Death to the Patriarchy! The Feminine Face of God

Last updated on: August 2, 2022 at 8:08 am By Beth Allison Barr

I honestly couldn’t decide what to write for today. Should I tackle Kevin DeYoung’s Desiring God article, or Al Mohler declaring that “pastor” in the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 excludes women from pastoral roles (not just senior/lead pastor), or build on Diana Butler Bass’s extraordinary sermon highlighting the even more extraordinary research of Elizabeth (Libbie) Schrader? Instead of making a choice, I decided to write on everything in a new series, “Death to the Patriarchy! How Medieval Christianity Can... Read more

Signs, Wonders, and the Making of Religious History

Last updated on: August 1, 2022 at 11:35 am By Philip Jenkins

If you work on any historical era before quite modern times, you soon get used to the idea of cosmic events and natural disasters being intimately tied to human affairs. From a modern perspective, it takes a real effort of imagination to understand the supernatural justifications that are so often adduced to explain strictly this-worldly actions. Early chroniclers and historians often cite natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanoes, or periods of extreme cold or heat, and calamities such as famine,... Read more

Remembering the Regress of a Righteous Pilgrim of Color | Phillis Wheatley (1753–84)

Last updated on: July 29, 2022 at 1:55 pm By Joey Cochran

Those who are righteous will be long remembered… Their good deeds will be remembered forever. They will have influence and honor. Psalm 112:6b, 9b The historical memory of Phillis Wheatley’s pronounced life has been protracted despite its brief measure of thirty-one years. Many Americans recognize who she is because she is renown as America’s first African-American poet. Beyond that, few are familiar with her poems and correspondence, let alone the story of her auspicious rise and abrupt decline. American history... Read more

Climate Change, Weather Disasters, and Crying Wolf

Last updated on: July 27, 2022 at 8:55 pm By Philip Jenkins

I firmly believe that the climate is changing, the world is warming in response to human actions, and that these developments are deeply alarming for our collective long-term planetary future. I also believe we need to be very careful about how we seek to use current events to prove those facts, and to argue for policies. In the worst case scenario, deploying such events in a misleading or tendentious way risks discrediting the case we are seeking to make. Britain... Read more

“Our Protest Here is in Consequence of the Protest of Luther”: Martin Luther in First-Wave Feminism

Last updated on: July 27, 2022 at 12:45 pm By Andrea L. Turpin

I am delighted to welcome Sam Young back to the Anxious Bench for more of his fascinating research on Luther’s complicated legacy for American women. If you missed his first post, check it out here. As I explored in my previous post, identifying Luther as a liberator of women was hardly an oddity in antebellum America. Often Americans meant liberating from the forced celibacy of the convent into what they thought of as their proper sphere as mother and wife.... Read more

The White Southern Protestants Who No Longer Attend Church

Last updated on: July 25, 2022 at 9:43 pm By Daniel K. Williams

What happens to American politics and culture when white southerners in the Bible belt quit attending church? What religious views do they adopt? How do they vote? And will the mass exodus from church that already seems to be occurring in the South make the country less politically polarized – or more? This question is particularly relevant this summer because of two major news developments: the sex abuse crisis in the Southern Baptist Convention and the reversal of Roe v.... Read more

“But What Do I Do?” : On Race and Political Economy

Last updated on: July 29, 2022 at 4:31 pm By Malcolm Foley

Today we welcome the Reverend Doctor Malcolm Foley with his inaugural contribution as a regular contributor to the Anxious Bench. When I teach and speak in academic and ecclesial contexts about the history of race in America, the first question I always get is, “But what do I do?” The question itself is legitimate; we have witnessed the recent proliferation of books about racism and how to resist it. My friend Christina Edmondson’s recent book, Faithful Anti-Racism: Moving Past Talk... Read more

Welcome Malcolm Foley to the Anxious Bench

Last updated on: July 21, 2022 at 3:58 pm By Joey Cochran

Over the course of this coming fall, you will see new faces join the “Bench.” We’re in a recruiting season, as we augment our stellar team of regular contributors. In anticipation for his first post tomorrow, I’d like to formally welcome the Reverend Doctor Malcolm Foley to our team at the Anxious Bench. Though I have had the pleasure of being acquainted with Malcolm online for a number of years and collaborating with him for virtual events with The Conference... Read more

Creating the Myth of Mary Magdalene

Last updated on: July 23, 2022 at 7:54 am By Philip Jenkins

Tomorrow, July 22, celebrates St. Mary Magdalene, a figure who in modern times has become the center of a powerful myth about Christian origins. If that standard mythology can be dismantled pretty easily (which it can), finding the truth is a much tougher project. Mary’s story contains some real mysteries that we are a long way from solving. And no, I’m not referring to the world of Dan Brown. The Myth of Mary Magdalene Modern accounts of Mary Magdalene usually... Read more