Notes on Being “American” Abroad

Last updated on: January 6, 2024 at 3:49 am By Lisa Clark Diller

This Christmas holiday I’ve returned to Australia to visit with friends I made during a teaching exchange in 2017. This brought up a set of reflections I formed that year on identity and representing my country internationally. “So, you’re American—what’s going on with your politics?” I get asked this question somewhat regularly. It is asked very politely, sometimes tentatively. People are trying to find out something about me, about the “feel” of things back in the States, while not being... Read more

Knowledge, Faith, and Early Christian Initiation

Last updated on: January 11, 2024 at 11:13 am By Philip Jenkins

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Today, I am delighted to welcome a guest blogger, who presents the findings of his important new study of the earliest church. He really gets into some significant issues here. The author is my colleague Alex Fogleman. Alex is an Assistant Research Professor of Theology at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion, project manager for the Global Flourishing Study, and director of the Catechesis Institute. He is the author of Knowledge, Faith, and Early Christian Initiation (Cambridge University Press, 2023).... Read more

New Year, New Post On Jesus’ Favorite Topic: Greed

Last updated on: January 3, 2024 at 5:31 pm By Malcolm Foley

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Just as a reminder, if you couldn’t tell from all of my posts last year, Jesus’ favorite topic and the recurring theme of mine is greed. Happy New Year! There are a few texts in the Scriptures that many American Christians very rarely hear preached because no one really wants to think about them. One of those texts is Jesus’ conversation with the rich young ruler. Though the story appears in each Gospel, I’m going to take a close look... Read more

Living in Light of Christmas: Thoughts for the New Year

Last updated on: January 1, 2024 at 11:12 am By Lynneth Renberg

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As the calendar turns to another year, commercials and advertisements and media all yell loudly at us to make resolutions– to become healthier and fitter (remember the infamous commercial for a certain exercise machine from a few years back?), to make wiser financial choices, to set and accomplish big goals. In short, as each new year begins, culture tells us to do better and to be better. As Christians, we are certainly called to pursue sanctification and to continually grow... Read more

Best Books of 2023

Last updated on: December 30, 2023 at 1:21 pm By Joey Cochran

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Last year I introduced my “Best Books” column with some strategies for how to read. If you’re thinking about strategies for how to read in 2024, I recommend checking out that article. Now if you’re curious about strategies on selecting what to read for 2024, sit tight and lean in. How I Select What I Read No doubt, there are all sorts of readers who will happen upon this column. Some of these suggestions may not fit you as a... Read more

What’s in a Christmas Pageant?

Last updated on: December 29, 2023 at 4:29 pm By Dr. Janine Giordano Drake

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by Janine Giordano Drake American Christians are big on Christmas pageants that resemble Cinderella Stories. We like to reenact the story of an angel appearing to an innocent and faithful teenager, a young man submitting to his betrothed’s calling from God, and then an angel revealing God’s plan for the world to a bunch of humble shepherds and then a few wise men from far away. We like to imagine that we Christians are all like the shepherds, hardworking ordinary... Read more

Forgetting Terrorism in the Heartland: An American Fable

Last updated on: December 30, 2023 at 8:50 am By Philip Jenkins

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Well, this is about as un-seasonal a theme as I can presently muster, but I fear that it is all too topical. Moreover, it raises issues that are going to be agitating us all a great deal in the New Year. In 2016, an American film-maker produced a brilliant case study of a historical campaign of domestic terrorism that was rooted in religious hatred and racial nationalism. I would argue that it remains one of the vanishingly few really fine... Read more

My Year in Books (And a Few For Next Year!)

Last updated on: December 26, 2023 at 8:57 pm By Andrea L. Turpin

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2023 was a great year for books. Admittedly the book I spent the most time with was my own book-in-progress. Thanks to the generosity of the Louisville Institute Sabbatical Grant for Researchers and Baylor University, I have been able to spend this past year working on a manuscript on how Protestant women navigated the Protestant fundamentalist-modernist controversy of the early twentieth century. This hundred-year-old split between theological and social conservatives and liberals contributed to the modern American culture wars, both... Read more

The Source of Hope in a Violent Year

Last updated on: December 23, 2023 at 11:25 am By Daniel K. Williams

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2023 was a year of violence. In addition to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine – a war that pundits said at its outset posed the greatest threat to European stability since 1945 – Israel was plunged into its most protracted and horrific war in decades after Hamas attacked in October. In addition, thousands of people died in a war in Sudan this fall, and a few thousand more have died in intermittent fighting in Ethiopia that followed the... Read more

Making Christmas Magic When There Are Few Christmases Left

Last updated on: December 26, 2023 at 12:04 am By Melissa Borja

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Christmas is a holiday that celebrates family. This is true for Christians who celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday. The nativity scene that Christians display to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ is, at its most basic level, a depiction of a family: the Holy Family of Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus. And it’s also true for those Americans who celebrate Christmas primarily as a non-religious cultural holiday. In a 2017 Pew study, the vast majority of respondents (82 percent)... Read more