What I Learned From Southern Baptist Women’s Ministries

Last updated on: July 21, 2021 at 1:05 am By Andrea L. Turpin

I spent last week researching in the Southern Baptist Convention archives, located within the denomination’s headquarters in downtown Nashville, TN. It was a bit surreal because I had been blogging about the SBC for the last two months (here and here), and then finally found myself actually there on the ground for the first time. The archives are beautifully maintained, with friendly staff, and open to all researchers. I was researching the denomination’s Women’s Missionary Union (WMU) for my book... Read more

“Test Everything”: The Life and Theology of Clarence Bass

Last updated on: July 19, 2021 at 9:39 pm By Chris Gehrz

Chris pays tribute to theologian Clarence Bass, who died earlier this month at age 98. Read more

Saint Telemachus and the Volcano

Last updated on: July 18, 2021 at 7:02 am By Philip Jenkins

Through most of human history, people interpreted climate events and natural disasters as signs of supernatural power, commonly of God or the gods being angry and needing to be appeased in some way. Depending on the circumstances, that might mean hunting down religious dissidents, or launching revivals or apocalyptic movements. But quite recently in historical terms – sometime in the nineteenth century – that attitude changed, or at least for educated elites in Western societies. I offer one literary commemoration... Read more

The Other 1960s: Remembering the Red Future

Last updated on: July 16, 2021 at 8:25 am By Philip Jenkins

As usual, I have a couple of writing projects on the go at any given time, and I recently completed a book manuscript on The Global History of the Cold War, to be published early next year by Palgrave Macmillan. Like other things I have done with Macmillan, the book is a combination of a textbook and something intended for an interested general reader. Looking at the project, I am struck by how it takes me back to a different... Read more

Why I’m (Still) Excited to Teach at a Christian College

Last updated on: July 15, 2021 at 5:47 pm By Chris Gehrz

In which Chris takes a shot at getting some new Christian college students as excited (in mid-July) about academics as he is... Read more

What Evangelicals Just Don’t Know About Bible Translations

Last updated on: July 12, 2021 at 11:41 pm By Beth Allison Barr

Late in 1999, while the world panicked about Y2K (remember that?), I ordered a new Bible–a modern printing of the 1611 KJV. I was working on my Latin, using the Vulgate New Testament for my Bible reading, and wanted a ‘cheat version’ to check myself. But that wasn’t the only reason. I wanted a 1611 KJV because it contained the Jewish apocrypha. You see, my husband was interviewing for an Associate Pastor position deep in the heart of KJV-only territory. For... Read more

What Does It Mean to Follow Jesus?

Last updated on: July 12, 2021 at 9:33 pm By Chris Gehrz

What does it mean to follow Jesus? How do different Christian traditions answer this question? Chris previews a new project and invites early responses from readers. Read more

Mail-Order Moral Formation

Last updated on: July 11, 2021 at 1:15 pm By Agnes Howard

By now, summer might be testing limits of our altruism to our kids, let alone their capacity for it. We might want kids to be motivated to do self-giving acts of service. Actually getting them to do these can be tricky. Especially for the sort of parents too busy to have lots of spare time to teach their kids how to be generous. Jessica Jackley, prize-winning entrepreneur, saw that there was profit to be made in answering the question a ... Read more

What if the Nones Really Do Herald the Decline of Religion?

Last updated on: July 9, 2021 at 7:41 pm By Philip Jenkins

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the number of Americans who identify with Christianity is declining steadily, while the number of Nones – those who refuse identification with any denomination or faith – is growing sharply. Probably within five years or so, the nation’s largest religious group will be the Nones, as they move steadily ahead of evangelicals and Catholics. Assuming we care about the fate of religion, how worried should we be? Some argue that the churches are... Read more

Religion and the American Revolution

Last updated on: July 8, 2021 at 10:26 am By johnturner

Kate Carté is Associate Professor of History at Southern Methodist University. She’s here to discuss her latest book, Religion and the American Revolution: An Imperial History, just published by the Omohundro Institute and the University of North Carolina Press. This is a perfect topic for The Anxious Bench! Americans today argue about the extent to which religion contributed to the establishment of the United States and how the framers of American republic envisioned the relationship between Christianity and its government. Furthermore, historians... Read more