Icons, Russia, and a Church’s Dark Age

Last updated on: July 4, 2022 at 6:09 am By Philip Jenkins

A couple of my long-standing interests recently came together in a very unhappy way. My current book project concerns the Byzantine iconoclasm crisis, and (by means of the icon connection) that speaks to my enthusiasm for Russia and its historic culture and faith. At the same time, I am devastated by the critical struggle currently under way in Ukraine, where Putin’s vicious aggression is aided and abetted by his trained chimpanzees in the Moscow Patriarchate. That church’s prelates have become... Read more

From the Russian Empire to the Cold War, and Back Again

Last updated on: June 30, 2022 at 6:29 am By Philip Jenkins

I recently reread a text that I already know well, but encountered it once again in a new setting, and the result was an almighty sense of déjà vu. It actually helps us understand what is going on in the wider world. I last year published a book called A Global History of the Cold War 1945-1991 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021). Like everyone else writing on that topic, I naturally quoted a key document called the Long Telegram, written by George... Read more

When Beloved Community Doesn’t Work

Last updated on: June 29, 2022 at 7:55 am By David Swartz

At the end of Freedom Summer 1971, John Perkins called it “the biggest failure in Voice of Calvary history.” Read more

To Pray or Not to Pray: Reflections on Religious Pressure and Religious Power

Last updated on: June 28, 2022 at 3:37 pm By Melissa Borja

Imagine this scenario: a Person of Prominence who is a devout Christian is praying. This Person of Prominence is a community leader who provides important resources, forms of support, and opportunities that people need and want. There are other people, people who are also Christian, who gather with this Person of Prominence and pray with him, often in highly visible ways. And there are still other people who are present in the community and who do not identify with or... Read more

Who Will Bear the Cost of America’s Crisis Pregnancies?

Last updated on: June 26, 2022 at 10:02 pm By Daniel K. Williams

Crisis pregnancies have profound human costs. There are life-changing consequences for women who find themselves pregnant with a child they did not anticipate and may not feel equipped to care for. Roe v. Wade suggested one way to manage those costs. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization suggested another way. Today, in the immediate aftermath of the Dobbs decision, my Twitter feed has been filled with partisans on both sides of the abortion debate expressing either outrage or jubilation at... Read more

Byzantine and Roman

Last updated on: June 21, 2022 at 10:58 am By Philip Jenkins

I posted about my current book project, Storm of Images, which concerns the Iconoclasm struggle in the Byzantine Empire between about 720 and 850. I argue that this was an extraordinarily important moment in the history of Christianity, with enduring consequences for both east and west. The Council that marks the success of the pro-image cause, the Second Council of Nicea in 787, was the last General Council that is still regarded as valid by both East and West, Catholic... Read more

“Every Protestant Heart Owes Catharine… Because She Made Luther Happy”: Luther, Women, and Reformation History in America

Last updated on: June 22, 2022 at 12:43 am By Andrea L. Turpin

I am excited to welcome to the Anxious Bench for today’s guest post Samuel L. Young (PhD, Baylor University), a postdoctoral teaching fellow for Baylor’s Department of History. Young’s dissertation, “‘Saint of the Republic’: Martin Luther, Myth, and National Identity in Antebellum America” (May 2022), explores how early Americans used the long-deceased sixteenth-century German reformer to articulate what it meant to be a citizen of the new nation. Young was the 2021 recipient of the Sidney E. Mead Prize from... Read more

My Farewell to The Anxious Bench

Last updated on: June 20, 2022 at 9:34 am By Chris Gehrz

Our blogmeister says farewell after six years and nearly 400 posts at The Anxious Bench. Read more

Iconoclasts I Have Known, and Even Liked

Last updated on: June 19, 2022 at 7:19 am By Philip Jenkins

I have been posting about my current book project, Storm of Images, which concerns the Iconoclasm in the Byzantine empire back in the eighth and ninth centuries. At first sight, that might seem like an arcane topic, but actually, it is hard to think of anything more topical today, or controversial, than iconoclasm or image breaking. If you have been alive and conscious these past few years, you know all about iconoclasm and the issues it raises. Image smashing arises... Read more

A Storm of Images

Last updated on: June 15, 2022 at 6:14 pm By Philip Jenkins

“So, what are you working on right now? “I’m doing a book called Storm of Images. It’s about Byzantine Iconoclasm” “Um, seriously? Why?” Well, that wasn’t the ideal reaction I expected from a friend at my church, but it did raise an interesting point about how I explain what I am doing. I am currently writing a book – under contract to Baylor University Press – which in my view, deals with some of the most important issues in the... Read more