The Roots of Evangelical Opposition to Syrian Intervention

Last updated on: September 9, 2013 at 12:31 pm By Thomas Kidd

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

PAPIAS AND THE MIRACULOUS VINES

Last updated on: August 12, 2013 at 6:35 pm By Philip Jenkins

Based on my study of Christian history, I offer a couple of strictly non-scientific impressions. The first is that the religion is more consistently weird in its expressions than we usually assume. Also, we can find a remarkable number of long-term continuities and connections, if we remain open to noticing them. And finally, any long-term exploration of such links has to travel a long way outside the familiar world of European Christendom. To illustrate these points, let me use the... Read more

THE PASSING OF MARY

Last updated on: September 6, 2013 at 1:43 pm By Philip Jenkins

And, behold, the archangel Michael rolled back the stone from the door of the tomb; and the Lord said: Arise, my beloved and my nearest relation; thou who hast not put on corruption by intercourse with man, suffer not destruction of the body in the sepulchre. And immediately Mary rose from the tomb, and blessed the Lord … And kissing her, the Lord went back, and delivered her soul to the angels, that they should carry it into paradise. I... Read more

PETER’S APOCALYPSE

Last updated on: July 4, 2013 at 9:18 am By Philip Jenkins

At some point in the ninth century, a Christian monk was buried at Akhmim, in Egypt, ancient Panopolis. Portions of several books were laid alongside him, perhaps because they were his particular favorites in life, or else because their visions of the heavenly realms were so appropriate to his passing from this world. This was after all Egypt, where for thousands of years pharaohs had been buried with manuscripts instructing them how to navigate the afterlife. These fragments included portions... Read more

Evangelicals and White Supremacy

Last updated on: September 4, 2013 at 4:51 pm By johnturner

Carolyn Renée Dupont’s Mississippi Praying: Southern White Evangelicals and the Civil Rights Movement, 1945-1975 is a challenging book, both in terms of history and theology. What follows is the first of a two-part review. This week, I lay out Dupont’s arguments. Next week, I’ll flesh out the story and assess those arguments. Dupont challenges much of the existing historiography of white religion’s role in the “civil rights movement.” Instead of being passive bystanders or “weak” opponents of the CRM, in... Read more

A Humble Proposal

Last updated on: September 3, 2013 at 11:29 pm By David Swartz

At the beginning of each semester, I ask my students to call me David, not Dr. Swartz. Part of the reason I ask them to use my first name is because my religious tradition trained me that way. Raised a Mennonite and nurtured on the language of the “priesthood of all believers,” we never called our preachers “Reverend” but instead addressed them by their first name. We didn’t balk at titles of endearment (like Schnookums), mostly just those of hierarchy.... Read more

Paleo Evangelicals and Syria

Last updated on: September 4, 2013 at 4:02 pm By Thomas Kidd

I have written on a number of occasions about paleo evangelicals, those who are theologically and culturally conservative, and who feel out of step with the Republican Party at critical junctures. One such juncture is escalating American involvement with Syria. I find myself in disagreement with most of President Obama’s domestic policies, but I am grateful for his (comparative) caution on intervention in Syria’s civil war. John McCain, his 2008 opponent, would have jumped into this quagmire long ago. To... Read more

Islam in the Christian College?

Last updated on: September 2, 2013 at 8:20 am By Thomas Albert Howard

In a post 9/11 world, engaging Islam in the college classroom is more important than ever. Unfortunately, too many evangelical schools are ill-equipped to meet the challenge. For that reason, I am working on a grant application presently titled “Islam in the Western Classroom: Challenges and Opportunities of Teaching about Islam in a post-9/11 World.” If successful, the grant would bring a conference to Gordon College, where I teach, at some point in the academic year 2014-15 or 2015-16. Below... Read more

THE CHILD MARY

Last updated on: August 29, 2013 at 11:32 am By Philip Jenkins

If I were to choose the single film that influenced me most, ever, it would be 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). The astronaut, Dave Bowman, encounters the alien species that originally, millions of years ago, elevated humanity to its dominant species on the planet. They then use him as the basis for another and still greater evolutionary leap that transcends man. The final image shows the Star Child, the first of the new species, contemplating the planet that will be... Read more

TWO GODS, TWO BIBLES?

Last updated on: August 30, 2013 at 6:51 am By Philip Jenkins

I have posted recently about the Dualist sects who were such a persistent force through the Middle Ages, and who drew a sharp contrast between the inferior God of the Old Testament, and the pure deity of the New. In this, they were following on neatly from the old Gnostics, who so alarmed and disgusted the mainstream church in the earliest centuries. But where did Gnostics and Dualists get this radical idea? In large part, they were inspired by reading... Read more