Asia and the Making of Modern American Evangelicalism: An Interview with Helen Jin Kim

Last updated on: May 30, 2022 at 1:08 pm By Melissa Borja

Historians have long argued that American evangelicalism is a transatlantic religious movement. However, according to Helen Jin Kim, that’s only half the story. Kim, who is Assistant Professor of American Religious History at Emory University, explained that “it simply is not possible to understand evangelicalism without looking at transnational linkages and movement across the Pacific, especially when we move into the twentieth century.” In her view, scholars must “take seriously the importance of writing transpacific American religious history.” This topic is the... Read more

Faithful Deliberation: Rhetorical Invention, Evangelicalism, and #MeToo Reckonings

Last updated on: May 24, 2022 at 1:28 pm By Philip Jenkins

Today we have a guest post from my Baylor colleague, T. J. Geiger. As he writes, “I’m an Assistant Professor of English at Baylor University. My research interests include the undergraduate writing major, writing pedagogy, undergraduate research, and religious rhetorics. My articles have appeared in College English, Composition Studies, Peitho, and CCTE Studies.” Faithful Deliberation: Rhetorical Invention, Evangelicalism, and #MeToo Reckonings by T.J. Geiger If you’re interested in religious rhetoric, feminist critique, the #MeToo movement, or Beth Moore, you might... Read more

A Love Letter To My Theological Seminary: On Gordon-Conwell Selling Its Main Residential Campus

Last updated on: May 25, 2022 at 4:15 am By Andrea L. Turpin

I applied to history PhD programs twice. I was actually admitted to a couple very good programs the first time, with only a BA under my belt. I visited one of them on campus. While I was there, I came to the conclusion that there was nothing wrong with the program, but there was something wrong with me. I wasn’t ready. Specifically, I wanted to spend more time reflecting on how to integrate my identity as a Christian and my... Read more

An Oral History of The Anxious Bench: Highlights and Reflections

Last updated on: May 22, 2022 at 1:44 pm By Chris Gehrz

Chris' oral history of this blog ends with some closing reflections from contributors, who also share their favorite posts. Read more

The Keys Of The Kingdom

Last updated on: May 21, 2022 at 11:33 am By Philip Jenkins

Last time I talked about using a longish poem as a resource for teaching the history of missions, and of Global/World Christianity. Through the years, I have acquired quite a useful list of books, films, music, and other items as valuable teaching aids on these topics, and here is another that I would rate very high indeed. It also raises an intriguing question: How many good (or even tolerable) films have ever been made on the subject of Christian missions... Read more

Heavy Is the History of Jerusalem: A Very Select Starter Reading List

Last updated on: May 20, 2022 at 12:14 am By Nadya Williams

On Wednesday morning, May 11, Al Jazeera journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, who was covering an Israeli military raid on the West Bank, was killed by an Israeli soldier. According to witnesses, the shooter targeted her with full knowledge of her identity. Her murder and the violence that erupted during her funeral received significant news coverage and well-deserved expressions of indignation all over the world. But these events are only the most recent example of the continued weight of the history... Read more

Charlotte Brontë and Teaching Global Christianity

Last updated on: May 19, 2022 at 5:58 am By Philip Jenkins

I have often taught courses on Christian history, and on Global/World Christianity. There is one resource that I have found extremely useful, and it has the virtue of being a quick read. I offer it here in the hope that it might be of practical use. In a short space, it is perhaps the clearest explanation of why European and American Christians launched missionary ventures, why men and women risked their lives to go on mission, and how missions overlap... Read more

How Will the Pro-Life Movement Address Women’s Rights after Roe v. Wade Is Reversed?

Last updated on: May 17, 2022 at 10:17 pm By Daniel K. Williams

One of the reasons that the conversation about abortion is so polarizing in the United States is because it pits two competing rights claims against each other – women’s rights versus fetal rights. And in that battle between fetal rights and women’s rights, pro-life advocates appear to have nothing to offer the women’s rights cause. They may claim to be “pro-woman, pro-child” and to “love them both,” but the reproductive rights movement is highly skeptical. This skepticism is likely to... Read more

An Oral History of The Anxious Bench: Change over Time

Last updated on: May 16, 2022 at 5:44 pm By Chris Gehrz

Part two in Chris' "oral" history of this blog covers the period from 2015 to the present, when the list of contributors — and the topics they covered — grew considerably more diverse. Read more

Reconsider the Stepmother

Last updated on: May 14, 2022 at 8:42 am By Agnes Howard

Among his many other exceptional qualities, Abraham Lincoln had high regard for his stepmother. Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln married the sixteenth president’s widowed father in 1819, and by Abe’s own honest report, “she proved to be a good and kind mother.” This reputation makes Sarah pretty unusual, and not just in American history. If motherhood has seen some highs and lows in the country’s life—moms valorized and vilified according to shifts in culture, economy, and politics—stepmotherhood is trickier still. Stepmothers... Read more