Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
An Oral History of The Anxious Bench: Origins

An Oral History of The Anxious Bench: Origins

Last updated on: May 10, 2022 at 2:01 am by Chris Gehrz

An Oral History of The Anxious Bench: Origins 2022-05-09T11:59:17-04:00 Chris Gehrz

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

On May 2, 2012, this blog debuted at Patheos.

Without any fanfare, Baylor professor Tommy Kidd opened our conversation by arguing that New York Times columnist Ross Douthat “underestimates how fractious the combination of religion and politics has always been in America.” Over the next seven days, future Brigham Young biographer John Turner wrote the first of many posts about Mormonism, the instantly eclectic Philip Jenkins touched on everything from greed to food, Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? author John Fea summarized Thomas Jefferson’s religious beliefs, and Kidd reported on a Methodist schism that had been averted postponed.

Ten years and nearly three thousand posts later, we would like to think that The Anxious Bench is still going strong — though “we” now consists of Philip Jenkins and nine historians who weren’t here in 2012. So to mark the anniversary, I’ve spent the last couple of weeks undertaking a kind of “oral” history of this blog, asking contributors past and present to share their recollections and reflections.

The rest of this month, we’ll tell the story of The Anxious Bench in our own words — the story of a decade that started and ended with Joe Biden holding high office, but otherwise featured remarkable changes in religion, politics, and culture. We’ll start at the beginning, with our origin story.

The Patheos home page as it looked in May 2011, one year before two of its Evangelical columnists founded The Anxious Bench

In May 2009 Time reported on the launch of a new website “that sets out to explain the differences among religions as well as illuminate the areas of common ground… so people can learn more about their own faith and explore others in a nonsectarian format.” Patheos was founded by Leo and Cathie Brunnick, who came from different Christian traditions and brought together children from previous marriages. Leo Brunnick, a former Marine officer and corporate executive, said they took inspiration from having to decide “what to teach [their children] and how and where to take them for Sunday school — we weren’t taking this lightly.” The library of religious history and beliefs they put together became the basis for Patheos, which soon added columnists from experts in different faith traditions, including Evangelical Christianity.

In its early years, the manager of Patheos’ Evangelical portal was Timothy Dalrymple, a pastor’s kid educated at Stanford, Princeton Seminary, and Harvard. “Patheos creates a marketplace of ideas,” he told Christianity Today in 2011, “and I believe that the gospel flourishes in that sort of marketplace.” (Dalrymple now serves as CEO of CT.) Moreover, he hoped that “a multifaith site” could also “host the conversations that are shaping the future of the church.”

Perhaps to that end, in 2012 Dalrymple approached two of his writers with the idea of starting a group history blog.

John Fea: Tim Dalrymple is to blame! Tommy Kidd and I were both writing individual columns for the religion website Patheos. My column was titled Confessing History. I can’t remember the name of Tommy’s column. [Ed. – “Faith in History.”] Dalrymple was our editor. At some point Patheos started to move away from individual columns and towards group blogs. He asked us to bring our columns together and then add some other authors.

John Turner: I knew Tommy and John Fea: Tommy from my graduate school days at Notre Dame and John from occasional encounters at conferences. I don’t remember how Tommy pitched the idea to me, but I thought of it as a chance to write about a variety of subjects that sometimes did and sometimes didn’t fit into my longer-term projects.

Philip Jenkins: I was very much a passive joiner here. I had recently joined Baylor as a full time faculty member, and was working quite closely with Tommy Kidd, who actually had the next office to me at one point. He asked me if I wanted to get involved, and I said “sure.”

Tommy Kidd (<em>Anxious Bench</em> contributor from 2012-2016) / John Fea (2012-2013) / Philip Jenkins (2012-present)

JT: I had blogged at Religion in American History, launched by Paul Harvey (and probably others whose names I am unconscionably forgetting). While I liked and like the idea of blogging for its relative lack of constraints, my main attraction was the chance to do something in collaboration with Tommy, John, and Philip. So much of my career has been solo things. I love initiatives that involve collaboration.

JF: I was blogging at The Way of Improvement Leads Home (and before that at Religion in American History) and writing the column at Patheos, so I was familiar with this kind of popular writing. I thought I would save my opinion or longer-form historical pieces for The Anxious Bench.

PJ: I had not blogged before, as such, but I had a real lot of experience with journalism and column writing, broadly defined. Back in the 1990s, I was writing a lot for the magazine Chronicles, which gave me superb training in writing for a non-academic public, and learning to de-academicize (!) my writing. In the Oughts, I was writing regularly for Books and Culture, Christian Century, and several others, and in the Teens I wrote for American Conservative, Aleteia, and Real Clear Religion. Those columns generally ran at around 800-1000 words, which was exactly what I needed for Anxious Bench.

JF: The name was Tommy’s idea. I don’t think we put too much thought into it… Tim Dalrymple wanted something more catchy and less generic [than Faith in History]. [Ed. – incidentally, Patheos also hosted a Catholic blog called “The Deacon’s Bench,” which has been defunct since 2019.]

