Britain’s Pagan Twilight

Last updated on: August 21, 2016 at 3:37 pm By Philip Jenkins

I have been writing about the long-standing British fascination with the idea of a continuing rural paganism, ideas that in the 1960s grew into the genre of Folk Horror. But why did the ideas of witch-cult theorist Margaret Murray attract such a wide and credulous following? Looking at the writings of such mainstream figures as John Buchan and Rudyard Kipling suggests how very mainstream such notions were in the late Victorian and Edwardian era, roughly 1890-1918. British culture was saturated... Read more

How a Dissertation Becomes a Book

Last updated on: August 17, 2016 at 10:52 pm By johnturner

The first book of most academic historians is a strange creature: a dissertation that has become a book. How and when should newly minted Ph.D.’s transform those dissertations into books? It is one of the most important and — often — most perplexing moments in an academic career. This is the first in a series of posts on the subject, beginning with how to get the process started. Don’t panic. A number of years ago, shortly before I was going... Read more

Notes to First-Year Students on Mystery and the Liberal Arts

Last updated on: August 16, 2016 at 11:19 pm By David Swartz

Today’s post comes from a talk I gave several years ago at Asbury University, where I teach history. After welcoming nearly 400 new students to campus for orientation, we didn’t waste any time starting up academic conversations. All incoming students read G.K. Chesterton’s mystery thriller The Man Who Was Thursday for their liberal arts seminar, which met each day of orientation in both small group and plenary sessions. What follows are notes of my concluding plenary address. *** A few... Read more

Could the U.S. Finally Get a Significant Christian Democratic Party?

Last updated on: August 17, 2016 at 10:17 am By Chris Gehrz

Is American politics finally ready for a Christian democratic party like those that have long played key roles in European and South American politics? Read more

Trump and Modern Ethical Theory

Last updated on: August 13, 2016 at 2:33 pm By Thomas Albert Howard

We are still many weeks away from early November and I’m already wondering if there is anything left to say about this election, which the Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse memorably described as a “dumpster fire.” (I confess that I didn’t know that this was a phrase until I looked it up and learned that it has the meaning of “a complete disaster” or “something very difficult that nobody wants to deal with.”) Recently, however, I’ve found one small glimmer of... Read more

Wood Magic

Last updated on: August 12, 2016 at 9:43 am By Philip Jenkins

I have been posting about pagan survivals into Christian times, not in terms of actual continuities so much as modern romantic reconstructions of those matters. As I noted, scholars like Margaret Murray used such a vision as the basis for a whole recreation of a supposed ancient paganism surviving in modern times in the form of the witch-cult. My colleague Beth Barr has blogged often about such modern mythologies concerning medieval times, and on witchcraft. I use this discussion as... Read more

The Crisis of Corporate Evangelicalism (Part 3 – where did it come from?)

Last updated on: September 11, 2016 at 9:33 am By Tim Gloege

[You can also read previous posts in the series] Imagine a world where families operate like corporations. Parents are management, but efficiency and profitably determine all aspects of family life. Children are both assets and employees; resources are allocated according to potential. And if things don’t work out with a troublesome teen or toddler? Well, you can send them packing, no harm, no foul. Children too can move to another family or negotiate with their parents for bedroom upgrades, extended curfews, and... Read more

Etiquette for Graduate Students

Last updated on: August 9, 2016 at 11:44 pm By Beth Allison Barr

Next week I will meet with our new Baylor History graduate students for orientation. I am pretty certain that no one will be late. I am also pretty certain that no one will fall asleep. This will be one of their first official graduate meetings, afterall, and they will want to make a good impression. But what about three weeks from now? Two months? Deadlines will be mounting; readings will seem impossible; and emotions will be running high. New challenges... Read more

St. Ephrem, the Syrian Refugee: A Church Father on War and Lament

Last updated on: August 8, 2016 at 5:15 pm By Chris Gehrz

One of the greatest writers of the Early Church, Ephrem the Syrian was a refugee whose laments offer a helpful model to this day Read more

Witches in the Village

Last updated on: August 7, 2016 at 8:25 am By Philip Jenkins

In 1945, English villager Charles Walton was gruesomely murdered in what sensationalist media decided was a sinister “witch murder,” even a human sacrifice, in the community of Lower Quinton. That story, as described by detective Robert Fabian, became the foundation of a whole genre of fantastic fiction, Folk Horror, and this spilled over into the real world. The Walton story received something like canonical form on television in 1961 in an episode of Boris Karloff’s wonderful Thriller series, entitled Hayfork... Read more

What does 2 John emphasize believers should walk in?