On Scripture and Tradition

Last updated on: May 25, 2015 at 8:11 am By Thomas Albert Howard

I’ve just returned from a conference at Georgetown University exploring the legacy of the Second Vatican Council (1963-65). 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of this epochal Council’s closing. The conference was quite large and the organizers were perhaps only half joking when they said organizing the conference felt a bit more like re-convening the original Council, which brought over 2000 bishops to Rome from all over the world. At the conference, I heard cardinals and bishops speak from France, Germany,... Read more

Buddhists, Christians, and Godly Prosperity

Last updated on: May 21, 2015 at 6:29 am By Philip Jenkins

The Buddhist magazine Tricycle sometimes offers really fine writing, and the past Spring issue included an outstanding example that raises all sorts of questions and parallels for historians of Christianity. The piece in question was “The Buddha’s Footprint,” by Johan Elverskog of SMU (subscription needed for full access). It’s a substantial article, and not surprisingly it will be the core of a forthcoming book. Elverskog looks at Buddhist attitudes to the environment, and he shows that by no means have... Read more

Ordinary Faith and Extraordinary History

Last updated on: July 6, 2015 at 4:43 pm By Philip Jenkins

As a historical source on the ancient Americas, the Book of Mormon is worthless. That observation, though, has not the slightest impact on the existence or growth of the LDS church, nor should it. Just why that is the case tells us much about the relationship between the claims of any faith and the reasons why people stay loyal to it. And however paradoxical this may sound, it might even point to the real merits and value of the Book... Read more

Evangelical Oats

Last updated on: May 21, 2015 at 8:25 am By johnturner

Reuben Torrey and Henry Crowell are the two key figures in Timothy Gloege’s outstanding Guaranteed Pure. In his book, Gloege develops a rich analogy between the rise of corporate advertising and the rise of American fundamentalism. Crowell grew up in a Presbyterian family, then was taken with Dwight Moody’s revival encouragement to “dream great things for God.” Crowell did not decide to become an evangelist. Instead, he determined to make money to be used for God’s service. And he proved... Read more

A Time of Commencement: Religious Liberty

Last updated on: May 20, 2015 at 1:52 am By Miles Mullin

As the end of May approaches, most colleges and universities in the United States have already conferred degrees upon their graduates. A long and arduous day punctuates the final exercises, which display the accomplishments of the graduates to their friends and families. Part and parcel of that process is the commencement address, which few in attendance remember. (William Raspberry delivered the address at my own graduation ceremony twenty years ago. He was my favorite progressive columnist at the time, I was... Read more

Why Weren’t Baptists More Enthusiastic Patriots?

Last updated on: May 15, 2015 at 4:16 am By Thomas Kidd

Today’s post comes from chapter 3 of my new book Baptists in America: A History (Oxford University Press), co-authored with my friend and Baylor colleague Barry Hankins. Baptist pastor James Manning of Providence, Rhode Island, wrote to English Baptist leader John Ryland in November 1776, apprising him of trouble in the American colonies. Two winters before, Providence’s Baptists had seen a prodigious revival, with perhaps two hundred people experiencing conversion within just a few months. But Manning thought the outbreak of war... Read more

Wandering Over the Plains of the Nephites

Last updated on: May 19, 2015 at 2:04 pm By Philip Jenkins

In my last post, on the Book of Mormon, I asked a question: Does the Book contain a statement or idea about the New World that Joseph Smith could not have known at the time, but which has subsequently been validated by archaeological or historical research? I mention this point because the apologist literature includes a good number of flat mis-statements about what Smith could or could not have known, eg he supposedly could not have known that there were... Read more

Mormons and New World History

Last updated on: May 16, 2015 at 2:05 pm By Philip Jenkins

Recently, I have been posting on fringe and mainstream ideas in scholarship, and have identified a number of working principles. Today I am going to illustrate these themes through one particular religious text, namely the Book of Mormon. This story also has lessons for mainstream Christians, who to varying degrees also have to face the dilemma of how they teach or preach scriptures that are hard to support as literally historical. I have a lot of sympathy for Mormonism and... Read more

The Monte Verde Principle

Last updated on: May 15, 2015 at 6:20 am By Philip Jenkins

I have been discussing fringe or marginal theories that run contrary to the scholarly consensus in a given field, and why we need to be very careful about rejecting that mainstream opinion. Just because an idea seems bold or iconoclastic does not make it right. You may at this point be thinking that I am advocating unquestioning obedience to academic orthodoxies, but of course I am not. Rather, I will describe how orthodoxies are challenged over time, and how they... Read more

Tom Brady and Joseph Smith, Lies and Liars

Last updated on: May 14, 2015 at 9:21 am By johnturner

“And yet Joseph Smith was plainly a liar,” informs Lawrence Wright in his best-selling Going Clear. In an epilogue, Wright compares Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard to the founding prophet of Mormonism. As evidence, Wright points to Smith’s denial of polygamy and his claim that scrolls of Egyptian papyrus contained the writings of the biblical Abraham and Joseph (they were common funerary texts with no connection to the Hebrew Bible). At least to me, it is one thing to claim... Read more