religious history

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  12/3/2019
  

  Faith made Harriet Tubman fearless as she rescued slaves

  by Robert Gudmestad

  Harriet Tubman worked as a slave, spy and eventually as an abolitionist. What I find most fascinating, as a historian of American slavery, is how belief in God helped Tubman remain fearless, even when she came face to face with many challenges.

• 
• 12/1/2019
  

  How did November become the Mizrahi Heritage Month? And what’s Mizrahi anyhow?

  by Lior Sternfeld and Arie M. Dubnov

  The Mizrahi heritage month is not a local, grassroots initiative that emerged in response to experiences of discrimination or marginalization. Instead, it is a transatlantic importation of recent attempts by the Israeli government to commemorate the forced expulsion of Jews from the Arab and Muslim world in the wake of the establishment of Israel.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  11/26/19
  

  The apocalyptic myth that helps explain evangelical support for Trump

  by Thomas Lecaque

  Implicit is a vision of the president as a triumphantly apocalyptic figure, one who evokes the medieval legend of the Last World Emperor.

• 
• 11/26/19
  

  Bodhisattvas and Saints

  by Ed Simon

  St. Josaphat is a particularly remarkable Roman Catholic saint, for he’s normally known by a rather different title – the Buddha. 

• 
• 11/21/19
  

  Coexistence and Sectarianism in the Modern Arab World

  by Ussama Makdisi

  In the case of the Middle East, the need to demythologize communities and their ideological underpinnings needs to go hand in hand with evoking a dynamic history of coexistence that transcends communalism. 

• 
• SOURCE: NPR
  11/14/19
  

  Thomas Kidd Featured on NPR's All Things Considered:

  'Who Is An Evangelical?' Looks At History Of Evangelical Christians And The GOP

• 
• 11/17/19
  

  Benjamin Franklin, Religious Revolutionary

  by J.D. Dickey

  Surprisingly, however, during America’s first major evangelical revival — the Great Awakening of the 1730s and ’40s — one of its most important figures had little use for religious conservatism. In fact, he wasn’t a preacher at all, but the reform-minded, freethinking Philadelphia printer Benjamin Franklin.

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  11/6/19
  

  Mormons in Mexico: A brief history of polygamy, cartel violence and faith

  by Rebecca Janzen

  Along with the Romneys – relatives of Sen. Mitt Romney, whose father was born in Mexico – the LeBarons are among the most storied families in Mormon history.

• 
• SOURCE: CNN
  11/2/19
  

  New research sheds light on largest-ever Anglo-Saxon treasure hoard

  The impressive find is now thought to include artifacts captured from kingdoms in East Anglia and Northumbria -- something researchers say "offers vivid confirmation of the widespread and brutal events" between warring English kingdoms, which have been described in near-contemporary sources from the period.

• 
• SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
  10/29/19
  

  ‘American Demagogue’ by J.D. Dickey Review: Preaching Revolution

  How much influence did the Great Awakening, driven by evangelists like George Whitefield, have on the cause of American independence?

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  10/10/19
  

  Panama celebrates its black Christ, part of protest against colonialism and slavery

  by S. Kyle Johnson

  Panama’s “Festival del Cristo Negro,” the festival of the “Black Christ,” is an important religious holiday for local Catholics. It honors a dark, life-sized wooden statue of Jesus, “Cristo Negro” – also known as “El Nazaraeno,” or “The Nazarene.”

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  10/8/19
  

  Fundamentalism turns 100, a landmark for the Christian Right

  by William Trollinger

  Christian fundamentalists have become a politically powerful group since the movement’s foundation in 1919.

• 
• 9/22/19
  

  The Separation of Church and State is About Freedom For Religion not Freedom From Religion

  by Christopher Binetti

  History shows that the State is more of a threat to the Church than vice-versa.

• 
• 9/15/19
  

  The Stasi's Cold War Espionage Campaign Inside the Church

  by Elisabeth Braw

  How the Stasi infiltrated churches to suppress dissent in the German Democratic Republic.

• 
• 9/8/19
  

  The U.S. a Christian Nation? Not According to the Founders!

  by Harlow Giles Unger

  Pence and Sessions are but two prominent Americans in and out of politics today who continue refueling a centuries-old controversy over the role of religion in American life.

• 
• 9/8/19
  

  The Democratic Presidential Candidates’ Ivy League Problem – and the Party Divide It Signals

  by Daniel K. Williams

  Every Democratic presidential nominee for the past thirty years has had a degree from either Harvard or Yale. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  8/21/19
  

  White evangelicals once admitted they were wrong about Nixon. Will Trump come next?

  by Anja-Maria Bassimir and Elesha J. Coffman

  White evangelicals voted 84 percent for Richard Nixon in 1972 and 80 percent for Donald Trump in 2016. And many of the leaders stood by Nixon as scandals swirled around him, just as they have with Trump.

• 
• 7/28/19
  

  (Re)-Claiming a Radical Evangelical Heritage at Christian Colleges

  by Louis B. Gallien, Jr.

  The recent controversies at my alma mater, Taylor University, over the invitation of Vice President Mike Pence’s to deliver their Commencement Address have illuminated the continued fissures at evangelical Christian colleges.

• 
• 7/21/19
  

  The Power of Microhistory: An Interview with Bancroft Prize Winner Douglas Winiarski

  by Elisabeth Pearson

  "I think my book will resonate with readers attuned to the politics of religious difference and the troubling connections between religion and violence in our own times."

• 
• 7/21/19
  

  Climate Change and the Last Great Awakening

  by Douglas S. Harvey

  The Last Great Awakening, if it is to be massive and successful, must involve profoundly altering our personal behaviors and inner lives while seriously committing to living in a sustainable way.