What’s Present is Prologue to the Past

Last updated on: August 8, 2013 at 12:09 am By johnturner

Jennifer Schuessler at the New York Times introduces cutting-edge historical scholarship to the masses. Last summer, she published a piece on Mormon history, and this past spring an article on scholarship about American capitalism followed (that piece discussed, among other books, Bethany Moreton’s To Serve God and Wal-Mart). Most recently, Schuessler introduced readers to recent works of history about mainline Protestantism. For starters, regardless of how readers of this blog feel about the NYT’s coverage of religion, perhaps we can... Read more

Do Christian Kids Need Christian Education?

Last updated on: August 5, 2013 at 10:43 am By Thomas Kidd

This week’s post comes from the Anxious Bench archives. It is part of the new Patheos series “Passing On The Faith: Teaching The Next Generation.” There’s nothing like having school-age children to get you thinking about education. Yes, I went to college for eleven straight years (from B.A. to Ph.D.), and yes, I have taught at the college level for eleven years, too. But I had never thought so much about education — specifically, what kind of education is best for... Read more

HERACLEON

Last updated on: June 28, 2013 at 10:00 pm By Philip Jenkins

Here’s a trivia question. Who wrote the first ever commentary on a piece of Christian scripture? The answer is quite surprising, and it says a lot about some of the diverse subcultures that existed within different parts of the Christian world Elaine Pagels earned fame through her 1979 book The Gnostic Gospels. Far less well known is her 1973 work The Johannine Gospel in Gnostic Exegesis: Heracleon’s Commentary on John, a technical-sounding study that actually deals with a very important... Read more

Human Dignity and the Image of God

Last updated on: July 27, 2013 at 11:49 am By Thomas Albert Howard

The years after World War II witnessed much discussion about and reflection on the idea of human dignity. In 1949, with the Holocaust and Nuremberg trials fresh in mind, the drafters of the new German Constitution or Grundgesetzt included in its opening article the statement that “the dignity of man is inviolable.” A year earlier, the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights referred to the “inherent dignity” of human beings and proclaimed that “all human beings are born free... Read more

VALENTINUS THE EGYPTIAN

Last updated on: July 16, 2013 at 7:45 pm By Philip Jenkins

Early Egyptian Christianity had a strong non-orthodox strand, if that “Gnostic” current did not actually dominate. I have already discussed the influence of Basilides, but Egypt produced an even more celebrated teacher in Valentinus. What makes him so interesting for a modern Christian audience is that he shows just how close the Gnostics were to a mainstream faith, while being so radically distant in fundamental assumptions. It’s like seeing a familiar picture through a distorting mirror. Valentinus was an Egyptian... Read more

End Hymnal Wars

Last updated on: August 1, 2013 at 10:17 am By johnturner

Never agree to serve on a hymnal committee. First of all, if your church (like mine) is still using hymnals, that’s probably a sign that its membership (like mine) is aging and shrinking. Second, one can be certain that a new hymnal — or any new decision about congregational singing and music — will produce rancor. Still, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is encouraging its congregations to adopt a new hymnal, Glory to God. That fact makes me feel old. I... Read more

The Religion of the 1950s

Last updated on: January 16, 2015 at 7:44 pm By Miles Mullin

In American memory, the 1950s are often portrayed as a mundane, picturesque prelude to the chaotic, transformative decade that would follow. Popular contemporary television portrayals of the decade such as The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952-1966), Father Knows Best (1954-1960) and Leave It To Beaver (1957-1963) helped create the stereotype of the 1950s as an idyllic period of domestic bliss, perpetuating it through endless reruns when the shows came into syndication in the 1980s. In the past, American religious historians portrayed the 1950s as encompassing something similar... Read more

Bible Wars and the Origins of the Term “Inerrancy”

Last updated on: July 23, 2013 at 11:04 am By Thomas Kidd

Over at The Gospel Coalition, Andrew Wilson recently wrote a piece called “Why I Don’t Hate the Word ‘Inerrancy’.” He explains that when asked the street-level question, “Does the Bible contain mistakes?” I always answer, “When interpreted properly, no.” That first clause is important; after all, an awful lot of people in history have thought that the Bible says the earth is at the center of the universe, flat, and built on pillars. There is also a plethora of texts... Read more

BASILIDES AND THE BAPTISM

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

I was discussing the theory that the oldest level of Egypt’s Christianity was very different from anything we would recognize as orthodoxy, and that the most prominent leaders were what we would call Gnostic. That theory can be advanced in extreme terms, so that basically there is no early orthodoxy. Even if we do not go that far, we certainly find plenty of Gnostic teachers and groups in early Egypt, and they are influential. That Gnostic term is of course... Read more

THE EGYPTIAN MYSTERY

Last updated on: July 26, 2013 at 11:06 am By Philip Jenkins

I recently described the extraordinary position that Egypt held in early Christian history, when the country became the source of many ideas and institutions that would spread throughout the wider Christian world. Given that importance, it is really surprising that we know so very little about the early history of Egyptian Christianity, an ignorance that really demands explanation. As I wrote, its very strong Jewish presence means that Egypt must have been a very early center of Christian expansion. Late... Read more