, I am always a bit taken aback (not to mention amused) to find how many of the popular stories circulating her actually derive from ancient apocryphal sources. Sorry, no, she wasn’t a Temple Virgin, set aside for her special purity. What we can actually say with confidence about Mary is surprisingly limited, and most of what we do say is drawn from an unconscious... Read more
A truck plows into crowds at a Berlin Christmas market. Heart-wrenching images from Aleppo disquiet us on a daily basis. A young white man is convicted in the horrific killing of nine African American worshippers. The fourth anniversary of Sandy Hook comes and goes. Stories of police violence continue to surface. And in the midst of it all, our nation seems to be coming undone, fracturing along political lines that pit neighbor against neighbor, family against family. Despite the relative... Read more
This is a story of two pastors. The first was a vicar in the deanery of Salisbury, England, in 1412. His name was Alexander Champion. He was accused of abusing his ecclesiastical authority by sexually exploiting the women in his care. His parishioners claimed he had slept with five of their wives, that he fathered children with his concubine, and that he made sexual advances toward women when they came to him for confession. Clearly Champion had some serious problems... Read more
As is often the case with group blogs, change is a constant at The Anxious Bench. Just six months ago John announced that I was taking Tommy Kidd’s place, after which I got to tell you that Kristin and Tim would be sharing Thursdays with John. Now it’s my turn to pass along news of two more changes that you’ll notice in the New Year: First, Tim has decided to move on to other projects. If you missed any of his terrific posts on “corporate evangelicalism,” go back and read... Read more
You may have noticed an interesting theological debate currently under way among evangelicals. Critiquing the New Testament evidence for the Virgin Birth, Atlanta megachurch pastor Andy Stanley ventured the opinion that “Christianity doesn’t hinge on the truth or even the stories around the birth of Jesus. It really hinges on the resurrection of Jesus.” This view attracted a rebuke from Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, who declared that the Bible’s claims about birth and incarnation were “the... Read more
As any Bible reader knows, the infant Jesus was visited by Magi, who brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and a cold coming they had of it. But where did they actually get these gifts from? However arcane and speculative such a question may seem, the resulting curiosity generated a vast body of Christian literature. Although not mentioned in canonical scripture, the resulting tales became an integral part of faith for countless believers. In the West, the Magi are usually numbered... Read more
Adapted from the Anxious Bench archives: My local Presbyterian church has a “Longest Night” service shortly before Christmas, recognizing that even as we celebrate the light that shines in the darkness, many of us experience considerable darkness in our lives. Perhaps we sense such darkness as we contemplate yet another year marred by terrorism and war, but most us grieve deaths, setbacks, and struggles that concern only ourselves and a small circle of friends and family. What consolation can the church offer... Read more
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