In Our Time

Last updated on: December 23, 2015 at 11:57 am By Philip Jenkins

Here is my Christmas present to Anxious Bench readers. Do you ever listen to podcasts? Arguably the very best source of first class podcasts, all free, is http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts They offer perhaps hundreds of programs on a near-infinite variety of themes, with multiple updates daily. Specifically religious series include Heart and Soul, and Beyond Belief. Here, though, let me concentrate on one item, namely the superb In Our Time, introduced by veteran broadcaster Melvyn Bragg. Every week, Melvyn chooses a topic,... Read more

The First Bath

Last updated on: December 15, 2015 at 6:49 am By Philip Jenkins

Shepherds, magi, the ox and the ass… how can you say anything new about the Christmas scene? Through much of Christian history, there was actually a lot more to the story, mainly derived from the second century “Infancy Gospel of James,” the Protevangelium. This told elaborate stories of the birth, many involving the midwife, Salome. The Protevangelium dropped out of use quite early in the West, although its influence survived in several more or less plagiarized versions. But in the... Read more

Joseph Smith’s Last Christmas

Last updated on: December 18, 2015 at 1:17 am By johnturner

2 o[clo]ck about 50 couple sat down at my table to dine. while I was eating my scribe called on me to selmnz [solemnize] the Marriage of Doct Levi Richa[r]ds & sarah Griffiths [Griffith] — but. as I could not leave. I referred the subj[e]ct to Presidt B[righam] Young. who married th[e]m. A large party supped at my hosue & spent the evening in Music Danci[n]g &c. <in a most cheerful & frie[n]dly mannr> during the festivities. during the festivities... Read more

Christmas, Augustine, and the Fornication of Demons

Last updated on: December 22, 2015 at 9:44 am By David Swartz

Nothing conjures up good Christmas cheer like St. Augustine. Consider this line from his Sermon 191 (out of an estimated 8,000 in his lifetime) delivered on Christmas Day: “He likewise made His Church a virgin by ransoming her from the fornication of demons.” This quote appears in an Augustinian meditation on the miracle of the virgin birth. Christ was born of a woman, says Christian doctrine, and yet had supernatural origins. As the prophet Isaiah predicted, “The virgin will be... Read more

Christmas in 1776

Last updated on: November 23, 2015 at 5:43 pm By Thomas Kidd

From the Patheos archive: ‘Tis the season to argue about religion. Or more specifically, to feud about whether to say Merry Christmas or Seasons Greetings…to call it a Christmas Village or a Holiday Village…or to allow a crèche or menorah to stand on public property. What would Americans at the time of our nation’s founding think about all this? They would have been perplexed. Perplexed, first, at the ways that we fuss about the public role of religion. As I... Read more

Museum Catechesis

Last updated on: December 18, 2015 at 6:45 pm By Agnes Howard

The tourist arrives in a city like Florence, Italy, ready to gape at the Renaissance. Though postured to appreciate it, book in hand and eyes directed up, he might find himself at a loss, like the man ahead of me at the Florentine baptistery who, under the mosaic of Christ Pantocrator, asked the Italian leading his private tour, “What is it? I am not religious.” You only get so far wandering around Santa Croce without a Baedeker, and even very... Read more

Patriotism is on Behalf Of, Not Against, All Nations

Last updated on: December 18, 2015 at 12:55 pm By Thomas Kidd

Today’s guest post is from John D. Wilsey, Assistant Professor of History and Christian Apologetics, and Associate Director, Land Center for Cultural Engagement, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He recently published American Exceptionalism and Civil Religion: Reassessing the History of an Idea (IVP Academic). Is patriotism compatible with democracy? After all, a democracy is supposed to be built on a fundamental commitment to the equality of all people. But patriotism seems to necessitate inequality by preferring one nation over (and often against) another, in... Read more

Congratulations to Our Own!

Last updated on: December 18, 2015 at 12:33 am By johnturner

If you are still agonizing over how to select that life-changing-yet-affordable Christmas gift, we at the Anxious Bench — especially the prolific among us — are here to help. A few days ago, Christianity Today announced that our Thomas Kidd’s biography of George Whitefield has won its 2015 book award for History / Biography. I praised the book last year here. Whitefield was a trans-Atlantic evangelist who exerted a deep and lasting influence on the development of evangelicalism in the... Read more

Weeping for God

Last updated on: December 17, 2015 at 6:35 am By Philip Jenkins

I just read a review of a book that looks intriguing for religious history, namely Thomas Dixon’s Weeping Britannia: Portrait of a Nation in Tears (Oxford, 2015). I stress that I have read only the review, by Ferdinand Mount, in the London Review of Books, not the book itself. Through history, many habits and customs that we think of as basic human nature have changed a good deal, and the history of emotions has for some years been a cutting... Read more

The King of Beaver Island

Last updated on: December 17, 2015 at 12:59 am By johnturner

Most people with only a passing acquaintance with the history of Mormonism presume that there was a simple transition to Brigham Young’s leadership after the June 1844 murder of Joseph Smith, Jr. In truth, Smith’s death precipitated several competing claims to leadership. A new “Kindle Single” authored by John J. Miller in The Polygamist King provides a concise and lively introduction to the least likely challenger: James J. Strang. At the time of Smith’s death, Strang was a thirty-one-year-old visionary... Read more