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June 2026

June 08, 2026

History as Christian Discipleship

As a history educator for over thirty years, the reasons for studying history are never...

October 2023

October 09, 2023

American Evangelicals’ Categorical Problem

American evangelicals have a categorical problem. I’m not talking about our denominations, our broader theological...

August 2023

August 03, 2023

Mark Twain, Slavery, And The Space-Annihilating Power Of Thought

I am not sure how much people read Mark Twain these days, but one work...

July 2023

July 21, 2023

Who Can Be Called “Pastor”? On Southern Baptists, Ancient Bishops, and What Goes without Saying

*Author's note: A previous version of this post mistakenly identified Basil the Elder as the...

June 2023

June 29, 2023

American History and the Caribbean Dimension

Should students of American history be allowed to escape without taking a course or two...

February 2023

February 02, 2023

Slavery and Redemption in the New Testament

"Well done, thou good and faithful slave!" That is certainly not a common rendering of...

January 2023

January 26, 2023

The Myth of the Men-Stealers

A recent post at this site concerned the history of American slavery, and like many...

March 2022

March 03, 2022

Empires, Slaves, and Daniel Syndrome

Throughout history, Empires have shaped religions worldwide, often in quite revolutionary ways. Commonly, they have...

September 2021

September 13, 2021

Colonial America’s Climate Crisis

In some periods in history, events and trends move at a rocket sled pace, when...

April 2021

April 27, 2021

How Classics Liberated the Minds of the Oppressed

Guest blogger Anika Prather explains the liberating effects of the classics on Black leaders like...

March 2021

March 15, 2021

Remembering Patrick

The St. Patrick’s Day celebrations this year will be another casualty of the coronavirus pandemic....

September 2020

September 22, 2020

RBG, Historian: Why Justice Requires Memory

“In our long struggle for a more just world,” said Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in...

September 11, 2020

The Slaves of Central Pennsylvania

Through the years, I have worked a good deal on Pennsylvania history, having taught for...

March 2019

March 15, 2019

Europe and the Experience of Slavery

ADDENDUM: I must report a ghastly synchronicity. This post concerns a historical theme that is...

February 2019

February 08, 2019

Remember Lord Dunmore!

Unless you have been living in a cave, you will undoubtedly have noted the furious...

February 04, 2019

Should the Fact of Slave-holding Ruin Historical Reputations?

Last time, I discussed the dilemma of how we commemorate early leaders who bought or...

February 01, 2019

Slavery, History, and Relativism

Recently, John Turner contributed an important post concerning John Myles, one of the founders of...

January 2019

January 15, 2019

12 Books by Women You Should Read This Year

An Anxious Bench book club: 12 books by - and mostly about - women that...

January 26, 2018

Slavery, Euphemism, and the New Testament

Translation is a difficult and devious process. You can render the individual words used perfectly...

August 2017

August 26, 2017

Christian Scholars on Racism in America Today

Dozens of Christian historians and other scholars have signed an open letter condemning racism, co-written...

April 2017

April 28, 2017

People Like Us

Earlier this year, President Trump complained about the media’s failure to pay due attention to...

April 21, 2017

Of Slavs, Slaves, Vikings, and Genetics

I recently had a DNA test to help trace my ancestry, and the result surprised...

February 2017

February 06, 2017

Spreading the Faith: Daniel Syndrome

Another in a series of posts about the many and various ways in which religions...

January 2017

January 09, 2017

Branching Paths and Alternate Histories

I have long valued Rick Perlstein as an excellent scholar of recent American history, chiefly...

December 2016

December 20, 2016

Adventures in Parenting as a Historian: The American Girl Books

On seeing history through the eyes of a seven year old, as she reads American...

October 2016

October 23, 2016

Highlights from the 2016 Meeting of the Conference on Faith and History

Race, gender, identity... and Donald Trump. Revisiting the 2016 meeting of the Conference on Faith...

April 2015

April 02, 2015

Mormons, Race, and Slavery

In the middle of 1870, Scipio Africanus Kenner feared losing the girl he loved. For...

January 2015

January 15, 2015

Evangelical Anti-abolitionists

Even in slaveholding states, many white Americans were uneasy about the morality of black slavery...

August 2014

August 05, 2014

How Violent Was American Slavery? Colonial Slave Codes

Last week I wrote about the challenges colonial American missionaries faced when trying to evangelize...

July 2014

July 29, 2014

Evangelizing Slaves and Colonial Christianity

I recently read Travis Glasson's excellent book Mastering Christianity: Missionary Anglicanism and Slavery in the Atlantic...