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March 2024

March 11, 2024

Gregory Who?

When Pope Francis named the Armenian monk Gregory of Narek (c. 951-1003) the thirty-sixth universal...

February 2023

February 13, 2023

“Are Latter Day Saints Christians?”

It’s a question that understandably vexes Latter Day Saints, but it lies behind an important...

December 2022

December 12, 2022

Ukraine’s Greek Catholics

The war in Ukraine has called attention to the country’s religious life and its history....

October 2022

October 10, 2022

9/11 and the Liberal Arts

[This past September 11, I was asked by a new interfaith center on Valparaiso University’s...

June 2022

June 13, 2022

The Future of Catholic Universities

A review of James L. Heft's The Future of Catholic Higher Education (Oxford University Press,...

November 2021

November 30, 2021

Christmas Gifts for the History Buff in Your Life

This blog serves a number of purposes. It helps Christians think more deeply about the...

May 2020

May 12, 2020

Non-Religious Turning Points in Religious History: Before 1900

Time will tell if COVID-19 produces lasting changes in Christianity and other faiths, but religious...

April 2020

April 20, 2020

Precious Protector

A Review of Alexander Norman, The Dalai Lama: An Extraordinary Life. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt,...

March 2020

March 23, 2020

The Abyss of History

If the past several weeks has taught us anything, it is that history can be...

January 2020

January 27, 2020

Reading Newman’s The Idea of a University

The nineteenth-century Catholic theologian John Henry Newman was recently canonized by Pope Francis. Newman is...

September 2019

September 23, 2019

Death by Secularism?

On November 22, 1967, in Decree 4377, the Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha declared religion officially...

August 2019

August 27, 2019

Kashmir and Hindu Nationalism

By abrogating the constitutional provisions that granted the state of Kashmir a measure of autonomy,...

July 2019

July 29, 2019

The Christian Origins of Religious Freedom?

Almost anything by Robert Wilken is worth reading. I have benefitted immensely from his The...

July 01, 2019

Islam and Religious Freedom

Book Review of Daniel Philpott, Religious Freedom in Islam: The Fate of a Universal Human...

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 11, 2019

Karma Quandary

Soon the Dalai Lama will mark his 60th year of exile from China. If you...

December 2018

December 17, 2018

Marxist Socialism and Soviet Atheism

A noble impulse lurks in the heart of the young when they take “capitalism” to...

November 2018

November 26, 2018

Church Crisis in Ukraine

Sadly, because of the untowardly symbiotic relationship between Trump and the media covering him, many...

October 2018

October 22, 2018

Reading Boswell’s Johnson

For pleasure reading, I have lately been dipping into James Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson....

September 2018

September 24, 2018

Missionaries and Imperialism

Amid the welter of truth claims in the modern academy, one towers above all others:...

July 2018

July 30, 2018

God and E.T.

Driving home from an evening out several weeks ago, a debate broke out in the...

June 2018

June 04, 2018

The Imponderability of the Past

(We bloggers have been enjoined to post this summer on travels that we have taken...

October 2017

October 31, 2017

The Upside of Historical Amnesia As the Reformation Turns 500

That many people can’t remember what the Protestant Reformation was all about might not please...

August 2017

August 14, 2017

Reading Robert Penn Warren

Like most people, I’ve been trying to get a read on American politics these days....

July 2017

July 17, 2017

“The Riddle of the Religious Other”

Often I have been asked about putting together a grant proposal or a book prospectus....

April 2017

April 25, 2017

Jewish-Christian Disputations in the Middle Ages

Although they were infrequent affairs, formal debates between Christians and Jews sometimes took place in...

March 2017

March 13, 2017

Christian Colleges Meet Trump’s America

I received much feedback from a piece I wrote for Inside Higher Ed. So, permit...

January 2017

January 16, 2017

When did “Interreligious Dialogue” begin?

It is hard to find today a major city that does not have an “interfaith”...

December 2016

December 19, 2016

The Most Influential Theologian You’ve Never Heard of

Who is Josef Kleutgen (1811-1883)? The name is not a household name, except in my...

November 2016

November 21, 2016

Education: What is It?

For a "think tank" of sorts, I find myself writing a white paper on education...