In a New Year’s Day post, Thomas Kidd encouraged us to read more and to “read more intentionally.” He referenced “non-professional reading,” but I find I need help simply keeping up with the professional reading because of the constant onslaught of worthy books rolling off the presses (or being digitized by said presses). In that vein, I’m trying to compile a list of recent and forthcoming books about American evangelicalism (and some related subjects) to read over the next several... Read more
For most of its history, evangelicalism comfortably housed progressive elements within the movement. Some scholars, such the late Timothy L. Smith and Donald Dayton, have argued that the natural tilt of evangelicalism is towards progressive social action. However, one need not fully embrace that thesis to recognize that historically, some branches of the movement demonstrate a marked progressive inclination. John and Charles Wesley led early Methodists to work towards personal and social holiness. Charles Finney and his coterie at Oberlin College... Read more
I hesitate to add my two cents about “Duck Dynasty,” at the risk of revealing just how lowbrow I am, and at the risk of commenting on a show that probably has “jumped the shark,” as they say. (I cannot imagine that this season’s premiere will not be the high point of the show’s popularity.) But as recent articles by our friend Sarah Pulliam Bailey at Religion News Service have indicated, the show’s appeal raises questions about the popularity –... Read more
As will be obvious from my recent posts, I am very interested in Egypt’s role in Christian history. For years though, when I read material about this or talked to people, I always glided over one topic that had little appeal for me, and I now think I was wrong to do so. It really is critically important for understanding one of the world’s oldest and most distinguished churches. If you read about Coptic Christianity, if you explore tourist materials,... Read more
I am rethinking my attitude to paranoia. For many years, I have written on the demonization of out-groups, the way in which similar charges are deployed against marginal minorities. Seemingly, the same sort of bogus allegations surface in widely different cultures around the world. Some such groups actually existed, even if they never committed the crime charged against them (Jews in early modern Europe), while other demon figures are wholly invented (witches in the 1590s, Satanist murder gangs in the... Read more
With all the turmoil faced by modern-day Egyptian Christians, I hope it doesn’t seem inappropriate to write more on their ancient beginnings. It should remind us of just how much of the Christian heritage is at stake in these battles. I have described the oddly obscure nature of the early Egyptian church, suggesting that Christianity must have been very strong in the country, but not necessarily orthodox. Matters changed at the end of the second century, when we suddenly find... Read more
We here at IVCF have a spiritual legacy that over the years has sort of dipped a little bit. Fifteen years ago, our fellowship was made up of a majority of white students, and one of the areas that students and staff began to be convicted about was the lack of connection with the rest of the ethnic groups on campus, and then through a series of events … IVCF started to cross ethnic barriers. … Each one of us,... Read more
Follow.Jesus.2013’s final meeting, a Sunday morning church service, was striking. It followed a Friday evening roast of Ron Sider, the 40-year face of Evangelicals for Social Action, and Saturday’s more academic consideration of the organization’s legacy. The service was a glimpse of moderate evangelicalism’s future: a woman (Heidi Unruh) presiding, a black worship band leading music, and the new faces of ESA—Al Tizon and Paul Alexander (the pair who will be leading the organization using a “consensus model”)—leading communion. The... Read more
I recently read Rod Dreher’s remarkable book The Little Way of Ruthie Leming. My expectations for the book were extremely high, as the near-universal praise of reviewers has been effusive, and Dreher is one of my favorite bloggers and writers. Reading his earlier book Crunchy Cons was uncanny: it explained a great deal of me to myself (why do my wife and I – evangelicals, Baptists, and conservatives – belong to a community-supported agriculture co-op??). The Little Way is a very different book, in which... Read more
Last month I visited the Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, New York, around the anniversary of the town’s most famous event, the 1848 women’s rights convention. Called by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott and colleagues, the meeting convened in hot July at the Wesleyan Chapel. This was a seminal gathering, drawing together women and men who had been active in other causes: Frederick Douglass and Amelia Bloomer, Methodists and Quakers, movers in temperance, anti-slavery, missionary ventures. Church... Read more
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