In Defense of Denominations Roger E. Olson Study Conference, November, 2015 The Sider Institute for Anabaptist, Pietist, and Wesleyan Studies Messiah College First Published: “The Future of Denominations in the Twenty-First Century,” Brethren in Christ History and Life (April, 2016). Republished here with permission. The “word on the street” among sociologists of religion is that “denominationalism” is dead in America; we are allegedly deep into a “post-denominationalism age.” Precisely when this process began and why, its exact causes and nature,... Read more

 Thoughts about Liberation Theologies *Here is a message I sent to my students in my modern theology class—after our almost three hour discussion of Liberation Theologies. The chapter I refer to is my chapter on Liberation Theologies in The Journey of Modern Theology. I have a few comments I want to make about Liberation Theologies after last evening’s passionate discussion about social justice–something I am truly passionate about. However, I do not feel entirely comfortable that we covered Liberation Theology... Read more

The Dark Side of Pentecostalism This is a follow up, an extended footnotes, if you will, to my immediately preceding blog post about Pentecostalism. You should read that first before reading this and certainly before commenting on this post. In 2006 Pentecostals celebrated what they considered the centennial celebration of the birth of their modern movement with the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles in 1906. Christian Century magazine asked me to write an article about “the dark side of... Read more

Dear Readers, Occasionally, as right now, I am either too busy or too lacking in something worthwhile to say, that I fail to post here. Please don’t go away just because I don’t post something for a few days. I travel fairly often and often find it difficult to blog during a trip. Often the hotel I’m staying in has very poor “connectivity.” Anyway, please be patient. I will continue to post here but perhaps not as often as in... Read more

A Shout Out for “Movember” As everyone in the U.S. knows, October is “Breast Cancer Month.” I have seen numerous billboards, public service announcements, received many e-mails—all promoting awareness of the scourge of breast cancer and urging women to be examined for it and asking for donations to fight this terrible disease. Come February, at least in the U.S., we will experience Women’s Heart Health month with an avalanche of information, appeals, information about women’s heart health. I’m all for... Read more

What to Do about ” Angry, White Men?” Frequently during the past year I have read and heard “white men” mentioned by journalists (and others) as the main supporters of presidential candidate Donald Trump. The word “angry” is often attached to make the reference “angry white men.” A few years ago a friend who lives in a major American city sent me a clipping from that city’s award-winning daily newspaper. The clipping was a column by that newspapers’s feminist African-American... Read more

An Alarming Trend in American Culture: The Decline in Reading Literature According to an article first published in The Washington Post the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) conducted a survey in 2015 that discovered a drastic decline in American adults reading habits. The NAE has been conducting this survey annually since 1982. During that time adult reading of literature (literary fiction). In 1982 57 percent of American adults confessed to reading at least one work of literature in the... Read more

Follow Up to My Post about Denominations… Over the past year I have read many news articles in various sources claiming that church attendance in the United States is dramatically decreased. The statistics vary a lot, so I won’t bother to offer any here. My point is simply that, according to many journalists and other observers and commentators, Americans are flocking away from churches. *Sidebar: The opinions expressed here are my own (or those of the guest writer); I do... Read more

Update and Reflections about Editing the Handbook of Denominations Some time ago I took on the task of editing, including revising and updating, the reference volume Handbook of Denominations in the United States 14th edition. This reference book used to be called “Mead’s Handbook of Denominations” and its first editor’s name always appears on the cover and title page even though he has been dead a long time. As I explained here earlier, I have always had as strong interest in... Read more