A Preparation for Religion

Last updated on: November 29, 2023 at 8:40 am By Philip Jenkins

In my previous post, I discussed the very active field of scientific studies of religious behavior and belief, which is currently producing an amazing array of new insights and discoveries. (See the sizable bibliography that I have compiled). At least on the surface, these seem to offer a comprehensive explanation of why people are religious, and in a very deterministic and materialist way. At the least, those arguments supply atheist and anti-religious activists with some powerful arguments, which believers really... Read more

The Education of Beth Moore: A Review of All My Knotted-Up Life

Last updated on: November 29, 2023 at 1:28 am By Andrea L. Turpin

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It’s the most wonderful time of the year: the time to buy all your friends and relatives books for Christmas! In that spirit, I am posting here a (non-paywalled) review of one of my favorite reads of the year, Beth Moore’s memoir All My Knotted-Up Life, that I first published at Current. Enjoy! (And buy it for people…) I used to look down on Beth Moore. Mind you, I didn’t know anything about her. What I really looked down on... Read more

The Philosophical Assumptions behind Historical Criticism of the Gospels

Last updated on: November 27, 2023 at 10:42 pm By Daniel K. Williams

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Twenty-one percent of white mainline Protestants do not believe in the virgin birth of Jesus, a Pew research survey found. By contrast, only 1 percent of white evangelical Protestants say they don’t believe this story. This division among Protestants over the virgin birth, as well as other biblical miracles, is not new. For more than a century, American Protestants have been debating these questions – and for more than a century, some seminary and college professors of the New Testament... Read more

Eid Trees, Gingerbread Mosques, and the Multiplicity of Asian American Religious Life

Last updated on: November 27, 2023 at 7:48 pm By Melissa Borja

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Of all the holiday-themed romantic comedies that I consume in abundance this time of year, my favorite is Dash & Lily, a Netflix series about a budding romance between two teenagers who trade messages and dares during the Christmas season. There’s much to love about this series: its setting in the Strand (the best bookstore in the world) and in New York City (the best city in the world) during the holidays (the best season for cozy romantic comedies).... Read more

What About the Palestinians? Southern Baptists vs. Southern Baptist Missionaries, part 2

Last updated on: November 27, 2023 at 12:33 am By Jacob Randolph

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This is the second post in a two-part series on the history Southern Baptist perceptions of Palestinians after the creation the state of Israel. Read the first part here. It wasn’t until 2002 that Southern Baptists offered up official language for their majority pro-Zionist position, but a pro-Israel faction had been operating in SBC life for at least 20 years prior. At the same time Dean and Dona Fitzgerald were ministering in Gaza City on behalf of the Southern Baptist... Read more

Thanksgiving for What?

Last updated on: November 23, 2023 at 4:52 pm By Dr. Janine Giordano Drake

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Janine Giordano Drake We’ve all heard the story: Abe Lincoln created the national holiday we call “Thanksgiving” in 1863. In the midst of incredible carnage due to war and disease, the “Great Emancipator”—at the urging of Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of the Godey Lady’s Book and Magazine—urged Americans to set aside a day of “thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God, the Beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe.” What we perhaps spend less time thinking about are the motivations for the... Read more

The Chicago Declaration Turns 50

Last updated on: November 21, 2023 at 3:14 pm By David Swartz

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Marking the fiftieth anniversary of a evangelical road less traveled Read more

Gregory of Nyssa and C.S. Lewis: On the Need to Read (and Write) Across Genres

Last updated on: November 20, 2023 at 11:42 am By Adam Renberg

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As I walked through the book room at the Society of Biblical Literature conference this weekend, I drooled over the vast array of books. Tables after tables of history, theology, exegesis—a nerd’s dream. In order to guide the viewer through this massive surplus of literature, most publishers have broken these works into categories: biblical studies, systematic theology, church history, etc. This phenomenon, of course, is not unique to publishers, but is also seen in the formation of the modern university... Read more

Running Toward the Vineyard of the Lord: Harvesting Grapes for God

Last updated on: November 17, 2023 at 3:05 pm By Verónica A. Gutiérrez

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Early on the first Friday of October, as whispers of mist drifted over the mountains from the sea, chilling the Sonoma County air, my children and I hurried down two flights of stairs in the mountain cabin where we had arrived late the night before. On the wooden porch just outside, we found Roxanne, Art Director for Ignatius Press, who handed me three sets of shears (the six-year-old being deemed too young to use them), and directed us to the... Read more

Heaven on their Minds? Scientific Theories of Religious Belief and Behavior

Last updated on: November 16, 2023 at 12:38 pm By Philip Jenkins

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My current work on Lived Religion constantly reminds me of how very similar are the things that people do in different religious traditions, however widely separated by place or era. This in turn has got me quite deeply into the very sizable literature on the scientific explanations for religious behavior, including the Cognitive Science of Religion. What I can say here in a blogpost or two is pathetically slim when set against the very large literature, but let me list... Read more

What does the Bible say is better than gold?