The scriptures attributed to the Biblical figure of Enoch commanded immense respect in the early Christian church, but by the ninth century or so, these had largely vanished from use, in Europe at least. Not only were they treated with less respect, but they effectively disappeared. Why and how did this happen? What does this say about the standards that the church applied to decide whether or not a book could be included in the canon? Signs of doubt about... Read more
It’s so easy to make fun of Mormons that The Book of Mormon: The Musical didn’t even mention polygamy. The golden plates — where are they now? The Garden of Eden — where is it? No coffee? The preceding three questions may violate the spirit of Episcopal Bishop of Utah, the Rev. Scott Hayashi’s plea for an end to anti-Mormon humor. I still feel rather guilty over making a suggestion in the midst of a blog discussion (can’t remember if... Read more
Peter Leithart’s landmark book Defending Constantine (2010) sharply rebuked Christian pacifists. Leithart clearly intended to do more than rehabilitate the reputation of Constantine, emperor of Rome in the fourth century; this project was also a polemic against Mennonite icon John Howard Yoder. In its most grave charge, Defending Constantine accuses Yoder of doing bad history. Roger Olson puts it colorfully: “[Leithart] frequently treats Yoder as some kind of Anabaptist nincompoop who ignorantly plays fast and loose with facts.” Specifically, Leithart... Read more
Baylor recently welcomed Os Guinness, one of the seminal Christian apologists of the past half-century, for a public conversation with our president, Judge Ken Starr. Guinness spoke about his new book The Global Public Square: Religious Freedom and the Making of a World Safe for Diversity. [Video of the event is available here.] Guinness offers a compelling vision of a worldwide public arena which affords religious people of all persuasions, as well as skeptics and atheists, full liberty of conscience and... Read more
Is in vitro fertilization (IVF) a moral issue? Jennifer Lahl, in a recent post at Christianity Today’s her.meneutics, ponders the new Pew survey revealing most Americans think it’s not. Lahl, President of The Center for Bioethics and Culture, is concerned that Christians are not more concerned about reproductive technologies, IVF, and surrogacy. Some Protestants’ too-ready embrace of these procedures comes at high cost (Roman Catholic authorities, in contrast, articulately have opposed them, in Evangelium Vitae and other statements). The comments... Read more
I recently posted about the historic devotion to the Virgin Mary, and the range of alternative writings and even pseudo-gospels that it inspired. These texts made Mary a close facsimile of Christ, with a comparably miraculous story of conception, birth, death and (in a sense) resurrection. Mary’s birth-story is described in the Protevangelium, and the accounts of her passing from the world in the Six Books Apocryphon or the De Transitu Virginis. But it’s a legitimate question: if these works... Read more
And Enoch walked with God and then he was gone, for God took him. I am investigating a mysterious disappearance. As I am a mere academic, there’s no actual blood involved, but it’s still a puzzling case. Briefly, I am trying to explain why the Book of Enoch vanished as thoroughly as it did, and when it did. We are living through a “Renaissance of Enoch Studies.” For some forty years now, Enochic literature has been the subject of a... Read more
Last month, we celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington. Led by veteran civil rights activists A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin, the event sought to provide a public demonstration of support for a comprehensive civil rights bill being proposed by President Kennedy. Most well-known for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, the march aimed to galvanize existing backers of civil rights legislation even as it... Read more
While a national denomination fitfully advanced an agenda of social justice and civil rights, my local congregation fractured. The session moderator, a host of leading congregants, and much of the attendance disappeared. Week by week, the numbers dwindled. Empty pews were disillusioning. Across the country, congregations were leaving and joining a splinter denomination, and bitter property fights raged. The tumult accelerated the main denomination’s numerical decline. The results made me ask: why had the denomination taken a step when it... Read more
Last week I wrote about “Paleo Evangelicals and Syria,” explaining why many traditional evangelicals will not support intervention in Syria’s civil war. Evangelicals are hardly the only Christians opposing intervention; indeed, the Syria question has become one of the most remarkably unifying issues for progressive, Catholic, Orthodox, and evangelical Christians that I can ever recall. We may explain much of this Christian reluctance by a general opposition to war, especially among progressives and Catholics. Catholics and Orthodox Christians closely identify... Read more
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