JT: The original banner heading for the blog, or at least what I remember as the original, featured an illustration of George Whitefield with his hands raised, not Charles Finney, with whom the “anxious bench” is associated.

The Anxious Bench as it looked near the end of its first month…

PJ: “The Anxious Bench” goes back to mid-nineteenth century revivalism, Charles Finney etc., and the specific title comes from this book… One significant point is that the term was historical evangelical-speak, which reflected the group’s focus at that point.

In September 2012, the group expanded to include a couple then teaching at Gordon College: Thomas Albert (Tal) Howard, who brought more expertise in European history, and Agnes Howard, a historian of New England and its Puritan settlers.

Agnes Howard: My husband Tal and I were at his parents’ house in Alabama, sitting on the porch enjoying morning sunshine, when we read an email query from Tommy Kidd inviting us to be part of the project. We knew and appreciated Tommy’s work, so signed on.

JF: I was part of the conversation in recruiting Agnes and Tal Howard… But my memory is vague. I know we were committed from the start to finding a female writer to join us.

Over time, Patheos itself has changed, and in 2016 it was purchased by its early rival, the evangelical-owned Beliefnet — an acquisition that caused some non-Christian bloggers to leave. Anxious Bench has remained with Patheos, but the blog had the opportunity to move to a different platform before the first year was out.

JF: In November 2012, the journal First Things wanted to bring The Anxious Bench to its website. We (me and Tommy) turned down the offer. I can’t speak for Tommy here, but I was concerned that a move to First Things might pigeonhole the blog ideologically and politically.

A few months later, Fea himself decided to leave Anxious Bench. “I have enjoyed blogging with you guys these past months,” he wrote Dalrymple and Kidd in late February 2013, “but I have found that I just don’t have the time or creative energy anymore to come up with new material each week.” Instead, he refocused his energies on the personal blog he had started in 2008, The Way of Improvement Leads Home, which eventually became a centerpiece of the online magazine Current.

To replace Fea, Kidd recruited two other American religious historians: Miles Mullin, a professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and David Swartz, a Notre Dame PhD (like Kidd and Turner) on the faculty of Asbury College. Both wrote their first posts in May 2013 — about death and dying! — just after the blog’s first anniversary.

David Swartz: I joined just after the publication of my first book, Moral Minority, a history of the evangelical left from the 1940s through the 1990s. Tommy Kidd invited me, explicitly asking me to write about non-rightist contemporary evangelicals as a way of balancing out the abundance of posts on early America (Tommy and John Fea), more conservative evangelicals and Mormonism (John Turner and Agnes Howard), and European history (Philip Jenkins and Tal Howard).

Miles Mullin: I first started writing for Anxious Bench as a guest poster during the 2012-13 academic year when I taught at the seminary. My posts were well-received, so shortly after that, Tommy Kidd, who was the editor at the time, invited me to join as a regular bi-weekly contributor and I was happy to accept. My own area of expertise was twentieth-century evangelicalism, so I was a good fit for the audience that Tommy was trying to cultivate.

That lineup remained stable for over two more years, until 2015-2016 brought a series of personnel changes that ended up reshaping The Anxious Bench, even as it continued to explore “the relevance of religious history for today.” That’s where I’ll pick up the story next week!

