Evangelizing Slaves and Colonial Christianity

Last updated on: July 25, 2014 at 11:52 am By Thomas Kidd

I recently read Travis Glasson’s excellent book Mastering Christianity: Missionary Anglicanism and Slavery in the Atlantic World (Oxford, 2012). This book details the complex relationship between enslaved people, slave masters, and the missionaries of the Anglican Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG), which began a major outreach effort to the North American colonies in the early 1700s. Many of the pioneer missionaries found aspects of the lower South’s slave society quite troubling, but they also found it difficult to maintain... Read more

WARS HOLY AND UNHOLY

Last updated on: July 19, 2014 at 7:55 am By Philip Jenkins

I have been posting a lot recently on the topic of holy war and crusade in the context of the First World War. In that context, I read a piece by Donald R. McClarey posted at the American Catholic. It includes a quote that demands a “discuss!” following it. The piece is called “Benedict XV, Rudyard Kipling, John Bunyan and G. K. Chesterton.” It begins with a quote from Chesterton, an author I admire immensely and on whom I have... Read more

Joseph Smith and the Book of Abraham

Last updated on: July 23, 2014 at 6:27 pm By johnturner

Outsiders to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints familiar with Mormonism typically have heard something about the Book of Mormon. Perhaps they know that Joseph Smith claimed to have received golden plates from an angel. Those a bit more familiar with Mormonism might know that Smith also dictated scores of revelations, messages from God that advanced his church’s understanding of doctrine and settled immediate, practical questions. Many casual students of Mormonism are less familiar with Smith’s other scriptural... Read more

Scripture as Usable History

Last updated on: July 21, 2014 at 5:18 pm By David Swartz

The Bicentennial Bible (1975) and the American Patriot’s Bible (2009) tie scripture closely to right-wing politics. The marginal notes feature quotations from Dick Cheney and other conservative activists on the subjects of liberty and the efficacy of public school prayer and free-markets. The Bicentennial Bible declares that Scripture is “America’s Book from Almighty God.” These biblical editors, though literalists and inerrantists, see America all through a sacred text that conspicuously lacks any mention of America. And yet they wring their... Read more

Christianity, Violence, and World War I

Last updated on: July 19, 2014 at 8:11 am By Thomas Kidd

Our friends at Religion News Service have an excellent profile of two of the best books ever written on World War I and religion, Jonathan Ebel’s Faith in the Fight: The American Soldier and the Great War, and my colleague and fellow Anxious Bencher Philip Jenkins’ The Great and Holy War: How World War I Became a Religious Crusade. RNS’s Kimberly Winston: Several countries — especially Russia and Germany — saw the war as a fulfillment of their unique destinies as the... Read more

Did you remember to celebrate Slovak Day?

Last updated on: January 3, 2015 at 5:36 pm By Agnes Howard

I was the only kid I knew whose family packed an accordion to go to the amusement park. It happened once a year. My ordinary life was passed in upstate New York, but summers included at least one visit to my grandparents in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh in a 1970s summer: hot, grimy, noisy, stirring. Pittsburgh, a city full of tribes that migrated there through the nineteenth century to work its mills and mines, scrap with each other, make homes, and eventually... Read more

STICKING UP FOR JEWS?

Last updated on: July 15, 2014 at 2:45 pm By Philip Jenkins

Over the past few years, we Anxious Bench bloggers have dealt with many and sundry topics. As I look back, though, I am surprised to see one big omission, both my myself and my colleagues, which is that of Jews and Judaism, and Christian-Jewish relations. If we have touched on it, we have not said much. I suppose the topic just has not arisen, but it is, Heaven knows, a vastly important topic in the great scheme of Christian history.... Read more

Phony Wars

Last updated on: July 16, 2014 at 9:23 am By johnturner

Reform or perish. Cultural and ideological liberals have given such advice to conservative churches for years. Sometimes that advice comes from within, sometimes from outside of those communions. For example, Jonathan Rauch warns conservative Christians that “the First Church of Discrimination will find few adherents in 21st-century America. Polls find that, year by year, Americans are growing more secular. The trend is particularly pronounced among the young, many of whom have come to equate religion with intolerance.” Rauch, who describes... Read more

African American Texas History in Houston

Last updated on: January 17, 2015 at 4:48 pm By Miles Mullin

The best research projects are ones that can reasonably be accomplished. Since I enjoy archival research and travel funds are limited, I recently began considering what projects I might pursue locally. With a strong interest in African American religious history and the recent historiographical turn towards grassroots activism during the Civil Rights era, focusing on Houston-area churches and religious individuals in the freedom struggle seemed a good place to start. With that in mind, I applied to attend in the Summer... Read more