I have to share this. One of the classic works on Judaism and early Christianity is Alan Segal’s Rebecca’s Children (1986). Through the centuries, debate has raged over exactly what St. Paul was doing when he took the Jesus Movement on its new directions. I am struck, therefore, to find that the Harvard University Press page on Segal’s book lists the relevant chapter in the paperback edition as “Paul the Covert and Apostle.” I think it’s a typo. Or maybe... Read more
Josephus recorded the history of the Jewish people in the last two centuries before the Christian Era. Reading that story today must many of our assumptions about the world we know from the New Testament. I think I am accurately reflecting common ideas when I imagine that history something like this. In the 160s, the Jews rebelled against a brutal and tyrannical Greek regime, the Seleucid Empire of Antiochus IV. That sage is depicted in cosmic terms in the Book... Read more
The New York Times recently published a fascinating report on Brazilian Pentecostal “child preachers,” which it suggests is a major phenomenon. Without corroboration, Samantha Shapiro quotes a pastor who “estimates there are thousands” of evangelists and healers ages five to eighteen. This is the sort of journalism of the weird and unusual that is one engine of mainstream coverage of religion in American newspapers. And it is fascinating! The piece begins with a profile of Alani, the eleven-year-old daughter of... Read more
In my first outing as an official representative of Hannibal-LaGrange University, I have spent the past few days at the Greater Columbus (Ohio) Convention Center attending the Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. In the past, controversy stalked each meeting as Southern Baptists both fought internecine battles and made unpopular public proclamations addressing cultural issues. Despite these issues, this meeting reminded me that the heart of the Southern Baptist Convention lies in local congregations. As I attended Midwestern Seminary’s... Read more
As I have written previously at the Anxious Bench, I am skeptical about “The Enlightenment.” This ideologically-freighted term implies the inexorable progress of scientific humanist thought. Beginning in the eighteenth century, the theory goes, such enlightened thinking triumphed over “dark” religious views. Among the Enlightenment’s many problems today is that classic secularization theory lies in shambles in a contemporary world where religion is growing in importance. Nevertheless, it is true that many young men in the eighteenth century did begin... Read more
I have been working on the two or three centuries before the start of the Christian era, a time of epochal transformations in the Jewish world, and the essential prehistory of the early Church. One of the major sources for that time, obviously, is the work of Josephus, with which I have been wrestling a good deal. In the next couple of columns, I’ll make some observations about using his work, in the hope that these people will find them... Read more
I wasn’t planning to write this piece, but so many of the comments on my earlier Book of Mormon posts have raised a particular point, and I don’t want it to seem that by ignoring it, I am conceding its value. The story also says much about how an authentic academic find metastasizes into popular religious folklore – a lesson for mainstream Christians, Jews and Muslims no less than Mormons. I have been focusing entirely on the historicity of the... Read more
My recent columns have concerned methods of academic debate, and the gulf that separates true scholarship from pseudo-scholarship. It’s only fitting here that I should refer to the gold-standard for discussing such issues, namely David Hackett Fischer, Historians’ Fallacies: Toward A Logic Of Historical Thought (originally published by Harper, 1970). Fischer describes good historical methodology by sketching its evil twin. He outlines and catalogues examples of “fallacies”, that is, errors or bad practice that result in bad or inaccurate history.... Read more
After various children’s bibles, I first read the Good News Bible. Since the Bible turned out to be more interesting than most sermons and choral anthems, I am pretty certain I got through most of it in church services as a boy. Who wouldn’t find the narratives of Genesis both shocking and riveting! I then spent my high school and college years with the NIV. At seminary (Louisville Presbyterian), the NRSV was standard, and I still use the NRSV for... Read more
Brantley Gasaway’s new book on progressive evangelicalism opens with a striking story. In 1985 evangelical activists marched through the streets of Washington, D.C. As the demonstration began, a spokesperson declared, “We’re showing that we are willing to pay the price, to sacrifice, to go to jail, if necessary to draw attention to all the assaults on human life that are now so abundant.” By the end of the protest, in fact, police had arrested nearly 250 marchers for civil disobedience.... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In