Lessons From a Church’s Sidewalk: Migrant Experiences and White Evangelical Neighbors

Last updated on: February 2, 2022 at 1:18 pm By Philip Jenkins

A guest post today from a rising scholar whom I admire, namely João Chaves. Here is a short sketch of his background: João B. Chaves, Ph.D., is Assistant Director for Programming at the Hispanic Theological Initiative, housed at Princeton Theological Seminary. João is the author of several peer-reviewed articles and three books, including Migrational Religion: Context and Creativity in the Latinx Diaspora (Baylor University Press, 2021). His forthcoming books include, The Global Mission of the Jim Crow South (Mercer University Press, May 2022), Baptists and... Read more

Imperial Cities

Last updated on: February 10, 2022 at 9:57 am By Philip Jenkins

Empires shape religions, whether by spreading faiths, or particular forms of belief and practice. Much of that critical work occurs in the great cities that empires usually (not always) develop. Empires generally need capitals, seats of royal authority, and hubs of military and bureaucratic power. Those cities quite rapidly become very populous, and economically critical. We think of Babylon and Baghdad, London and Paris. Often too, empires develop very sizable and powerful cities that are great regional capitals. In each... Read more

Who Would Jesus Bomb?

Last updated on: February 9, 2022 at 3:05 pm By David Swartz

On the radical roots of WWJD Read more

The Effort to Help Afghan Evacuees Has Only Just Begun. Will Religious Groups Stick With It?

Last updated on: February 7, 2022 at 6:27 pm By Melissa Borja

The United States has made real progress in aiding the approximately 80,000 Afghans evacuated from Kabul in late summer. To date, around 90% of the evacuees have left the military bases where they were initially housed, and with the help of energetic efforts by government, voluntary agencies, civic organizations, and religious groups, Afghan families are being resettled in communities across the country. But the story is far from over. In fact, it’s only just begun. For many refugees,... Read more

How Supreme Court Justices Do (and Don’t) Represent America

Last updated on: February 3, 2022 at 8:54 pm By Philip Jenkins

In the coming months, we are going to be hearing a great deal about the next appointment of a Justice to the US Supreme Court. Some of that discussion revolves around just how representative the Justices should be, in reflecting the makeup and diversity of the larger population. In practical terms, what does it mean to say that the Court, and its nominees, should “look like America”? These are some thoughts about how principles of representation and inclusion might work... Read more

Compulsion, Toleration, and African Religions in the New World

Last updated on: February 2, 2022 at 9:15 pm By Philip Jenkins

Empires draw the maps of great religions. In the case of Christianity, so much is obvious if we map the major centers of population around the world. We see the ghosts of the British world, in Canada and Australia, and across so much of Africa and the Caribbean. The French, Belgian, and Portuguese empires account for other states that during this century, will become home to tens or even hundreds of millions of Christians. The Spanish and Portuguese empires drew... Read more

Deeply Good People on Twitter

Last updated on: February 2, 2022 at 2:14 am By Andrea L. Turpin

Lately, social media—particularly Christian social media—has been depressing me. There’s just so much arguing and so much bitterness. Now some things are worth arguing about! But it gets to be a lot, as many people easily descend into nastiness and pettiness. Or just fail to really listen to those who differ, or to try to genuinely understand them, or to give them the benefit of the doubt, or to present the issues with subtlety and precision. But then I remembered... Read more

“Female Leadership Has Been a Consistent Part of Baptist History”: A Northern Example

Last updated on: January 31, 2022 at 7:38 pm By Chris Gehrz

Chris tells the story of Ethel Ruff, the first — and, in her lifetime, only — woman called and ordained to preach in her conservative Baptist denomination. Read more

How Religions Go Global

Last updated on: January 31, 2022 at 7:43 am By Philip Jenkins

Empires give particular religions a vastly greater geographical spread than they might otherwise have had, to the point of taking once-local groups and beliefs, and placing them in a transcontinental scale. That statement might be obvious, but the means by which such diffusion occurs deserve closer examination. What we might miss is just how extensively those religions were transformed in the process. The most conspicuous examples of such a spreading occur when an empire adopts a religion as official, and... Read more