If there is one thing that has been drilled into my mind as a historian, it is this: social location matters. A lot. Before I focused my research on lynching, I was deeply committed to doing work on Calvin and the Greek early church. When I found myself discouraged by the glut of Calvin scholarship, I turned to the next best thing: the Puritans! Along this journey, I became enamored with Protestant confessions, particularly the process that Christians went through... Read more
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
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
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
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
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
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
Last week the advocacy organization Stop AAPI Hate issued its newest report about anti-Asian racism over the past two years. Stop AAPI Hate received 11,500 reports of hate incidents in the two years since launching their online reporting system, and the findings continue to be sobering: that the problem of anti-Asian racism takes many forms, from verbal harassment and civil rights violations to physical violence; that it affects Asian Americans of diverse backgrounds, but especially women, LGBTQ+ people, non-binary people,... Read more
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
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
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