Anxious Bench - Page 3 of 221 - The Relevance of Religious History for Today

Evangelicals Incorporated: An Interview with Daniel Vaca

January 30, 2020 By johnturner

Who are evangelicals? How did the meaning of evangelicalism take shape over the course of the last two centuries? When answering those questions, historians most commonly examine denominations, congregations, and parachurch ministries, and their leaders. Daniel Vaca, Robert Gale Noyes Assistant Professor of Humanities at Brown University, explores the creation and development of evangelical identity from a different vantage point, that of the marketplace. Vaca’s recently published book is Evangelicals Incorporated: Books and the Business of Religion in America (Harvard, 2019)…. Read more

The Latinization of Latin America Mission

January 29, 2020 By David Swartz

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Fifty years after the latinization of Latin America Mission, attempts to implement the insights of Gatu and Lores continue with only uneven success. Read more

“Jesus Loves Me, This I Know”

January 28, 2020 By Chris Gehrz

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Chris investigates the unlikely history of a much loved children’s hymn. Read more

Reading Newman’s The Idea of a University

January 27, 2020 By Thomas Albert Howard

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The nineteenth-century Catholic theologian John Henry Newman was recently canonized by Pope Francis. Newman is the author of many important works, but none are as relevant to Christian higher education as his The Idea of a University. In several weeks, I will lead a discussion on it. Here are a few initial thoughts, especially with an aim to contextualizing the work historically: Although perhaps more invoked than read, Newman’s The Idea of a University remains a key work for thinking… Read more

Writing My Christian History Sequence

January 24, 2020 By Philip Jenkins

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This post is about the process of writing, and about gradually finding out what exactly you have been researching and writing through the years. The answer can surprise, even or especially me, as the author. In my time, I have written a lot of books, around thirty to date. The topics are not randomly selected, as they fall into four or so distinct categories. But for the purposes of this blog, I will trace one of those long arcs or… Read more

Simple Truth: Sex Abuse, the Amish, and the Evangelicals

January 23, 2020 By Kristin Du Mez

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Last week, journalist Sarah McClure published an investigative report in Cosmopolitan—yes, Cosmopolitan—on the prevalence of sexual abuse among the Amish. Based on a year-long investigation, the report contains disturbing details that are difficult to stomach; I’d call it shocking if we didn’t already have a history of similar reports of abuse in Amish and Mennonite communities going back years. McClure discovered “52 official cases of Amish child sexual assault in seven states over the past two decades,” but the full… Read more

The Divorce of a Pastor’s Wife in 1860 Texas

January 22, 2020 By Beth Allison Barr

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This is from my Anxious Bench archives. I am working hard on book chapters, but never fear I will be back soon. I wanted to post this again for two reasons. First–it is one of my favorite local history posts (that probably many of my readers haven’t seen, since it is from 2016), and I thought it was poignant given Wayne Grudem’s recent public change on his stance on divorce. He just admitted that divorce is probably okay in the case… Read more

What’s Lost with the Dying of the Mainline

January 21, 2020 By Chris Gehrz

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Given current trends, mainline denominations may virtually disappear by the year 2050. If so, Chris hopes that the historic best of mainline Protestantism will survive, finding new expressions in a renewed church. Read more

The Decline of Us-ness: Bowling Alone and Dying Alone

January 20, 2020 By Philip Jenkins

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The Economist just published an article that on its surface said nothing about religion or religious trends, but the implications for that topic are huge. Let me put the argument out there for discussion. The article is called “Free Exchange: Economists Grapple With Rising American Mortality” (January 9, paywalled). The main topic is “deaths of despair,” as “A growing share of middle-aged white Americans, especially those without college degrees, are dying from suicide and drug and alcohol use.” This is… Read more

Mystical Images of War

January 17, 2020 By Philip Jenkins

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I have written a lot related to the centennial of the First World War. One of my main themes has been the stunning juxtaposition in those years of radical modernity – in the form of tanks, aircraft, gas weaponry, and mass industrial warfare – and the truly ancient religious ideas that people used to comprehend what was going on around them. The visual record of the war years is awash with images of angels and Armageddon. People spoke the language… Read more

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