On the Students for Fair Admission v. President and Fellows of Harvard decision

Last updated on: July 2, 2023 at 12:01 pm By Ansley Quiros

On Thursday June 29, the Supreme Court ruled against affirmative action in college admissions in an anticipated decision. The ruling, Students for Fair Admission, Inc. vs. President and Fellows of Harvard University and UNC, et al. overturned Grutter v. Bollinger and Fisher v. University at Texas-Austin, and set a new precedent for higher education in America. Since, as the decision begins, “both Harvard and UNC employ a highly selective admissions process to make their decision” and those admissions decisions can... Read more

American History and the Caribbean Dimension

Last updated on: July 2, 2023 at 3:44 pm By Philip Jenkins

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Should students of American history be allowed to escape without taking a course or two on the Caribbean? I have described the dangers of writing American history backwards, using the territory of the Lower Forty-Eight states as if these were the nation’s natural and predestined bounds, and were always intended to be. But throughout the colonial period, we must never forget that each of the great colonial empires on the North American continent was part of a much larger New... Read more

Berlin and Baylor: Models for Memorializing a Difficult Past

Last updated on: June 28, 2023 at 3:18 am By Andrea L. Turpin

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You would not think that the land of beer and sausages would help me with my summer health goals. But Germany is also the land of public transportation. Suffice it to say, I walked a lot of Berlin over my nine days there. (I extended a trip to participate in a wonderful SCRIPTS conference, “Religion and the Liberal Script: Contestation, (In-)Compatibility or Sustenance?”) I came back healthier—and more informed. Berlin is an unusual city. Over the twentieth century it has... Read more

Martin Luther King Jr.’s Christian Apologetics

Last updated on: June 23, 2023 at 10:53 pm By Daniel K. Williams

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It was a hot summer in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1956. The temperature soared to 100 degrees Fahrenheit in August and highs remained in the 90s for weeks. But what made the summer especially miserable for the African Americans who lived in Alabama’s capital city was their standoff with the city authorities over the issue of racial segregation. Ever since the previous December, the vast majority of Montgomery’s Blacks had refused to ride the buses in protest over the city’s segregation... Read more

Religion, Race, and Never Have I Ever: A Roundtable on Season Four

Last updated on: June 26, 2023 at 3:18 pm By Melissa Borja

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At long last: the final season of Never Have I Ever is here, and we finally get answers to our burning questions. Will Devi end up with Ben or Paxton? Will she fulfill her dream of getting into Princeton? Just as we have done for the last three summers, I gathered together scholars of Asian American religion to offer some reflections on Season Four of Never Have I Ever. We each address different themes: Himanee Gupta of SUNY... Read more

Looking Backward: How We Tell US History The Wrong Way Round

Last updated on: June 28, 2023 at 7:48 am By Philip Jenkins

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I am presently working on a History of the United States. My only minor problem is that I am far from sure that such an effort is possible, or at least without a great many cautions and caveats. Put crudely, I don’t know any more where the country begins or ends. Let me explain. Back in 1997, I published the first edition of a History of the United States, which has been successful mainly in Britain and Europe (it has... Read more

Life Comes for the Archbishop

Last updated on: June 21, 2023 at 10:01 am By David Swartz

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Reflections on traveling in the American Southwest Read more

Can Orthodoxy Hide Heresy? On Apollinarius of Laodicea and Mark Driscoll

Last updated on: June 15, 2023 at 4:57 pm By Adam Renberg

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The famous defender of orthodox faith, Basil of Caesarea, wrote a theologian early in his career asking for advice on how to understand trinitarian relations. He concludes the letter, “In good health may you be preserved to us for the longest while, giving aid to us both by your prayers and by your knowledge” (Basil, Epistle 361). While the content of this letter is honest, earnest, and straightforward, it has caused a great deal of controversy for scholars of the... Read more

On the (Pending) Bandit-ization of Evangelicalism

Last updated on: June 21, 2023 at 8:30 am By Erica Ramirez

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To my best knowledge, I’ve only made up one conspiracy theory. Once, on a family trip, my dad made friends with a person I’ll call William. They stayed up most of the night talking in a hotel lobby. My dad “witnessed” to William, who may have said the sinner’s prayer and converted to evangelical Christianity. From there, the friendship took quick new directions. William and his wife, Caroline, traveled with my mom and dad the following summer. The summer after... Read more

Burial Shrouds and Funeral Rites: A Nahua Woman Negotiates a Medieval Spanish Death Ritual

Last updated on: June 16, 2023 at 4:44 am By Verónica A. Gutiérrez

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May my body be buried in the Church of San Gabriel in the said city of Cholula in the tomb that the father guardian or president of the said convento will indicate to me…. Bury me in the habit of the blessed one, San Francisco; it is for the said effect that I ask it. – doña María Tlaltecayoa, 1596 Archivo de Notarías, Puebla (AN-P), Cuaderno 18, No. 1276, folio 8r. Full document: folio 7r-9v In my February post, “Death,... Read more