Slavery: America’s Original Sin?

Last updated on: October 4, 2013 at 4:08 pm By Thomas Kidd

[This week’s post is from my archives at Patheos.] The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History has a touring exhibit entitled “Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello: Paradox of Liberty.” At the front of the Smithsonian display stands a life-size statue of Jefferson, backed by a panel listing the known names of about 600 slaves who worked for Jefferson during his life. The display has renewed the moral dilemma of slavery’s role in our national history. Is slavery America’s original sin? Or is the... Read more

Giving Cotton Mather his due

Last updated on: October 13, 2013 at 9:31 pm By Agnes Howard

This year marks the 350th anniversary of the birth of Cotton Mather (1663-1728). Descendant of leading Puritan ministers, defender of colonial liberties, esteemed pastor of a large Boston congregation, and enlightened proponent of science, Mather is an important figure in American colonial history. Despite all his works—or maybe because of all his works—Mather has received harsh treatment in some historical accounts. Nicknamed a prig, a“national gargoyle,” he sometimes has been squashed to fit the worst Puritan-to-Yankee caricatures. The difficulty of... Read more

ARTEMISIA COMES TO CHICAGO

Last updated on: October 11, 2013 at 4:19 pm By Philip Jenkins

Some months back I described how the Bible’s Deuterocanonical books had inspired so many artists through the centuries. I particularly mentioned the wonderful Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1656), who among other things was celebrated for her gory portrayals of Judith beheading the enemy general Holofernes. The Wall Street Journal recently did a piece on a new exhibit of her work, centered on that Holofernes story. (Subscription required for access to the WSJ site). Kyle MacMillan describes the efforts of the... Read more

WHAT IS A GOSPEL?

Last updated on: July 18, 2013 at 12:53 pm By Philip Jenkins

I have been working on the fate of alternative scriptures in the millennium or so following the early Christian era – say, between 500 and 1600. My argument is that, in that long period, many or most of the old alternative texts that were so popular in the early church continued to thrive and to influence Christian thought, and that includes some works that the church tried hard to suppress. Indeed, new texts and new gospels continued to be written.... Read more

Elizabeth Smart’s Story

Last updated on: October 9, 2013 at 5:31 pm By johnturner

Most visitors to the internet this week have probably noticed that Elizabeth Smart has just released a memoir of her horrific ordeal. Ten years after her rescue, she details her abduction and captivity and explains how she transcended the evils she experienced. My review is here. Warning: the book induces nightmares, especially when you have children. A few additional thoughts: – Is Elizabeth Smart the second-most famous Mormon (known to be Mormon) in America? Athletes (Manti Teo, Jimmer Fredette, etc.)... Read more

The Meaning of Baptism in the Early Church

Last updated on: October 8, 2013 at 9:48 pm By Miles Mullin

Baptismal Imagery in Early Christianity: Ritual, Visual, and Theological Dimensions. By Robin M. Jensen. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2012. Teaching at a theological seminary, I find the breadth of each class challenging, something I have written about here and here. At the same time, it helps me to develop an eye for larger patterns of development in history. Further, it affords me an excuse for reading across the breadth of the history of Christianity. Instead of feeling guilty about... Read more

The Puritans as Masters of Reform

Last updated on: October 7, 2013 at 2:56 pm By Thomas Kidd

My history graduate students and I recently read David Hall’s A Reforming People: Puritanism and the Transformation of Public Life in New England (2011), a remarkably admiring portrait of early New England Puritans and their participatory society. While progressive critics, following Nathaniel Hawthorne, have often caricatured the theocratic rule of the Puritan fathers, Harvard’s Hall – one of the finest historians of the Puritans of recent decades – argues that the Puritans were actually masters of equitable reform and responsive politics. Not... Read more

THE GREEN MAN AND THE KING OF SALEM

Last updated on: October 5, 2013 at 8:11 pm By Philip Jenkins

Christians who delve into the Qur’an will be surprised how many old friends they find there, including Jesus and Mary, of course, and a lengthy roster of prophets and patriarchs. Exploring the Qur’an can be an excellent way of understanding the Christian and Jewish worlds of Late Antiquity, roughly the sixth and seventh centuries BC. Most of the Qur’anic characters can be identified easily enough. Allowing for legendary accretions, the Qur’anic Musa is not too far from the Biblical Moses,... Read more

THE CAVE OF TREASURES

Last updated on: July 18, 2013 at 8:18 am By Philip Jenkins

Throughout history, both Jews and Christians have been extraordinarily prolific in producing alternative scriptures, which we conventionally divide into Old and New Testament apocrypha (or pseudepigrapha). Some texts, though resist such neat divisions. While apparently expanding on Old Testament events and personalities, they actually present Christian doctrines so strongly that they certainly belong alongside New Testament texts, and some can be considered alternative gospels. One of the most impressive such works is the so called Book of the Cave of... Read more

Billy Graham’s Legacy

Last updated on: October 10, 2013 at 5:17 am By johnturner

If evangelicals are those who like Billy Graham, I’m in the club. I attended two Graham crusades, one in Rochester, NY, ca. 1990, and the other in Louisville near the end of Graham’s public ministry. At the first, I came forward to (re)dedicate my life to Christ. [Like many of us, I have done that on more than one occasion]. By the time of the Louisville crusade, it was hard for me not to think about Graham from the perspective... Read more