Previous Post

May 9, 2022

Making Ukraine, and How Empires Invent Geography

Next Post

May 11, 2022 How Did the Reformation Matter for Women?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abolitionism Abortion Abraham Joshua Heschel Abraham Kuyper Abraham Lincoln Academia Activism Adam Renberg Advent Adventist africa African American Religion Agnes Howard Albert Camus American History American Religious History American Revolution American West Anabaptists Ancient History Andrea Turpin Andrei Tarkovsky Anglicanism Annales Ansley Lillian Quiros anti-Catholicism Antisemitism Anxious Bench apologetics Apparitions Arash Azizi Archaeology archives art Artificial Intelligence Asia Asian Americans Augustine Authors Bad Bunny Baptism Baptists Barack Obama Battle of Hastings Benjamin Franklin Bernard-Henri Levy Beth Allison Barr Beth Moore Bethany Mannon Bible Bill Cunningham Billy Graham Black Music Bob Dylan Body Boenhoffer Books Breastfeeding Bruce Springsteen C.S. Lewis Calvinism Cancel Culture Capitalism Carmelites Catholicism Cedric Robinson Cesar Chavez Charismaticism charity Charles Dickens Charles Lindbergh Che Guevara Chicago Children Chinese Christianity Chris Gehrz Christ Christian death Christian Higher Education Christian life Christian Nation Christian Nationalism Christianity Today Christmas Church life Church Practice cinema Civil Religion Civil Rights Movement Civil War civility Classics Climate Change Cold War Colonial Mexico colonialism Comer Communism community complementarianism Conference on Faith and History Congregationalism Conspiracies Conspiracy Conversion Narratives Coronavirus Costa Rica Council of Nicaea Covid-19 Creation Critical Race Theory Crusades Culture culture wars Daniel K. Williams David Barton David Swartz Death Ways death with dignity DEI democracy Democratic Party Devotion Digital Age Diplomacy discipleship diversity Donald Trump Drama Dua Lipa Early Church early modern Early modern Catholicism Easter Eastern Christianity economic exploitation Education elections Elie Wiesel Elizabeth II Elizabeth Taylor emotions Empire Engineering England enslavement Entertainment Episcopal Church Erica Ramirez eschatology Eurocentrism Evangelicalism Evangelicals Exegesis Family Feminism Film Flannery O'Connor folk music Food Foreign Policy founding fathers Franciscans Franciscus Junius fundamentalism Funerals G.K. Chesterton Gender Genocide genre geography George W. Bush George Washington George Whitefield Global Christianity Global church Grief Guadalupe guest post Guest Post gun control gun violence Gustavo Gutierrez Hamid Dabashi Harold John Ockenga Harvest Hate Hawaiian Christianity Healing health care Heather Cox Richardson Hell Heresy Hermeneutics Higher Education Hinduism Hippocratic oath Historical Fiction Historical Methodology Historical Profession Historical Profession Historical Theology Historical Thinking historiography Holidays Holocaust horror movies Human rights Humanitarian Work humanities Hummingbirds Hungary hymns Imago Dei Immigration Injustice Interviews Iran Islam Islamophobia Israel Ivan's Childhood Jacob Randolph James Bratt Janine Giordano Drake Japanese history Japanese Literature Jean Paul Sartre Jesse Miranda Jesus Jesus Christ Jimmy Carter Joan Baez Joan Didion Joanne Freeman João B. Chaves Joao Chaves Joey Cochran John Calvin John Fea John Tillotson John Turner Johnny Cash Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Tran Joseph Smith Josh Howerton Journalism Jr. Judaism Jürgen Moltmann Just War Justice Justin Brierley Karl Barth Katelyn Beaty koi ponds Kris Kristofferson Kristin Kobes Du Mez Latin American Religious History Latino Americans Lectio Divina Leisure Lent Leonard Cohen liberal arts liberalism Liberation Theology Linda Ronstadt Lisa Clark Diller Literature Lou Reed Lynchings Lynneth Miller Renberg Mainline Protestantism Malcolm Foley Marilyn Monroe Maritime history Mark Noll Marriage Martin Luther Martin Luther King Martyrdom Marxism Mary Masih Alinejad mass shootings material culture medieval Christianity Medieval Ethiopia Melissa Borja memory Mennonites Mental Health Mental Illness Methodism Mexican Americans Mexicans Mike Madrid Miles Mullin Min Jin Lee Miscarriage Missionaries Mister Rogers Mitt Romney modernity Monasticism Mormonism Motherhood Mothers of the Church Moving Music Musicals Nadya Williams Nahua Christianity Native Americans Natsume Sōseki New Contributor New England New Year New York Nico Non-Violent Protest Orthodoxy pacifism Paleo Evangelicals Palestinians Parenting Patti Smith Paul Kingsnorth Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pentecostalism Philip Jenkins Phillis Wheatley physician-assisted suicide pilgrimage Pilgrims pluralism Plutocracy Poetry Politics Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV post-modernism prayer preaching Presbyterians prosperity gospel Protest Public history Publishing Puritans purity culture Quakers race Race Massacres Racial Capitalism racial reconciliation racialization Racism Raha Bahloulipour Re-Enchantment reading Reformation Refugees religion and the university religion and war Religious Freedom Religious Nones Religious Pluralism Religious Symbols religious violence Republican Party Revival Rita Coolidge Ritual Roger Williams Roman Catholic church Royalty Russell Moore same-sex marriage Sarah Irving-Stonebraker Scandinavia Science Science and Technology Scopes trial Scriptural Interpretation secularism Selena Quintanilla seminary Seventh-Day Adventists sexual morality Sexuality Sikhs Silence slaveholders theology Slavery Slavoj Zizek social justice Social Media Southern Baptist Convention Southern Religion Spain Spiritual Autobiography Spiritual but not religious Spiritual Discipline Sports Stanley Hauerwas Suffering Summer Camps Sunday Night Odds and Ends Supernatural Supreme Court Syriac Christianity Tal Howard Taylor Swift Teaching Technology Television Thanksgiving The Beatles The Mission theater TheoBros Theology Thomas Dixon Thomas Jefferson Thomas Kidd Thomas Merton Tim Gloege Tim Walz Tom Holland Tourism tradition Tragedy Translation Transnationalism Travel Trump Ukraine Uncategorized Unitarians United Methodist Church US History Vanessa Chan Velvet Underground Verónica A. Gutiérrez Veronica Gutierrez Vikings Violence Virgin Mary Virtue Virtue ethics Visions Voting War WCTU Wendell Berry Westminster Assembly White Evangelicalism Wildfires Winnie the Pooh Witches women Women in Ministry Women's and Gender Studies Work Worship writing Yasunari Kawabata Zena Hitz

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What Christian group uses the term "Elder" for its church leaders?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Baptists Pentecostals Methodists Presbyterians