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October 2023

October 03, 2023

Tradition! (But What Is It?)

This post is part of a series at the Anxious Bench on ‘Contested Ideas in...

September 2023

September 05, 2023

What We Leave Behind: Objects, Priorities, and Faith

Summer for professors often means reworking classes or developing new courses, along with doing our...

August 2023

August 03, 2023

Spiritual Travel: Biking the Camino on a Protestant Pilgrimage

My husband Tommy just turned fifty. For the last 5 years he has planned to...

August 01, 2023

Do I Always Have to Smile?: C.S. Lewis and “Shiny Happy People”

Today's post is from a guest contributor, my colleague Dr. Katherine Cooper Wyma. Dr. Wyma...

July 2023

July 31, 2023

Evangelical Anxiety: A Review

It has been just over a year since Charles Marsh’s memoir Evangelical Anxiety was published....

June 2023

June 06, 2023

Martin Luther and “Shiny Happy People”: Reflections on Parenting, God, and Reformations

Parenting has been something that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. With a recently...

May 2023

May 02, 2023

Thoughts from Julian of Norwich for Changing Seasons

For me, the first of May always feels like the changing of a season– perhaps...

March 2023

March 06, 2023

People Get Ready (again)!

We are back with another installment! Last month, I wrote about Eerdman’s Press’ new People...

January 2023

January 09, 2023

#Praying for Damar Hamlin

Like many of you, I watched in horror last Monday as Buffalo Bills safety Damar...

May 2022

May 16, 2022

Reconsider the Stepmother

Among his many other exceptional qualities, Abraham Lincoln had high regard for his stepmother. Sarah...

March 2022

March 21, 2022

The Scandal of the Evangelical Professor Mommy

When I was pregnant and finishing my dissertation, a beloved dean told me about one...

July 2021

July 29, 2021

Why One Ancient Megachurch Pastor Would Like You to Get the Vaccine

Today's post is another guest feature from my wife, Nadya Williams, professor of ancient history...

July 15, 2021

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

In which Chris takes a shot at getting some new Christian college students as excited...

May 2021

May 25, 2021

The Problem of “Practical Atheism”

It will sound strange coming from a Christian historian writing at Patheos’ Evangelical channel, but......

March 2021

March 22, 2021

For God So Loved the World He Gave Us Sundried Tomatoes

God wants you to be temperate but could not possibly expect you to be svelte....

February 2021

February 24, 2021

The Sanctifying Value of Staying in the Same Academic Job for Decades

My Ph.D. dissertation advisor taught at Brown University for thirty-three years. Two of the other...

December 2020

December 10, 2020

Confronting Toxic Christianity

The latest scandal to rock American evangelicalism is more of the same but with a...

August 2019

August 21, 2019

Creating a “Rule of Life”: Habits for the New Semester

I am obsessed with habits. Particularly the spiritual formation potential of habits. I don’t remember...

July 2019

July 25, 2019

Summer Camp: American Religion and Recreation in the Great Outdoors

Today we welcome Monica L. Mercado to the Anxious Bench. Monica is Assistant Professor of History at Colgate...

April 2019

April 03, 2019

The Comfort of Historical Prayer

Cancer is terrible. It steals life. We have so many more treatment options available now...

March 2019

March 11, 2019

Christianity and Other Faiths: A New Course

(Note: I am currently working on a small-grant application for a new course entitled "Christianity...

February 2019

February 06, 2019

Disrupting Christian Patriarchy: Isn’t It About Time?

In July 1934, the deacons met at First Baptist Church Elm Mott, a Southern Baptist...

January 2019

January 09, 2019

What Will Evangelicals Say to Jesus?

"White Jesus has blood on him." Angela Tarango, Associate Professor of Religion at Trinity University,...

December 2018

December 25, 2018

The Mysterious Project of Putting Christ Back in Christmas

“In a culture dominated by sharp opinions, admitting uncertainty comes at a cost.” So concludes...

May 2018

May 02, 2018

The Myth of Biblical Womanhood?

In 2012, Rachel Held Evans—a New York Times bestselling author of American Christianity--wrote a stunningly...

April 2018

April 09, 2018

Christianity and Other Religions

Growing religious diversity, global conflicts that have a religious dimension, and the modern rise of...

November 2017

November 29, 2017

Because Xmas really is Xpian…

This is from my Anxious Bench archives. It is still one of my favorites, even though...

October 2017

October 18, 2017

Romans 8:31, Chris Tomlin, And The Faith Of A Medieval Woman

"Water You turned into wine; Opened the eyes of the blind; There's no one like...