Was Jonathan Edwards Wrong About Interpreting God’s Providence?

Last updated on: April 20, 2016 at 11:54 am By Thomas Kidd

This post is gratefully re-shared from Reformation 21, where it originally ran. Like many eighteenth-century Reformed pastors, Jonathan Edwards was confident in his ability to discern God’s purposes in earthly events. For example, during a 1736 drought, he explained that God was chastising New Englanders for the “corruption in our hearts.” Similarly, during a plague of crop-destroying worms in the 1740s, he suggested that the people’s neglect of the poor had precipitated the infestation. This kind of assurance about God’s... Read more

Slings, Arrows and Shakespeare

Last updated on: April 22, 2016 at 7:07 am By Philip Jenkins

As you will assuredly have noticed by now, this year marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in 1616 (April 23, in fact, which was also his birthday). I have nothing to add to all the high scholarship provoked by the commemoration, but it does give me an opportunity to share my enthusiasm for one of the very best series that has ever appeared on television, anywhere. Between 2003 and 2006, Canadian television ran the series Slings and Arrows. There... Read more

What’s in a Name?

Last updated on: April 21, 2016 at 9:32 am By johnturner

While he tends his father-in-law’s sheep, as recorded in the Book of Exodus, Moses sees “the angel of the LORD … in a flame of fire out of a bush,” which burns but is not consumed. When Moses looks at the Bush, God calls to him, orders him to remove his shoes, announces himself as the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and promises to deliver the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt. As far as Moses is concerned, the... Read more

The GOP Race: Is Ted Cruz Our Best Option?

Last updated on: April 18, 2016 at 9:46 am By Thomas Kidd

When we were in St. Andrews, Scotland for the Spring 2015 semester, I remember our Baptist church there praying for parliamentary elections. The implicit message of the prayers was, “Lord, we have no obvious options here. Please help us to know how to vote.” I have been having the same feeling about the GOP race lately. The preponderance of white evangelicals are rallying around Ted Cruz. In many media circles, the myth of the “Trump evangelicals” has been dispersed. Many... Read more

The Myth of the Mythical Jesus

Last updated on: April 19, 2016 at 7:32 am By Philip Jenkins

In debates about Christian origins, one tiresome canard is going to come up sporadically, and usually, it’s not worth wasting time on. As I have seen it surface a few times of late, let’s deal with the point here. Briefly, if you are discussing Jesus of Nazareth, you can make any argument you choose to offer. If you wish, you can deny or challenge pretty much any aspect of the story told in the gospels, and present Jesus or his... Read more

The Martyresses

Last updated on: April 15, 2016 at 6:33 am By Philip Jenkins

I have often blogged about paintings or illustrations, which are excellent ways of illuminating historical attitudes, particularly in matters of religion. Today, I want to do that again but in an unusual way, without actually reproducing the painting directly, and for once, that’s not just about copyright concerns. Aside from its value as a historical source, the painting raises sensitive questions of pedagogy. It is an unusual story, so let me explain. By way of background, I am interested in... Read more

When the Mormon Jesus Was Married

Last updated on: April 14, 2016 at 12:18 am By johnturner

It is a staple of anti-Mormon literature (and evangelical countercult literature more generally) that the Mormon Jesus is not the Christian Jesus. One subject that repeatedly surfaces in such arguments is that nineteenth-century Mormon leaders believed that Jesus married, married more than once, and had children. As the film The God Makers explains, “Mormon apostle Orson Pratt taught that after Jesus Christ grew to manhood, he took at least three wives, Mary, Martha, and Mary Magdalene. Through these wives, the Mormon Jesus,... Read more

The Evangelical Onion

Last updated on: April 13, 2016 at 8:41 am By David Swartz

If you haven’t run across the Babylon Bee yet, check it out. It’s the evangelical version of the satirical online news source The Onion, and it’s made a big splash. In its first three weeks, the Bee has scored more than one million page views. Even the Washington Post has noticed, last week running a profile of the evangelical Onion. The Bee’s popularity is well earned. It’s really quite funny. Take, for example, the following fake headlines: “Witty Church Sign... Read more

Culture-Changing Christians

Last updated on: April 11, 2016 at 9:53 am By Thomas Kidd

Back in 2012, when Mitt Romney lost the presidential election, many disappointed supporters – including a number of evangelicals – suggested that his defeat spoke to an American culture in decline. For politics to change, they say, culture must change. Glenn Beck, for example, tweeted that “the time for politics is over. I’m doubling down on my efforts to shift the culture.” Yet here we are again, in 2016, trying to coalesce around the “right” candidate who will “take America... Read more

A Trade Good for Body and Soul: School and Career Choice for New England Puritans

Last updated on: April 10, 2016 at 10:21 am By Agnes Howard

These are days of decision. This span of weeks in April and May can be fraught ones for families with children of a certain age, when colleges await commitments from those who hope to start next fall, and as the clock winds down for students four years or so on the other side, about to be sprung from the groves of academe to workaday life. Deciding what to do about all this can be difficult for young people. These decisions... Read more

Which people attacked Israel at Rephidim and were defeated as Moses held up his hands?