Worship Wars: The Early Modern Versions

Last updated on: February 2, 2024 at 7:48 am By Lynneth Renberg

Worship wars. The phrase might bring to mind debates about contemporary or traditional music, or about how to incorporate liturgy into services, or even about whether drum sets are appropriate in worship. But for an early modern audience, worship wars might have been literal physical altercations. Some well-known conflicts, like Zwingli’s Affair of the Sausages or Karlstadt’s debate with Luther over the mass, involved debates about theological sacramental principles that led to arrests and exiles. Other conflicts, though, turned far... Read more

ASCH 2024: Review and a Question

Last updated on: January 24, 2024 at 5:50 pm By Ansley Quiros

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Last month, many historians of religion gathered in San Francisco for the American Society of Church History’s annual conference. It was a wonderful time to engage with new work and ideas as well as connect with fellow scholars and friends, including several fellow Anxious Benchers. If you’ll indulge me, a review here of some of the panels—as well as a major question that emerged throughout the discussions. For me, the conference began on Friday morning, as I got to... Read more

American Religion Through an Imperial Lens

Last updated on: February 2, 2024 at 3:33 pm By Philip Jenkins

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I have been working on the topic of empires, and specifically on their religious dimensions. To take the title of my forthcoming book, Kingdoms of This World: How Empires Have Made and Remade Religions (Baylor University Press, 2024). I have remarked how modern-day American historians have little doubt that the US constituted an empire – not just after the grabs of Pacific territory in 1898, but essentially from the country’s foundation. (I draw your attention to the substantial bibliography that... Read more

The Mansfield Crisis: Segregation Trouble in a Texas Town

Last updated on: February 2, 2024 at 11:39 am By Joey Cochran

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A crisis occurred in Mansfield, Texas, during the fall of 1956. A typical Jim Crow town in the South, Mansfield had numerous “separate but equal” laws for its black citizens. 1950s Mansfield had a population of approximately 1,500 citizens, with 350 of them estimated to be black. These black citizens’ residences were segregated to the West side of town.[1] The only church that permitted black attendance in Mansfield was the all black, Bethlehem Baptist Church. Blacks were required to enter... Read more

What is Gained, and Lost, in a Universal Church

Last updated on: January 26, 2024 at 4:20 pm By Dr. Janine Giordano Drake

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by Janine Giordano Drake A few weeks ago, as my ELCA Lutheran church was reciting the Apostles Creed–like we always do– on a cloudy Sunday morning, the woman next to me in the pew loudly offered a protest. Instead of professing faith in the “Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, and the forgiveness of sins” like it was written in the church bulletin, she changed “catholic” to “Christian.” We were in an unmistakably Lutheran Church, but... Read more

Rediscovering the American Empire

Last updated on: January 25, 2024 at 5:44 pm By Philip Jenkins

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My forthcoming book Kingdoms of This World: How Empires Have Made and Remade Religions (Baylor University Press, 2024) focuses on the history of empires, and specifically their religious dimensions. In this present post, I will pursue that theme in the context of US empire through history. That idea of empire has become a very potent – indeed central – theme in the writing of American history over the past couple of decades. Even so, a lot remains to be said... Read more

Walls Around the World: A Year in Review

Last updated on: January 24, 2024 at 1:21 am By Andrea L. Turpin

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I hail from a very well-traveled family. I spent ages 3 months to two-and-a-half years in Paris, France. (Tragically, I speak very little French as we moved there from Texas before either parent could master the language.) Before that, my parents lived in England for a time. My brother has lived in Japan, South Africa, Sudan, South Sudan, and Jordan. I have only lived in France and the U.S., but in my (later) youth I traveled not only back to... Read more

Can an Authoritarian Political Regime Happen Here?

Last updated on: January 22, 2024 at 4:26 pm By Daniel K. Williams

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As the slow pace of economic recovery left many people discontent, it looked like the Democratic president would face a demagogic, authoritarian-minded populist challenger in his bid for reelection. Millions of people were angry with democratic liberalism and were looking for more radical solutions. There was also international unrest. A European dictator had just invaded another country for no apparent reason – but few Americans had any desire to help. The United States didn’t need to get involved in other... Read more

The Snow Day as (Endangered) Holiday

Last updated on: January 22, 2024 at 8:00 pm By Melissa Borja

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A blast of arctic air hit much of the United States last week and brought snow, wind, and intense cold to much of the country. It was so cold that Republican presidential candidates worried that Iowans wouldn’t show up for the Republican caucuses, held on a day when wind chills were 40 degrees below zero. It was so cold that at the NFL playoff game between the Chiefs and the Dolphins—the fourth coldest game in NFL history—the Kansas... Read more

What A Paint Color Reveals About Christian History

Last updated on: January 23, 2024 at 9:56 am By Jacob Randolph

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In 1602, the Italian painter Caravaggio completed one of the most moving paintings of the early Baroque period, The Incredulity of Saint Thomas. The subject matter was common enough. The image depicts the apostle Thomas meeting the risen Christ in John’s Gospel. Thomas, upon hearing the news that Christ had risen from the dead, fearing it too good to be true. “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands,” Thomas said, “and put my finger in his... Read more