Now We Are Six: Thoughts On Writing Very Modern US History

Last updated on: October 26, 2023 at 11:26 am By Philip Jenkins

As I have remarked in a couple of recent posts, I am currently writing a new and fully revised sixth edition of my History of the United States, which originally appeared in 1997: the new version will be published by Bloomsbury. Looking back at those earlier versions brings out some points about recent American history that really strike me. They also have a large effect on just how we produce history books during a revolution in teaching as much as... Read more

The Elisabeth Elliot We Never Knew: An Interview with Lucy Austen

Last updated on: October 25, 2023 at 12:26 am By Andrea L. Turpin

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I am delighted to welcome Lucy S. R. Austen to the Anxious Bench to talk about her new biography, Elisabeth Elliot: A Life. Austen is a writer, editor, and teacher who has spent over a decade studying source materials on Elisabeth Elliot. She lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her husband and children. Andrea Turpin: For readers who are not familiar with Elisabeth Elliot—or perhaps are familiar with only one aspect of her—how would you briefly summarize her life and significance? Lucy... Read more

American Secularization Hasn’t Followed the Script That Secularization Theory Would Predict

Last updated on: October 23, 2023 at 5:06 pm By Daniel K. Williams

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“Nones” now comprise 28 percent of the American adult population, according to survey data that the Pew Research Center released this month. Sixteen years ago, in 2007, only 16 percent of Americans in 2007 said they had no religion. But if secularization (that is, a shift away from religious affiliation among a substantial percentage of the population) is happening in the United States, it hasn’t proceeded along the lines that secularization theory predicted. According to this frequently recited theory, which... Read more

The Need to End Islamophobia and Antisemitism Is Urgent – and the Responsibility Lies With All of Us

Last updated on: October 23, 2023 at 4:57 pm By Melissa Borja

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Last weekend, Wadea Al-Fayoume, a six-year-old Palestinian American boy in Illinois, was stabbed to death in his home. The alleged killer was his landlord, who stabbed him 26 times with “a military style knife” while shouting “you Muslims have to die” and “you are killing our kids in Israel. You Palestinians don’t deserve to live.” His mother, Hanaan Shahin, had repeatedly asked the attacker, “let’s pray for peace”; she, too, was stabbed and seriously injured in the attack. According... Read more

What About the Palestinians? Southern Baptists vs. Southern Baptist Missionaries, part 1

Last updated on: October 20, 2023 at 12:06 am By Jacob Randolph

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This is the first post in a two-part series on the history Southern Baptist perceptions of Palestinians after the creation the state of Israel. The second part will be posted next month. “Neutrality is not an option.” These words stood out to me as I read the New York Times piece on American evangelicals and support for Israel. The statement came from Jared Wellman, a well-known Southern Baptist pastor in Arlington, Texas, as he tried to give his congregation... Read more

How an Ancient Library of Suppressed Sacred Books Survived Through the Middle Ages

Last updated on: October 20, 2023 at 12:41 am By Philip Jenkins

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Our standard impression of the Medieval Christian world is distorted. The conventional picture suggests a rigidly-enforced church orthodoxy, any deviation from which meant torture and death. When heresies arose, we are told, they were ruthlessly suppressed, and any and all non-approved religious writings were torched. As I have suggested recently, such a picture works very poorly for the Byzantine world. In the eighth and ninth centuries, orthodoxy was indeed demanded at least in theory, upon pain of exile or death,... Read more

If Only He Hadn’t Fired the Cabinet: Jimmy Carter and the “Malaise” Speech

Last updated on: October 16, 2023 at 9:54 pm By David Swartz

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On Carter's so-called "malaise speech," the most theologically profound speech by an American president since Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address. Read more

Is Arianism Real? On Name-Calling and Othering in the Church

Last updated on: October 17, 2023 at 6:43 am By Adam Renberg

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This post is part of a series at the Anxious Bench on ‘Contested Ideas in the History of Ideas’, which brings debates from contributors’ respective fields to the fore. Look for more posts in the series throughout the month of October. If you know anything about early church theology, you have probably heard of the arch-heretic: Arius of Alexandria. His theology claims that the Son of God is less divine than the Father, in particular that the Son was of a... Read more

From John Wayne to Max Lucado? A Texas Megachurch Visit

Last updated on: October 16, 2023 at 10:02 am By Erica Ramirez

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Hi! I am a cultural sociologist on a tour of Texas Megachurches. Check out my first post here. Today I am covering Oak Hills Church and its celebrity pastor, Max Lucado. ************************************************************************************************************** First, Some Background Of all the notable figures in American evangelicalism, it is Max Lucado who, for me, best typifies the profound shifts that evangelical culture has sustained in its codes of masculinity. It is hard to fully explain how American Protestantism has found its way from Jonathan Edwards... Read more