Mothers of the Church: Blandina

Last updated on: September 18, 2023 at 4:17 pm By Adam Renberg

Enduring violence has long been part of the Christian story—Stephen was stoned (Acts 7:54-60), Paul was beaten numerous times (Acts 21:30-31; 2 Cor. 11:25), and Peter was crucified upside down according to tradition (1 Clement, Letter to Corinthians 5; Tertullian, Prescription against Heretics 36). Indeed, the center of the Christian faith, Jesus Christ, endured horrible punishment and death on a cross, encouraging his followers to ‘take up their cross’ with him (John 16:24). And take up their crosses, they did.... Read more

“The World is an Insane Asylum”: Notes from a Texas Megachurch Visit

Last updated on: September 19, 2023 at 8:41 am By Erica Ramirez

0 Comments

Hi! I am a cultural sociologist on a tour of Texas Megachurches. Check out my first post here. For today’s post, I cover my recent visit to Cornerstone Church in San Antonio. ***************************************************************************************************************** Cornerstone Church, located at Stone Oak Parkway and North Loop 1604 West, is a sprawling complex with a 5,400-seat sanctuary, prayer chapel, gymnasium, classrooms, and a parking lot large enough for shuttle service. The entire operation boasts two church locations, a K-12 Christian school, a home for... Read more

The “Littlest Saints” Show: Children Modeling Faith to Children

Last updated on: September 15, 2023 at 3:10 am By Verónica A. Gutiérrez

0 Comments

The stories of Christian heroes have long inspired Christian children, including my own. Saint stories are wonderful for teaching little ones about faith during a historical time period, about what it feels like to be a Christian during religious persecution, or how you can live out your faith if your parents are not Christian, or how to face martyrdom joyfully, knowing you will enter the Beatific Vision. There are so many wonderful resources available to teach our children about Christian... Read more

A Storm of Images: Iconoclasm and Religious Reformation in the Byzantine World

Last updated on: September 7, 2023 at 12:42 pm By Philip Jenkins

0 Comments

I am delighted to announce the publication of my new book, A Storm of Images: Iconoclasm and Religious Reformation in the Byzantine World (Baylor University Press)! Here is the catalog description: In the eighth century, the Byzantine Empire began a campaign to remove or suppress sacred images that depicted Christ, the Virgin, or other holy figures, whether in painting, mosaics, murals, or other media. In some cases, the campaign extended to breaking or wrecking images through what became known as... Read more

Will the Real Cultural Christians Please Stand Up?

Last updated on: September 7, 2023 at 11:58 am By Nadya Williams

0 Comments

If you happen to be a Christian in America right now, I have good news and bad news for you. Good news: you’re probably a lot more like a first-century Christian than you had realized. Congratulations! This may be especially gratifying to hear if you are a member of a church that works hard to strip away all the unnecessary modern extras from worship and be just like the earliest Christians. Now for the bad news: you’re probably a lot... Read more

The Remarkable Account of the Freedman, Anthony Johnson

Last updated on: September 12, 2023 at 6:58 pm By Joey Cochran

0 Comments

Antonio the Negro arrived in Virginia in 1621, which means he witnessed the devastating attacks of Opechancanough upon the Chesapeake settlers during the following year. He narrowly survived these attacks and continued to labor for the Bennett family for a dozen years. Due to his faithful service to the Bennetts, he eventually earned such favor from the family that he obtained a freedman’s status for himself, his wife, and his children, sometime after 1635. No longer known as Antonio the... Read more

History, Cancel Culture, and the Desire for Innocence

Last updated on: September 8, 2023 at 5:09 pm By Lisa Clark Diller

0 Comments

In the 1980s when I was growing up as a pastor’s daughter in a conservative Christian context, I kept my ear to the ground for the whispers of the adults around me. As a budding scholar of history, I was already tuned in to the rumors of the world, understanding that what is often considered “mere gossip” can contain the most significant insights into human motivations, culture, and emotional experience. Often, what I was hearing was the evaluation of why... Read more

A Major New History of the Earliest Christianity

Last updated on: September 7, 2023 at 6:28 am By Philip Jenkins

0 Comments

I want to announce and celebrate the publication of a really valuable new book, and I say from the outset that I had nothing whatever to do with writing it! My two Baylor colleagues Bruce Longenecker and David Wilhite are the editors of the newly available Cambridge History of Ancient Christianity, which is an indispensable contribution to the study of Christian life and thought in the first three centuries. Here is the publisher’s description: The first three hundred years of... Read more

What We Leave Behind: Objects, Priorities, and Faith

Last updated on: August 25, 2023 at 3:57 pm By Lynneth Renberg

0 Comments

Summer for professors often means reworking classes or developing new courses, along with doing our own research. For me, this summer held a bit of both: time working on a new book project and time revising my course on the first half of world history, from the earliest civilizations to the present. And in working on both things, objects, material culture, and what we leave behind kept coming up as common themes. Material cultural naturally arose during my preparation for... Read more

A Labor Day conversation with Dr. Heath Carter

Last updated on: September 4, 2023 at 8:22 am By Ansley Quiros

0 Comments

This Labor Day, I had the joy of talking with Dr. Heath Carter, Associate Professor of American Christianity at Princeton Theological Seminary, about evangelicalism’s historical relationship to the Labor Movement in America. Enjoy! Heath Carter! My dear friend. What a joy to talk to you this Labor Day. First, for those who don’t know you–yet–can you tell readers a bit about you? Of course! I grew up in evangelical churches in Kansas and California, studied Christian theology at a... Read more