The Hadith and the Jews

Last updated on: March 4, 2016 at 11:59 am By Philip Jenkins

I have been discussing the Islamic Hadith, and the apocalyptic traditions found in the section on “Turmoil and Portents” in the collection Sahih Muslim, “Pertaining To Turmoil And Portents Of The Last Hour” (Kitab Al-Fitan Wa Ashrat As-Sa’Ah). Specifically, I have suggested that many of these ideas stem from Christian sources, from the late seventh and eighth centuries, and that Christian converts might have imported them into the new faith. Here, I will look at some of the most quoted... Read more

The Invention of God

Last updated on: March 4, 2016 at 11:59 am By johnturner

Thomas Römer’s The Invention of God is a provocative, brilliant, and challenging book. Römer’s narrates that: – groups of people in the ancient southern Levant came to worship a storm God named Yhwh (or another close variant of that name); – that the peoples of ancient Israel and Judah worshiped Yhwh, El, and a goddess named Asherah, among other deities; – that these same peoples gradually made Yhwh their tutelary or national deity and attributed to him many of the... Read more

The Global Context of InterVarsity and #BlackLivesMatter

Last updated on: March 4, 2016 at 11:59 am By David Swartz

Part of InterVarsity’s response to the #BlackLivesMatter controversy has been entirely predictable. In part, the organization is negotiating the intricacies of evangelical politics. A statement released on December 31, 2015, in the wake of controversy read: “InterVarsity does not endorse everything attributed to #BlackLivesMatter. For instance, we reject any call to attack or dehumanize police. But – using the language of Francis Schaeffer and Chuck Colson – we are co-belligerents with a movement with which we sometimes disagree because we... Read more

How Not to Market a Book

Last updated on: March 4, 2016 at 11:59 am By Thomas Kidd

John Turner had an excellent post last week on book marketing for academics. I have also written here before about the counterintuitive art of promoting books. Many academic historians (and other professors) range somewhere between squeamish to clueless on how they might actually reach out to a general audience. But our lack of outreach often means that history book sales are dominated by popularizers, some of whom are outright charlatans. Piggy-backing on John’s post, here are three ways that definitely... Read more

Drawn to the Women Saints

Last updated on: March 4, 2016 at 12:00 pm By Agnes Howard

“I am not Catholic, and yet I find myself drawn to the women saints,” admits Jessa Crispin in a recent New York Times op-ed. Crispin is not alone in this fascination, nor should she be. She touts St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) as independent woman, one engaged in meaningful work rather the traditional woman’s lot of home, husband, and children. Crispin is right that St. Teresa was a woman worthy of admiration. Foundress, administrator, and reformer of religious houses, she... Read more

Turmoil and Portents

Last updated on: March 4, 2016 at 12:00 pm By Philip Jenkins

Although the Islamic Hadith are sayings attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, many of them probably come from some decades after his time, and they are a goldmine of information on religious debate and interchange in these years. I have been posting about one apocalyptic section of a collection that is known as the Turmoil and Portents, or more fully, “Pertaining To Turmoil And Portents Of The Last Hour” (Kitab Al-Fitan Wa Ashrat As-Sa’Ah). In particular, I have raised the question... Read more

How to Market a Book

Last updated on: March 4, 2016 at 12:00 pm By johnturner

The title of this post is as much of a question as a statement. This April, Harvard University Press is releasing The Mormon Jesus: A Biography. Instead of fashioning a “new religion,” I argue, Latter-day Saints have through their experiences, descriptions, and depictions of Jesus Christ created a movement both utterly Christian and distinctly Mormon. In the last two hundred years, the Latter-day Saints have envisioned Jesus Christ as a “blinding light,” the “great bridegroom,” the “great white God,” and... Read more

The Thin Blue Line

Last updated on: March 4, 2016 at 12:00 pm By Beth Allison Barr

A thin blue line runs through the nave of Durham Cathedral in England. Made from marble and marked with a center cross, it stretches twenty-five feet across the westernmost part of the nave. Medieval legend proclaims the line as a physical barrier protecting the sacred space of the clergy from the polluting presence of women. Unlike men, medieval women were forbidden to step over the line and enter the regular space of the church. At first glance, this thin blue... Read more

Why I Joined Marco Rubio’s Religious Liberty Advisory Board

Last updated on: January 11, 2016 at 11:29 am By Thomas Kidd

Many of you have heard that I have joined Senator Marco Rubio’s Religious Liberty Advisory Board. Many have congratulated me; a few have denounced me! I can imagine some readers asking, why would I join such a board for a presidential campaign? I have written often about how politics is not ultimately the answer to much of anything, and how Christians in particular should not be searching for a political messiah. Nevertheless, politics matters. We have some exquisitely bad candidates... Read more

Dueling Apocalypses

Last updated on: January 10, 2016 at 2:42 pm By Philip Jenkins

I have been posting about some apocalyptic sayings attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, which are found in the collections known as the Hadith. Such sayings are numerous, and at so many points, they echo the lore found among contemporary Christians. Taken with those Christian documents, in fact, they suggest the depth of the apocalyptic fascination that inspired the Near East at this time, and which spanned faith boundaries. These documents might even have Christian origins. Many of these texts are... Read more