Do we overstate the influence of books and underestimate the importance of other types of Christian writing? First in a series: the power of hymns. Read more
Do we overstate the influence of books and underestimate the importance of other types of Christian writing? First in a series: the power of hymns. Read more
I wrote recently about the problems of defining the major themes in recent American history. That actually gets to a much bigger issue, namely how do we teach that “Late Modern” era in universities and colleges. If I can borrow the title of the classic 1931 book by Frederick Lewis Allen on the 1920s, how do we teach about our own Only Yesterday? Or rather, just why don’t we teach that? Only Yesterday was a stunningly rich social and cultural... Read more
I recently blogged about recent European films about faith and religion. That post was in my mind as I looked at the listing of the 100 best films of the current century, since 2000. That’s an impressive list, but with some odd absences. Of course that’s subjective, but I do see a real and rather worrying pattern. I was pleased to see so many films by my absolute favorite directors, especially the Coens, David Lynch, Darren Aronofsky, and Paul Thomas... Read more
Last time, I discussed the issues involved in trying to write the very recent history, namely the years since 2000. (Do check out that post as the essential background for the present posting). I won’t detail my planned chapter outline in too much length, but let me just give you the main subheadings to see the general framework I plan, and all within a strict limit of 15,000 words or so. And then you can scream about the things I... Read more
In July 1925, America was gripped by a spectacle of the sort that reality TV would later perfect. The small hamlet of Dayton, Tennessee hosted a trivial court case that town leaders puffed into a media circus. The contest was whether evolution should be taught in public schools. At the prosecutors’ table sat the one-time Democratic (and Populist) presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan—defender of the common-man. On defense sat the urbane Charles Darrow, a brilliant attorney known for taking morally... Read more
I went to a perfect wedding last weekend. It was deep in the rural heart of Central Texas. Wide open fields dotted with cattle and the occasional John Deer tractor were broken by scattered farm houses. The roads were narrow and dusty; population signs for the small towns counted inhabitants by the hundreds; and notices posted at the reception (held in one of the nearby small towns) warned guests to keep all alcoholic beverages inside the church fellowship hall instead... Read more
How you can now follow us on Twitter and Facebook... Read more
Popular notions about baby-making, religious or not, often have been peculiar. The soon-to-be-in-theaters Warner Brothers’ film, Storks (“In the beginning…storks delivered babies”) underscores this afresh. Unlike the stork story, some of these notions do better than others in appraising the life-sustaining, life-changing, life-giving work women do in nine months’ worth of bearing with. Tolstoy certainly thought so. In the late nineteenth century Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), whose fiction explored love, marriage, infidelity, and family life, encountered a cluster of ideas that... Read more
While schools as large as Baylor and as small as Bethel have long played football, most Christian colleges and universities don't field teams in America's most popular sport. Read more
Now here is an interesting challenge. If you were writing a history of the United States in the 21st century, what would you include, and how would you tell the story? And yes, there is indeed amply enough of this century already for it to demand a substantial history. That is a problem I face rather pressingly. Back in 1997, I published a one volume History of the United States, which has sold respectably and been translated into eight other... Read more
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