I remember the first time I read the New Testament book of Acts. It was the spring semester of my first year of college, and I was taking an introductory survey of Roman History. This was at a secular state university, and we read Acts simply as a primary source about the early church in its original historical context—the Roman Empire. Twelve years after that, I came to Christ. Reading the Gospels was what convinced me ultimately that Jesus’s claims... Read more
Today I have the pleasure of welcoming a guest contribution from my Wheaton College colleague and friend, Nathan Luis Cartagena (Ph.D., Baylor University). Cartagena is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy, whose teaching and scholarship focus on Thomas Aquinas, James Baldwin, Critical Race Theory, Military Ethics, Evangélic@ Theology, and Christian Pedagogy. During Holy Week of 2001, the British Broadcasting Corporation and the Discovery Channel coproduced the documentary Jesus: The Complete Story. The documentary chronicling Jesus’ life included a visual rendering of... Read more
One of the challenges of writing intellectual history is the task of summing up large works in a relatively small amount of space. Doing this for Karl Barth’s multivolume Church Dogmatics, proclaimed by many as “the most important theological work of the twentieth,” has proven especially daunting for me as I continue to work on a current book project. I include here my attempt to do so. Did I do justice to the work? Did I capture its general shape?... Read more
While as a Christian historian I frequently interact with people who are wrestling with their evangelical identity, I personally grew up in a more sectarian context–the Seventh-day Adventist church. Last week I spent a few days at a church conference exploring the issue of Adventist identity. The theme was “Authentic Adventism” and several of us explored elements that we considered to be core to that identity. But the core concern was articulated by a young university student who asked: “If... Read more
My current work involves the topic of Lived Religion, which over the past few decades has come to represent a major theme in religious studies scholarship. Briefly, it represents the study of what people actually do in religious matters, independent of official dogmas or institutions. In the words of the French founders of the idea, lived religion, religion vécue, is distinct from “prescribed religion”, religion prescrite. That is today a very familiar idea. But what interests me is how those... Read more
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. – Romans 12:21 It is bad enough to be flooded with images of a violent world in which you have little control. We’re currently in such a moment, surrounded by images of brutal war. But atrocity also has a deeper effect on us mentally and spiritually: it stunts our moral imagination. I do not claim to be a foreign relations expert, but one thing that I am pretty confident... Read more
It’s hard to read the news right now. The ongoing reports from Israel and Gaza are heartbreaking, with civilian deaths, suffering, and tragedy in almost unbearable numbers. Adding another layer to the horror is the rise in hate crimes against Jews, Muslims, and Arabs around the world. In the midst of such suffering, grief, and horrific actions, it feels difficult to know what news coverage to trust, particularly when bias and prejudice is clearly so rampant. How can we navigate... Read more
A couple of weeks ago, I had the great honor of participating in a symposium reflecting on the 60th anniversary of 1963 at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Institute at Stanford University. Over the course of several days, scholars shared their research on King’s legacy and impact, challenging modern mythologies of King and recapturing a radical message as relevant and necessary today as it was 60 years ago. The event kicked off with a keynote address by journalist and King... Read more
My present work concerns the topic of Lived Religion, which will be the subject of my next few posts. To simplify, this is the study of religion as it is actually practiced by ordinary people, rather than as is laid down by organized institutions, faiths or churches, and that kind of approach has attracted a huge amount of scholarly concern over the past couple of decades. By observing lived practice, as opposed to prescribed institutional forms, the approach offers rich... Read more
In 2021 I published the book Climate, Catastrophe, and Faith: How Changes in Climate Driven Religious Upheaval (Oxford University Press). I argued that throughout history, climate-driven disasters have had dramatic and often destructive effects on human societies worldwide. Those traumas have often manifested in spiritual forms, driving great revivals and apocalyptic movements, and inciting the persecution of minority groups and scapegoats. Most scholars would accept that basic argument about the effects of climate, but here I am going to venture... Read more
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