1709: Prophecy, Enthusiasm, and Religious Crisis

Last updated on: November 22, 2021 at 8:08 am By Philip Jenkins

One of the greatest popular culture events in Early Modern London was Bartholomew Fair, a three day extravaganza held each August. A major attraction in 1707 had a religious theme, in the form of “a choice droll or puppet-shew” mocking religious fanatics and so-called prophets, and their deceived followers. The would-be “French Prophets” were a special target of derision. “There … their strange voices and involuntary agitations are admirably well acted, by the motion of wires, and inspiration of pipes.”... Read more

1709: How a Climate Crisis Almost Drove England to Religious Civil War

Last updated on: November 18, 2021 at 8:21 am By Philip Jenkins

Last time, I talked about the overwhelming climate shock that befell Europe in the year 1709. Extreme cold and crushing rainfall caused famine, plague, and general misery across the continent, conditions that endured well into the next decade. Millions perished. In the circumstances of the time, people inevitably turned to religious explanations of the crisis: God was evidently angry, and was intervening to punish his straying subjects. Such a crisis could not fail to bring religious scapegoating, and the best... Read more

Biblical Authority amidst American Christian Division: From the Civil War to the Present

Last updated on: November 17, 2021 at 6:40 pm By Daniel K. Williams

Supposedly, the split among American evangelical Protestants over slavery in the Civil War era reduced the hegemony of biblical authority in American religious and public life. Before the Civil War, American Christians trusted the Bible to give them the answer to every moral and religious question. But when American Protestants could not agree on what the Bible said about the most important moral question of their time – the question of slavery, which resulted in a civil war with more... Read more

The 2020 Census and Evangelical Immigration, Part II

Last updated on: November 16, 2021 at 3:49 pm By David Swartz

The jarring result, after centuries of Christian expansion to the East, is a burgeoning phenomenon of “reverse mission.” The East now targets the West. Read more

Do Evangelical Churches Have a Catechesis Problem?

Last updated on: November 15, 2021 at 6:12 pm By Chris Gehrz

Why Chris thinks that historians have a role to play in improving evangelical catechesis — the church's way of teaching disciples of Jesus Christ. Read more

Asian Americans and the Spirit of Racial Capitalism: An Interview with Jonathan Tran

Last updated on: November 15, 2021 at 7:45 am By Melissa Borja

Recent acts of violence and racism – most notably, the murders of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020 and of eight Asian American women in Atlanta in March 2021 – have prompted intense discussions about how different groups experience the persistent problem of racism in the United States. Yet conspicuously absent in many conversations, especially those about Asian Americans, is a serious engagement in how religion shapes the ways that people both perpetuate and disrupt injustice. Jonathan... Read more

1709 and the End of the World

Last updated on: November 12, 2021 at 9:59 am By Philip Jenkins

My latest book is Climate, Catastrophe, and Faith: How Changes in Climate Drive Religious Upheaval. It argues that climate factors – especially sudden climate shocks – have had a very powerful influence on shaping religion as it has developed through history. Partly, that is through the scapegoating and persecution with which societies respond to eras of famine, plague, and the literal darkening of the skies. In some cases, by no means all, new prophets arise, new sects form, and apocalyptic... Read more

Finding the Historical Roots of Patriarchy: Gerda Lerner and the Power of Women’s History

Last updated on: November 9, 2021 at 11:50 am By Beth Allison Barr

Today I am so pleased to welcome Katherine Goodwin to The Anxious Bench. Katherine is a third year PhD student at Baylor University in the History department. She studies religion and culture in Late Medieval/Early Modern Europe and is currently studying for her comprehensive exams. I think you will all appreciate her assessment of Gerda Lerner’s significant book The Creation of Patriarchy; but those who have already read The Making of Biblical Womanhood may find it especially interesting. I recently asked... Read more

Christian Scholarship: Metaphysical or Ethical?

Last updated on: November 10, 2021 at 5:41 am By Andrea L. Turpin

A few years ago I was put in charge of our department’s introductory course for graduate students, Historian’s Craft. I was like a kid in a candy shop. Feel free to ask my students what they think, but, hey, I love it. It’s an opportunity to reflect on the big questions of why and how historians do what they do. The course does cover the traditional overview of different schools of historiography (different ways historians ask questions and analyze evidence).... Read more

“God’s Time”: The Religious History of Daylight Saving

Last updated on: November 9, 2021 at 12:16 am By Chris Gehrz

As usual, I celebrated the end of Daylight Saving Time (DST) this past weekend by waking up an hour earlier than I wanted to start any Sunday morning. But for once, I put that extra hour to good use: by reading up on the origins of daylight saving. It’s not the farmers’ fault, explained the New York Times last week. On the contrary, DST is “a disruptive schedule foisted on them by the federal government.” And it’s not really Ben... Read more