2025-03-21T15:08:30-04:00

In my last post, I charted the acceptance and gradual ostracizing of Pentecostals and charismatics within neoevangelical spaces. Neoevangelicalism, as the baby of confessional Presbyterians, Lutherans, and, later, Baptists, wanted to claim exclusive rights to Christian orthodoxy by emphasizing biblical inerrancy while simultaneously downplaying denominational distinctives. While Pentecostals were invited into the evangelical project in the 1940s, over the course of a half-century neoevangelical leaders grew wary of charismatics after the explosion of second-wave charismaticism, which spread primarily in mainline... Read more

2025-04-21T18:34:36-04:00

Before too long, we are very likely to be dealing with the choice of a new Pope, when Francis either leaves this world, or else resigns. Yes, I know I am addressing an audience of experts in such matters, all of whom have seen Conclave at least once. Even so, I hope I have something of value to add in terms of the current candidates, and the future outlook for the Vatican in general. And I will confidently predict the... Read more

2025-03-20T11:21:44-04:00

Until a century and a half or so ago, our premodern forbears didn’t sleep in one long stretch. If you wake up in the middle of the night, don’t watch television or scroll on your phone. Do what the premoderns did. Embrace your partner. Read. And pray. Read more

2025-03-18T12:19:23-04:00

As I stared at the fragments of the cross of Christ on display in the Cathedral of Palma de Mallorca last year, I was struck with the apparent contradictions of its display—this piece of wood was housed in an exceptionally ornate reliquary. Christ may have died a social outcast at the hands of oppressive political powers, but later imperial figures paid to have the cross enshrined in gold. Cyril of Jerusalem tells us in the mid fourth century that the... Read more

2025-03-14T15:23:06-04:00

This Spring, I’m teaching a special topics course, “Christianizing Native Peoples,” which explores the Franciscan-indigenous relationship in central Mexico during the first half of the sixteenth century. Inspired by my research, I designed this course to explore the Christianization process via the themes of resistance and resilience. One of our readings this week was a selection from Historia de los indios de la Nueva España (1541), penned by the Franciscan fray Toribio de Benavente Motolinía, one of the famous “Twelve... Read more

2025-04-21T10:42:59-04:00

In the quite near future, the world’s largest religious institution will be choosing a new head. As everyone knows, Pope Francis is extremely sick, and for a man of his age, there is a strong possibility that he will be leaving us ere long. I am not being ghoulish when I say that: the Vatican is already organizing dry-run funerals. Also, even if he does recover (as I hope), it is very probable that he will resign. What follows here... Read more

2025-03-11T13:06:14-04:00

Joan Baez is back in the news because of the recent film A Complete Unknown about the life of Bob Dylan. Actress Monica Barbaro’s portrayal of Baez was riveting enough to garner an Oscar nomination. Baez was the folk music world it girl before Dylan came on the music scene, and she used her fame to support both the free speech movement and the civil right movement throughout the 1960s. I have been researching Baez for a couple of years,... Read more

2025-02-26T15:08:30-04:00

I am very pleased to announce on this post that my new book Broken Altars: Secularist Violence in Modern History (Yale University Press) will be released this month. Here is a link to the book and here is the cover description: A popular truism derived from the Enlightenment holds that violence is somehow inherent to religion, to which political secularism offers a liberating solution. But this assumption ignores a glaring modern reality: that putatively progressive regimes committed to secularism have... Read more

2025-03-07T18:36:30-04:00

  Recently I was in charge of an event—inviting people to come, making sure the program went well, helping with logistics, promoting it, organizing speakers—and I forgot to think about childcare. I’m not a parent right now myself, but that isn’t an excuse. I had married couples on the program who were parents, and I hadn’t thought about how to be more hospitable or inclusive for families with kids. This isn’t just a matter of creating an event that is... Read more

2025-03-06T07:24:38-04:00

You can think many things about the Trump presidency, but few devote much  attention to the impact on the select band of scholars who work on the history of American empire, people such as, oh, myself. I will explain that concern in this post, and suggest that the apparent weirdness of some of the administration’s current claims have very deep historical roots. He is no Donald-come-lately. Dreams of US Empire So here I am innocently writing a book on religion... Read more


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