To say Jack’s relationship with Xmas was tendentious is to understate it. Even in his youth, elements of the season niggled at him. He did not care for the parties and dances, which included gift giving, feasting, drinking, and dancing. The dancing he especially loathed. In a November 1913 letter to his father, he begged him to not host a party that year and to put to death the hopes of co-conspirators, who wished for Papy to squander money on... Read more
Note: This post contains spoilers for Wake Up Dead Man. “You here to take my church away from me?” It is the first question Monsignor Jefferson Wicks asks Father Jud Duplenticy when Jud arrived at Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude. Mons. Wicks and Father Jud are the central characters in Rian Johnson’s newest Knives Out installment, Wake Up Dead Man. Johnson’s murder mystery franchise has been at the forefront of a whodunnit revival in Hollywood, due in no small part to Johnson’s... Read more
A guest blogpost today, by my great friend, Tim Larsen, who teaches at Wheaton College and is the president of the American Society of Church History. Tim is a truly prolific scholar with a sizable range of quite excellent books on the history of religion. Because of my own interests in the history of the First World War, I was delighted to see his most recent publication, which is The Fires of Moloch: Anglican Clergymen in the Furnace of World War... Read more
AI Apostle Ron was far from the first AI to be invented by a member of the clergy. According to his medieval biographers, the monk Gerbert of Aurillac made a pact with the devil and built for himself a metal, talking head. When the stars were properly aligned, the head would speak when asked a yes-or-no question. Ever the climber, Gerbert asked the head if he would be pope. The head responded, “Yes.” He then asked if he would die... Read more
Time and space are peculiar during the Advent season. The emphasis on repeated family traditions resurrects memories of the past amidst present celebrations, transporting us to a different year and place. One such tradition for me began in my childhood in Michigan—singing Silent Night with my parents and siblings after decorating the Christmas tree. This year, I am celebrating Christmas with my wife and children in Northern Norway, a different place with different people in a different year. Yet, when... Read more
I posted last time about the 1878 novel Poganuc People, by Harriet Beecher Stowe (hereafter, HBS), with a focus on its Christmas stories. By way of reminder, the novel depicts life in a fictionalized version of Litchfield, Connecticut, in the 1820s, where HBS’s father Lyman Beecher was a venerated Calvinist preacher. (In the book he appears as the learned Dr. Cushing). But the book also has a lot to tell us about the Episcopal church, of which the author was... Read more
I just received news early last week that Holocaust survivor, Dr. Jacob Eisenbach, passed away. I was asked if we would like to host a visit by the 102 year old speaker mid-October and I jumped at the chance to have him tell his story. I figured that so many of the witnesses of the horrors of the Holocaust are now dead that I did not want to miss this opportunity for my students. I believe that hearing from a... Read more
Ms. Samantha Fulnecky’s grade of zero that she earned on a reflection paper she submitted in a junior level University of Oklahoma psychology class has been the topic of rage du jur among higher education pundits, the right-leaning social media, and Republican officials this past week. As usual in our culture of rage, most people airing their opinions know precious little facts about the topic that is enraging them. Sadly, I have also been guilty of this, but in this... Read more
Today’s post concerns a nineteenth century American novel that few non-specialists will have heard of. If it is not great literature, it is a phenomenally useful (and under-used) resource for the country’s religious history in that era, for Protestant denominations in general, but specifically for my own Episcopal Church. More important, discussing it really gets to the question of how we write that history, moving away from the role of great preachers and revivalists to studying the role of ordinary... Read more
It’s dark here in Norway. The last time the sun rose above the mountains in Tromsø was on November 27, and it won’t return until January 15. This is what Norwegians call the “mørketid”- the dark time, or more poetically, “blåtid,” the blue time. And Norwegians have many, many suggestions as to how one makes it through the darkness, ranging from enjoyable to less so: skiing, time outside in the dusky blue of midday, gatherings with friends, cosy time inside... Read more
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