I was reading a fictional account in which a gay man asks a pastor, a long-time friend, to perform his same-sex wedding. Although the pastor tries to keep his cool, the prospect appalls him. He warns that if this event did occur, he would avert his eyes in disgust if the two men kissed in front of him. He would be “totally grossed out.” Ultimately he decides that he cannot perform the wedding, mainly because “I’m a little worried about... Read more
This will not be Patheos’s best anniversary post. For starters, I just double-checked the guidelines and now see that anniversary posts were supposed to reach you between May 5 and May 7. I am late. Moreover, I have not prepared a video to upload for you to enjoy. This, however, is perhaps a blessing. A few years ago, I made a series of podcasts for a “blended” U.S. History survey course. I did not think the format improved me. Moreover,... Read more
As Tommy Kidd noted yesterday, we are in the middle of Patheos’ five-year-anniversary celebration. Congratulations to Patheos for successfully “hosting the conversation on faith” for the past half-decade. In my estimation, they have done a great job! For my part, this month marks a full year that I have had the privilege of writing for The Anxious Bench on the Patheos Evangelical Channel. As a result, I do not have a deep well of blog posts from which to draw... Read more
Congratulations to Patheos on its five-year anniversary! As I note in the brief video here, I have written for Patheos for several years, first as a columnist, then as a blogger and coordinator for the Anxious Bench group historians’ blog. Here’s some of my best posts during my time writing for Patheos: “Ask Jesus into Your Heart”: A History of the Sinner’s Prayer “If potential converts (children or adults) are so unfamiliar with basic Bible doctrine that they can understand... Read more
Over the past twenty years, I have taught an introductory World Religions survey course. Obviously, it’s difficult to say too much about these diverse traditions in such a limited time, but I usually find myself stressing one theme in particular. As you look at the different faiths, they have many divisions and competing schools of thought, and the issues that cause these splits and schisms look quite similar across faiths. Oddly, one much studied parallel is between Roman Catholic Christianity... Read more
My series on visions will resume in a few weeks. In the meantime, it’s worth noting that a film involving a young boy’s near-death vision of heaven and Jesus has become an unexpected hit. Right now, however, I’ve just finished reading The Good Lord Bird, last year’s National Book Award winning novel about John Brown’s fight against slavery. John Brown is one of my favorite subjects (see this post) in the history of American religion and the subject of many... Read more
Last week several dozen scholars of religion met at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom to discuss the global history of evangelicalism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The conference, organized by Kendrick Oliver, whose research on religion and the space program you really must become acquainted with, was terrific. Papers ranged from religious broadcasting (Tim Stoneman, Georgia Tech Lorraine), charismatic Anglican short-term missions (John Maiden, Open University), World Vision (David King, IUPUI), and Carl McIntire, the ICCC,... Read more
My Baylor colleague and fellow Anxious Bench blogger Philip Jenkins is Distinguished Professor of History and Co-Director of the Program on Historical Studies of Religion at Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion. He is the author of many books, including The Lost History of Christianity, Jesus Wars, and The Next Christendom. He has published articles and op-ed pieces in The Wall Street Journal, New Republic, The Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe. His latest book is The Great and Holy War: How World War I... Read more
This weekend’s big event, the first-ever double papal canonization–two living popes making saints of two towering twentieth-century ones—wears its historical significance on its sleeve. In a New York Times article covering the event, Jim Yardley quotes 54-year-old Kansan Mary Ellen Watson: “This is a moment in the history of the church that has never happened and won’t probably happen again—with four popes!” Pope Francis I, remarkable in his own right as a “first,” was joined by the emeritus Pope Benedict... Read more
Perhaps because he practices the Christian humility encouraged by Miles Mullin this past week, our colleague David Swartz has failed to inform readers of the Anxious Bench that his history of the Evangelical Left is now available in paperback. See my praise of David’s book here and here. Needless to say, Moral Minority is readable, informative, and humane in its treatment of both the Evangelical Left and its more conservative antagonists. As David writes on his own blog, if the... Read more
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