The Most Evangelical Founding Father?

Last updated on: November 2, 2015 at 10:27 am By Thomas Kidd

In spite of some Christian revisionist attempts to cast them all as evangelical believers, the Founding Fathers’ faiths ran the gamut from traditional Christianity to outright skepticism. I wrote my biography of Patrick Henry because I was interested in how Henry, a traditional Anglican, sorted out the challenges raised by the Revolution, slavery, and other issues. Now I am writing a religious biography of Ben Franklin, a man who called himself a Deist, and yet was the solitary figure calling... Read more

The Limits of Judea

Last updated on: November 1, 2015 at 7:49 am By Philip Jenkins

I posted about the shifting frontiers and definitions of the ancient lands described in the Bible. At various times, they were either much larger and more expansive than what we think of in terms of modern Palestine, while on other occasions they were considerably smaller. I think we tend to lose track of this when we rely as heavily as we do on writings created within Jerusalem and its highly literate culture. At times, Jerusalem really was at the heart... Read more

Halloween–More Christian than Pagan…

Last updated on: November 18, 2015 at 12:25 pm By Beth Allison Barr

I carved pumpkins with my kids this week. My son is finally old enough to wield his own knife, but my daughter had to settle for a marker. I, of course, had to clean out the insides. The effort was well worth it (even with the mess on my patio) when we lit the candles and stepped back to admire the glowing, flickering faces. According to a recent LifeWay Poll, however, I am among a slight minority (49%) of evangelical... Read more

Palestine, Judea, and the Wider World

Last updated on: October 30, 2015 at 7:05 am By Philip Jenkins

I have been working on the Second Temple era of Jewish history, of what is sometimes called the Inter-Testamental period (roughly 300 BC – 50 AD). I am increasingly aware of the need to define the geographical scope of any such project, and the quite radical changes that through the centuries affected the limits of the “Jewish World.” Of course, that means taking the Diaspora into account, but it also applies to the limits of what we generally call Palestine.... Read more

Trump, Presbyterians, and Adventists

Last updated on: October 29, 2015 at 12:19 am By johnturner

A few days ago, Donald Trump thought it wise to remind Republican primary voters that he’s Presbyterian and Ben Carson belongs to some weird religion: I’m Presbyterian. Can you believe it? Nobody believes I’m Presbyterian. I’m Presbyterian. I’m Presbyterian. I’m Presbyterian . . . Boy, that’s down the middle of the road folks, in all fairness. I mean, Seventh-day Adventist, I don’t know about. I just don’t know about. I suppose this makes Donald Trump the country’s most famous Presbyterian.... Read more

Upsetting Gender Roles in Turn-of-the-Century China

Last updated on: October 26, 2015 at 12:48 pm By David Swartz

Moving to China often upset the sharply separated gender spheres of Victorian America. Given the strangeness of the Chinese context, the husbands of female missionaries often became more domestic. As historian Jane Hunter notes her book The Gospel of Gentility, “Both husband and wife relied on homelife as a refuge in a strange land.” This was especially true when children arrived. According to Hunter, “husbands were the linchpins of the domestic work unit.” Diary entries and letters of women frequently... Read more

Choosing a Book or Dissertation Topic

Last updated on: October 26, 2015 at 12:10 pm By Thomas Kidd

John Turner recently had a fabulous post on “Publishing without Perishing” which is full of excellent suggestions on how to survive writing your first book or your dissertation. There’s much fodder there for discussion, but today I want to consider the issue of selecting a dissertation topic. Of course, my perspective is shaped by my work within the discipline of history, and I am assuming here that you would want to publish your dissertation eventually as your first book. John... Read more

The Problem of Inequality–for Puritans

Last updated on: October 25, 2015 at 11:49 pm By Agnes Howard

It’s that time of year when New England muscles into the spotlight, showing off Patriots and scarlet maples, clear skies and Salem-witch shenanigans. But showing off–and the way that exacerbates anxieties of economic inequality—is not the New England way, at least not from the region’s seventeenth-century colonial beginnings. It should be said straightaway that the builders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony were for inequality. The settlers we call New England Puritans assumed and approved distinctions between those of higher and... Read more

Long Ago, In A Castle Far Far Away

Last updated on: October 25, 2015 at 7:29 am By Philip Jenkins

This column has nothing to do with religious or even academic concerns (well, not much). It’s just a nice story. Like most people in this spiral arm of the galaxy, I am looking forward to the latest Star Wars film, and have just seen the new trailer. The star is Daisy Ridley, who is clearly set for mega-stardom. And I know a fun fact about her family history that even she may not know. Daisy is the great-niece of Arnold... Read more

Other Reformations

Last updated on: October 20, 2015 at 11:41 am By Philip Jenkins

We usually refer to “the Reformation” as if the European movement of the sixteenth century was a unique phenomenon. As I have suggested, though, events fitting this model quite well have occurred repeatedly through history, both within Judaism and Christianity. What other examples might we cite? Looking globally, a Western reader might be surprised how often, and how plausibly, scholars draw Reformation analogies and refer to particular reformers as “the (X) Martin Luther.” Now, the fact that people offer these... Read more