January 21st, 2013
By Phillip Gollner
It did not have to be. The Falwells, the Dobsons, the Reeds, the LaHayes, all those who may well have given more contours to the term “evangelical” than any theologians – they did not have to be the embodiment of evangelical public activism that goes down in history. There was another option. Maybe there still is. One that protests abortion but also nuclear armament and imperial wars, that answers “what would Jesus do?” with “he would consume less.” One that thrives not only under the halogen lights and artificial plants of suburban churches but also under the scrutiny of Berkeley or Chicago academia. What sounds like a happy hipster fantasy from the fringes of indefinable 21st century evangelicalism is, in fact, a well-substantiated claim of David Swartz’s Moral Minority: The Evangelical Left in an Age of Conservatism, just out from the University of Pennsylvania Press.
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Tags: 20th Century, Books, evangelicalism, North American History, Protestantism, US History
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January 18th, 2013
by David Brakke
© Caroline Schroeder
On a Saturday in December 2012, as Egyptians went to the polls to approve or reject a proposed new constitution, I arrived in Cairo to meet my colleagues Eugene Rogers, who teaches Christian thought at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Caroline Schroeder, a fellow early church historian at the University of the Pacific. The next day we traveled south to Sohag, where we met up with Malcolm Choat, a papyrologist at Macquarie University. The four of us had traveled to this bustling city north of Luxor to visit one of the most significant surviving monuments from late ancient Christianity, the church of the Red Monastery. Thanks to
a conservation project led by the art historian Elizabeth Bolman of Temple University as overall director, we were able to admire the most extensive painted church interior to survive from late ancient and early Byzantine Christianity. It is, simply put, a revelation.
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Tags: Africa, Architecture, Early Christianity, Monasticism, Red Monastery
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January 14th, 2013
by Shaun Horton
This year’s winter meeting of the American Society of Church History saw a lot of reflection on the Society’s beginnings, the changes it has undergone, and the direction it will take in the future. Laurie Maffly-Kipps’ address to the Society (which will appear in the forthcoming June issue of Church History) reflected on the historiographical shifts away from institutions that used to be so central to the study of “church history.” At our council and business meetings, members deliberated on how best to adapt to the “American Society’s” increasingly global reach. And as always, the panel presentations continued to the categories that church historians have used to make sense of things.
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Tags: ASCH, Church History Journal, Winter 2013 Meeting
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January 12th, 2013
By Timothy Lim T.N.
On the Occasion of a Cistercian Feast of Observance in Honor of Aelred of Rievaulx.
I started reading about friendship a few years ago. My readings ranged from Aristotle’s three levels of friendship in Nicomachean Ethics, Cicero’s On Friendship, Augustine’s Confessions, Aelred of Rievaulx’s Spiritual Friendship to a personal study on friendships in the Bible. I hoped that I was a friend to those whom providence arranged. Friendship nourishes me, although the disappointments and pains are sometimes difficult to bear. Who is a friend, and how do we nurture friendships? While I am more of an interdisciplinary theologian, like many members in the American Society of Church History, I rejoice in the richness that history could proffer. In this article, I present a contemporized and analogous reading of Aelred of Rievaulx’s Spiritual Friendship. Aelred postulates the benefits of deep friendship whilst being aware of the perils of relational problems, and in that sense, his thoughts challenge superficial friendships in our day. May this essay encourage us in finding true connection with friends.
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Tags: 12th Century, Aelred of Rievaulx, Catholicism, Friendship, Western Europe
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January 11th, 2013
by Sylvester Johnson
The first issue of the new
Journal of Africana Religions appears this January 2013. This peer-reviewed journal, published quarterly by The Penn State University Press, offers critical analysis of the religious traditions of Africa and the African Diaspora as well as religious traditions influenced by the diverse cultural heritage of Africa. An interdisciplinary journal encompassing history, anthropology, Africana studies, gender studies, ethnic studies, religious studies, and other allied disciplines, the
Journal of Africana Religions embraces a variety of humanistic and social scientific methodologies in understanding the social, political, and cultural meanings and functions of Africana religions. We invite authors to submit articles and review essays that examine African traditional religions, Islam, Christianity, new religious movements, and other African and African Diasporic religious expressions and experiences. For more information, go to
www.africanareligions.org.
Tags: Africa, CFPs, Journals
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January 2nd, 2013
by Shaun Horton
AHA Today posts a lot of useful information in the days leading up to its annual meeting (and our Winter Meeting). Vanessa Varin has listed several free WiFi spots in the
participating hotels, and has linked to lists of free WiFi spots in New Orleans on
Urban Spoon and
About.com.
If you are a graduate student and an ASCH member, you can also sign up at the main conference table for lunches and dinners with senior scholars, for free, courtesy of the Society. These are available Friday and Saturday. They are great for a grad student on a budget, and you can’t beat the company. Finally, there is no fee or registration required for grads to attend the annual breakfast hosted by WITCH (Women in Theology and Church History) on Friday morning – though graduate students are encouraged to pay what they can.
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Tags: Winter 2013 Meeting
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December 31st, 2012
by Jay Case
One of the stories from the departmental lore where I work comes from a colleague who a few years ago had stopped into a barbershop for a haircut. He noticed a breaking news story on the shop’s TV and asked the barber what was happening. The barber responded by saying, “Oh, it’s just an event somewhere over there in Islam.” So now, whenever we crack departmental jokes about ignorance, the phrase “somewhere over there in Islam” inevitably makes an appearance.
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Tags: Academia, Protestantism, US History
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December 14th, 2012
by William Russell
In the late twentieth century Americans experienced a major cultural shift in their experiences of religion. Cultural commentators have called this a “Culture War” and argue for a return to traditionalism – or at least how they believe religion was traditionally practiced. Theologians largely left behind the idea of constructing systematic theology in favor of diversity and meeting the needs of particular peoples in particular places and times. Americans readily ignored the denominations of their parents and grandparents preferring a stronger sense of voluntarism in their religious affiliations.
These religious, theological, and ecclesial changes ran parallel with and intersected with changes in mobility, cultural identity politics, and worldview alternatives. Historians of religion in the late twentieth century followed suit, challenging traditional religious narratives too heavily focused on Puritan ideals and cultural hegemony. The descent of Protestantism in American intellectual ideology was fostered by an increasing recognition of pluralism, voluntarism, and cross-cultural contact.
Religious changes since 1950 have been massive indeed.
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Tags: 20th Century, Catholicism, Civil Religion, evangelicalism, North American History, Protestantism, Robert Bellah, US History
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