In my last post, I described the extreme climatic conditions that formed the background of the Great Awakening as it developed between 1739 and 1742. To give an idea of this period as it affected one area of New England, this is an extract from a well known source, namely Joshua Coffin, A Sketch Of The History Of Newbury, Newburyport, And West Newbury, From 1635 To 1845 (1845). Witness the repeated remarks that this was the worst winter ever remembered... Read more
In February of 1864, a Confederate officer named Franklin Gaillard received word of his father’s death. Gaillard was numb to death, having fought at Gettysburg the previous July. “It was the most shocking battle I have ever witnessed,” he wrote after his side’s bloody defeat. “There were familiar forms and faces with parts of their heads shot away, legs shattered, arms torn off.” Bullets rained upon his men “thick as hailstones.” Gaillard blamed the generals, including Robert E. Lee, for... Read more
In 2004 the Kempf family farm in northeast Ohio was devastated by blight. Half of their crops, which included tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, and cantaloupes, were wiped out. There was one productive area on the farm though: a new section that yielded some beautiful cantaloupes. The family’s 16-year-old son John wondered why. He hypothesized that the new section had not been subjected to years of chemical applications. This realization led John Kempf on a decade of research. With only an eighth-grade... Read more
For professors, writing letters of recommendation is a constant part of the job. Wise undergraduate and graduate students should make it as easy as possible for your professors to write them. Although few professors will write overtly negative letters, faint praise can just as easily condemn an applicant, especially when they are applying for highly competitive programs or jobs. I frequently see letters of recommendation that are vague or flat-out sloppy. Some seemed rushed or obligatory. Some fail to change... Read more
What is the “big story” that scholars should tell about the relationship of religion to the modern world? For many decades, social scientists believed that modernization led ineluctably to secularization. Modern goods such as science, democracy, technology, social mobility, and the free market meant that, sooner or later, religion was destined to swoon and irreligion would triumph. But that has changed swiftly in the last few decades. The eminent sociologist Peter Berger, a pioneering theorist of “the secularization thesis,” as... Read more
I recently posted about understanding the social dimension to religious crises and conflicts. Briefly, I suggested that pre-Modern societies were prone to severe dangers from crop failures, sometimes linked to climatic changes, and that these echoed through the whole society in terms of dearth and famine, disease and epidemic. At such times, people were prone to look for scapegoats, and that such episodes could result in religious persecution and paranoia. In some instances, though, economic crises could contribute to religious... Read more
For historians and other scholars, religion provides an endless supply of fascinating narratives. And few experiences are as sweet as encountering a previously unknown but utterly bizarre and remarkable story. I had that experience reading Sara Patterson’s just-released Middle of Nowhere: Religion, Art, and Pop Culture at Salvation Mountain, a lucid chronicle and analysis of the monument to God’s love created by Leonard Knight in the California desert. For a quick introduction, I recommend several things. First, look at Salvation... Read more
I didn’t have to interview for graduate school. I did visit the campuses of my top choice schools, but it was very informal. The only graduate students and professors I met were the ones I had contacted in advance. I didn’t even meet the professor who became my adviser until after starting the program because she was out-of-town the weekend I visited. Today the world of graduate education is very different. Most programs accept far fewer students than they did... Read more
Last week I posted about a Ted Cruz rally at which Glenn Beck argued that the Constitution and the Bible were both “sacred scriptures.” What would the Founding Fathers think about this? It so happens that, in a little-noticed 1788 editorial, Ben Franklin directly denied that the Constitution was “divinely inspired.” But as usual with the Founders, you have to place this quote in context. Although Franklin did not believe that the Constitution came straight from God, he did think that... Read more
The years between 1675 and 1685 were marked by repeated catastrophes, involving wars and revolts, dearths and plagues, and unprecedented weather conditions. Not surprisingly then, across Christian Europe, many believers imagined the fast approaching end of the existing world. It was in 1678 that the first part of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress described the simple Christian beginning his quest after discovering the powerful text, “Flee from the wrath to come!” If all the other disasters were not proof enough of... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In