The Economics of Christmas Romance Movies

Last updated on: December 5, 2025 at 8:41 pm By Lisa Clark Diller

‘Tis the season for watching silly sappy movies about small town folks who work hard but haven’t made time for love in their lives until Christmas comes along and changes everything. While the Hallmark channel made its reputation twenty-some years ago with this genre, now every streaming platform provides its audience with family friendly romances centered on extremely fictional small-town life. A few years ago I began dipping into this line of made-for-tv films during December. Like all genre... Read more

Lovecraft as Folk Horror

Last updated on: November 26, 2025 at 5:02 pm By Philip Jenkins

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I have been writing on the genre of folk horror, and suggesting that its American roots are very strong, even if they are not sufficiently acknowledged alongside the British contribution. Today I explore this idea in the context of an author I have been reading for a very long time, namely H. P. Lovecraft. I repeat my definition of the Folk Horror phenomenon, which is grounded in the idea that potent ancient forces and deep-rooted evils survive in the landscape,... Read more

Christians Reading Classics

Last updated on: November 24, 2025 at 5:16 pm By Daniel K. Williams

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Nadya Williams, a former Anxious Bencher who is currently a books editor at Mere Orthodoxy (and who is also my wife), has just published her third book: Christians Reading Classics, which Zondervan released on November 11. In this piece, I talk with her about her reasons for writing a book that combines her love for the classics with her passion for Christian reflection and edifying the church. DKW: Why did you decide to write Christians Reading Classics? What do you... Read more

Best Books of 2025

Last updated on: November 26, 2025 at 11:07 pm By Joey Cochran

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In keeping with past tradition since joining the illustrious team of historians at the Anxious Bench, I am once again sharing my best books list for the year. The past few years have seen numerous amazing publications, and I am glad to share about some of them for this year’s Best Books of 2025. I have compiled a list of my twenty-four favorite reads of the year, among them are a number of first-time authors. This is a selection of... Read more

Discovering American Folk Horror

Last updated on: November 19, 2025 at 6:27 am By Philip Jenkins

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I have been working on a book on the history of Folk Horror, which represents such a powerful theme in modern popular culture. To oversimplify, the genre is grounded in the idea that potent ancient forces and deep-rooted evils survive in the landscape, scarcely acknowledged by the modern world. In isolated communities, active witches or pagan groups mobilize those dark forces, deploying rituals dating from pre-Christian times. Crudely, my own structure of folk horror might be summarized as involving a... Read more

Whence AI Apostle Ron? A Christian History of AI (Pt. 1)

Last updated on: November 17, 2025 at 4:39 pm By Alex Mayfield

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In December 2024, Apostle Ron Carpenter, Jr. made waves across the Christian world when his ministry released the “Ron Carpenter Ministries Advanced Archive” app, rebranded today as Ron Carpenter AI. The app provides 24/7 access via text or audio call to an AI version of Apostle Ron that was trained on over 30 years of sermons by the megachurch pastor. Originally launched with a $49 a month subscription, the app is now free to the public, and anyone can receive... Read more

Learning Patience: On Art and Liturgical Seasons

Last updated on: November 18, 2025 at 1:28 am By Adam Renberg

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Western society has an odd relationship with patience. While most would claim patience is a virtue in some sense, our entire society is set up to deny its cultivation through its demand for immediacy. As we are nearing the holidays, let me provide a festive example. Christmas shopping used to entail heading out to face a horde of shoppers at the local mall, walking from store to store for hours on end hoping to find the perfect gift. If you... Read more

Walking in Henry’s England: The English Church Revisited

Last updated on: November 14, 2025 at 1:38 pm By Verónica A. Gutiérrez

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Last Thursday evening, just past 9pm, I hurried across the central green of Keble College with a dear friend from my doctoral program at UCLA. She had just delivered a wonderful lecture at Oxford University’s Latin American Centre on Church Walk a few blocks away and we decided to commemorate the occasion by attending Keble’s Compline by candlelight. Reaching the chapel, I pushed open the thick, wooden doors, stepping into a darkness illuminated only by blue, white, and red candles... Read more

The Hired Hand and the Lost Gospel

Last updated on: November 13, 2025 at 8:54 am By Philip Jenkins

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This post brings together quite a few of my very long-term interests – in film, alternative Christian scriptures, esoteric religion and its presence in popular culture – and it integrates them in a very striking way. It’s a complex story, and one I find truly amazing. Briefly, it involves a Western film called The Hired Hand, which includes one of the oddest religious moments in cinema. By way of background, together with many other people, I regard the New Hollywood... Read more

Kristofferson’s Burden of Freedom

Last updated on: November 14, 2025 at 12:54 pm By Michael Jimenez

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Kris Kristofferson’s “Why Me?” might be one of the best Christian redemption songs I have ever heard. It first appeared on his album “Jesus Was a Capricorn” that was released in 1972. Now Kristofferson was not known for being religious by any stretch of the imagination, but Catholic writer James T. Keane makes this case in a recent America article. In short, Kristofferson created some of the most beautiful Christian songs in recent memories. Johnny Cash definitely thought so. Listening... Read more

What does 1 Peter say wives can do to win over their unbelieving husbands?