“But What Do I Do?” : On Race and Political Economy

Last updated on: July 29, 2022 at 4:31 pm By Malcolm Foley

Today we welcome the Reverend Doctor Malcolm Foley with his inaugural contribution as a regular contributor to the Anxious Bench. When I teach and speak in academic and ecclesial contexts about the history of race in America, the first question I always get is, “But what do I do?” The question itself is legitimate; we have witnessed the recent proliferation of books about racism and how to resist it. My friend Christina Edmondson’s recent book, Faithful Anti-Racism: Moving Past Talk... Read more

Welcome Malcolm Foley to the Anxious Bench

Last updated on: July 21, 2022 at 3:58 pm By Joey Cochran

Over the course of this coming fall, you will see new faces join the “Bench.” We’re in a recruiting season, as we augment our stellar team of regular contributors. In anticipation for his first post tomorrow, I’d like to formally welcome the Reverend Doctor Malcolm Foley to our team at the Anxious Bench. Though I have had the pleasure of being acquainted with Malcolm online for a number of years and collaborating with him for virtual events with The Conference... Read more

Creating the Myth of Mary Magdalene

Last updated on: July 23, 2022 at 7:54 am By Philip Jenkins

Tomorrow, July 22, celebrates St. Mary Magdalene, a figure who in modern times has become the center of a powerful myth about Christian origins. If that standard mythology can be dismantled pretty easily (which it can), finding the truth is a much tougher project. Mary’s story contains some real mysteries that we are a long way from solving. And no, I’m not referring to the world of Dan Brown. The Myth of Mary Magdalene Modern accounts of Mary Magdalene usually... Read more

Blaming the Victim: Billy Sunday and Male Power

Last updated on: July 18, 2022 at 1:01 pm By David Swartz

How evangelicals abet a culture of masculine aggression Read more

Forgetting Our Medieval History: The Holy Women of Liége

Last updated on: July 12, 2022 at 12:32 am By Beth Allison Barr

I’m so pleased to welcome Katherine Goodwin back to The Anxious Bench. Katherine is. PhD candidate in the Baylor History department studying religion and culture in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Last spring she had the opportunity to teach for a semester in Maastricht with a Baylor abroad program and today she shares about a memorable side trip into the forgotten history of medieval beguines. In the middle of the Belgian city of Liège is a church that is forgotten. Its... Read more

Gospels That Were Lost, And Some That Were Not Lost At All

Last updated on: July 14, 2022 at 10:54 am By Philip Jenkins

My current work on icons and iconoclasm has reacquainted me with an old friend, namely the Constantinople patriarch Nikephoros (died 829), who played in a critical role in those ninth century controversies. At the time, he was beyond question the world’s most influential Christian leader, presiding over the greatest church. But Nikephoros is also associated with a document that is of great interest to anyone concerned with Christianity as a whole, and not just that particular historical controversy. That document... Read more

Image Breaking and Protestant Origins

Last updated on: July 8, 2022 at 4:59 pm By Philip Jenkins

Some years ago, James Noyes published his book The Politics of Iconoclasm: Religion, Violence and the Culture of Image-Breaking in Christianity and Islam (2013). At the time, Islamist movements around the world were committing many notorious acts of destruction against historic monuments of other faiths, and it seemed quite shocking to draw any analogies with the Christian tradition. However, as I have learned all the more clearly doing my current work on the history of Byzantine iconoclasm, the two faiths... Read more

The Virtues Have Been Canceled: Life in a Post-Virtue World

Last updated on: July 12, 2022 at 10:23 pm By Nadya Williams

Forty-one years ago, Alasdair MacIntyre published his prophetic After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory. MacIntyre’s foundational observation that “There seems to be no rational way of securing moral agreement in our culture” is an apt way to summarize the vast gamut of reactions to the repeal of Roe. Even more so (and that is my focus here today), this is an apt summary of the divergent reactions to the litany of troubling revelations and stories that have dominated the... Read more

The Biblical Potency, Cultural Fluency, and Fluidity of Pilgrim History

Last updated on: July 12, 2022 at 3:07 pm By Joey Cochran

My mother nurtured the vital habit of literacy in me from an early age. She daily read children’s books to me, and we frequented the public library, so I could participate in a story-hour for children. I have fond memories from childhood of floating in an innertube in our backyard pool and reading The Three Investigators, The Hardy Boys, or one of the many series of fantasy fiction books I enjoyed. When I became interested in spiritual matters my sophomore... Read more

What does the Bible say about greed?