Personality-Driven Leadership in the Local Congregation

Last updated on: December 18, 2013 at 3:30 am By Miles Mullin

In my last post, I suggested that the evangelical embrace of personality-driven leadership forms the backstory to the Mark Driscoll-Janet Mefferd imbroglio over plagiarism. Several commentators on the blog raised astute questions regarding the pervasive nature of this aspect of American evangelicalism. After all, doesn’t personality-driven leadership characterize evangelicalism in local congregations, not just mega-ministries led by a “celebrity pastor?” Radio host John Hall of Pittsburgh’s Word FM raised a similar question on The Ride Home when we spoke last week.... Read more

How to Publish a History Book

Last updated on: December 16, 2013 at 4:33 pm By Thomas Kidd

As we pass George Whitefield’s 299th birthday this week, I am preparing to deliver the revised manuscript of my Whitefield biography to Yale University Press. It is a good time to review how publishing a history book works, and to give an update on where the biography stands. To publish a book with an established press, you ordinarily need a “platform” from which to write a book – in the world of religious history, the most common such platforms are... Read more

RIGHTEOUS ENEMIES

Last updated on: May 3, 2014 at 8:18 pm By Philip Jenkins

I just returned from a visit to Italy. Traveling in Europe can often be depressing, even heartbreaking, if you know the modern history, especially of the World War II years. Italy, though, offers quite different themes, which are still not as well known as they should be. It’s an inspiring story. I don’t want to exaggerate Italy’s distinctiveness from the dictatorships that surrounded it. Fascism was a horrendous and brutal system, and Italian treatment of colonial populations in Abyssinia and... Read more

A CATALOGUE OF SECTS

Last updated on: December 8, 2013 at 12:14 pm By Philip Jenkins

I recently posted about using visual materials to tell religious history. Some of the most useful images are the really hostile cartoons and satires. Not that you expect these to be in any sense fair and balanced, but they do give an idea of the issues at stake in the polemic of the time. They are also good as teaching materials. I have already described Hogarth’s 1761 assault on revivalists, Methodists and other bizarre fanatics. (!) Another image I have... Read more

Mormons and Race

Last updated on: December 11, 2013 at 6:49 pm By johnturner

Last week, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released a new, detailed statement on “Race and the Priesthood” on its “Gospel Topics” website. For those unfamiliar with the topic, during Joseph Smith’s lifetime the church ordained a number of black men into the priesthood, an expected progression for any male member of the church in good standing. However, in 1852 Brigham Young stated that if “there never was a prophet or apostle of Jesus Christ [that] spoke it... Read more

International Evangelicals and Cold War Non-Alignment

Last updated on: December 11, 2013 at 12:32 am By David Swartz

In the mid-twentieth century the world underwent geopolitical reorientation. Decolonization carved the imperial-colonial divide into a new landscape, and World War II left only two major superpowers: the Marxist Soviet Union and the liberal democratic United States. Once allies against Nazi Germany, ideological differences rapidly turned them into foes. Each side began to “recruit” allies around the world in order to fight by proxy. Some of the warfare consisted of “soft diplomacy” (here’s an example called “American Imperialist: The Millionaire”... Read more

The Virtues of a Free (Christian) Press

Last updated on: December 9, 2013 at 11:18 am By Thomas Kidd

In my time writing for WORLD magazine, one thing I have learned is that people don’t like being the subject of negative press coverage. This shouldn’t be a surprise, of course, but still it has been revealing to see how often coverage of controversy generates complaints from representatives of the person or ministry in question. Were I to fall into some kind of public controversy myself, I am sure I would not like the coverage either. But, as Carl Trueman wrote recently... Read more

On Pilgrimage in Advent

Last updated on: December 8, 2013 at 9:21 am By Agnes Howard

On his pilgrimage to Rome in 1263 Peter, a priest from Bohemia, stopped in the ancient Etruscan-Roman city of Bolsena. He celebrated Mass at the lakeside church of Santa Cristina. Peter had been doubting transubstantiation, doubting the reality of Christ’s presence in Eucharist: was He really there, given as food for sinners, in the bread and wine? Elevating the host, Peter felt it change, becoming flesh, dripping—blood!—on to the altar cloth. His faith changed, Peter reported the miracle to... Read more

HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT

Last updated on: December 6, 2013 at 12:11 pm By Philip Jenkins

Wonderful news! Some months back, I posted about the evocative early Christian remains of the Vale of Glamorgan, in South Wales, around such very early centers as Llantwit Major and Llancarfan, which date back to the fifth and sixth centuries. Little did I know that, even as I wrote, archaeologists were making astonishing finds at Llancarfan itself, and these are now being widely publicized. Briefly, the church in the Late Middle Ages – say around the 1480s – was the... Read more

PICTURES WITHOUT WORDS

Last updated on: November 22, 2013 at 12:27 pm By Philip Jenkins

I recently attended an outstanding conference at Gordon College on the upcoming celebration of the fifth centennial of the Reformation in 2017 – the half millennium. I’m not going to summarize the Gordon event here, but a project occurred to me, or rather a challenge. Suppose you had to describe an event like that, but more or less entirely in visual imagery, rather than text. And preferably, all contemporary images. Remember Francis of Assisi’s words: preach constantly, and if necessary,... Read more