The Hermeneutic Circle

When religious leaders die …

2012-02-01T12:21:00.000-05:00

What happens to a religious movement when the charismatic founder is no longer around to carry the torch? What changes in the next generation? What stays the same? This is the subject of next year’s Pietism Studies Group session at the American Society of Church History. If you’re interested in more information, here’s the description:

American Society of Church History, 2013 Winter Meeting New Orleans January

3-6, 2013

This panel, sponsored by the Pietism Studies Group, will discuss the effect the death of religious leaders had on the movements they founded. Religious groups have very different reactions to the death of their leaders. Some groups try to be as faithful as possible to the heritage of their founders, others take this as an opportunity to explore different ways. And there are religious groups that do not survive the death of their leader and fall apart.

We are interested in papers on any movement associated with international Pietism during the 17th-19th centuries. After the death of Zinzendorf, Moravians abandoned anything that could remind the public of their previous enthusiasm. Instead of holding on to the heritage of their recently departed leader, Zinzendorf's successors lost no time in dismantling important aspects of his heritage. How, for example, did the Methodists respond to the death of Wesley? And how did small religious group fare after their charismatic leaders passed away?

The purpose of this panel is to compare different Pietist groups and to come to a better understanding of matters of continuity and change.

If you are interested in joining this panel, contact Paul Peucker at the Moravians Archives: paul@moravianchurcharchives.org

Jackson Lears' Rebirth of a Nation

2012-01-30T18:57:00.000-05:00

Finished up an engaging discussion of Jackson Lears' Rebirth of a Nation: The Making of Modern America, 1877-1920 in class today. A few soundbites from students about the book:

“He doesn’t like Teddy Roosevelt very much.”

“That’s a depressing conclusion to end with!”

“He’s a very profound writer.”

Pietism Studies Group, CFH at American Historical Association

2012-01-30T18:43:00.001-05:00

I was pleased to take in two sessions at the American Historical Association annual meeting in Chicago a few weeks ago. I went specifically to attend the sessions organized by the Pietism Studies Group as well as the breakfast and morning session of the Conference on Faith and History. Among other folks I usually try to meet up with I finally met Philipp Gollner, a student of Mark Noll’s at Notre Dame. He’ll be helping out with a session for the next Conference on Faith and History biennial conference at Gordon College, which Devin Manzullo-Thomas is spearheading. We’ve entitled our session “Shifting Identities Among American Anabaptists .” The Pietism Studies Group took care of business items over lunch – the main initiative being the formation of a site on H-Net (Humanities and Social Sciences Online) specifically devoted to pietism. Look for H-Pietism to start up in the near future!

Middle East NONviolence

2011-11-30T23:46:00.000-05:00

I have enjoyed several captivating documentaries in recent weeks, all on Current TV. American Jihadi is a fascinating narrative about two American best friends who both convert to Islam. Their paths diverge quite significantly, however. One turned to radicalism, becoming a terrorist in Somalia; the other rejected extremism and remains a mainstream Muslim in the US. Islam is often treated as a singular entity, pre-determining its followers toward violence – this is seen especially among the religious right. Yet this documentary problematizes this approach – two Muslims with very similar stories … two very different expressions of Islam.

The second documentary, How to Start a Revolution, focuses on the impact of Gene Sharp’s writings about nonviolence and his impact on various revolutions in recent years, including the Arab Spring. Sharp, professor emeritus, University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, is a guru on nonviolent action and its potential to facilitate political change. His most influential book, From Dictatorship to Democracy, has found an international audience through the Internet and its ideas have surged through social media outlets. There is an obvious connection between Sharp and other expressions of pacifism, including the Anabaptist rejection of violence as well as a natural link with the work of John Howard Yoder. It is ironic that many Americans associate the Middle East with violence, yet in the midst of conflict, a significant movement of political pacifism has emerged to challenge the brutality of oppressive regimes.

Conference on Faith and History at Gordon College in 2012!

2011-11-26T19:46:00.000-05:00

The Conference on Faith and History has announced the Call for Papers for the 2012 biennial conference to be held Oct 3-6 at Gordon College near Boston. The theme is “Cultural Change and Adaptation.” Proposals for the professional section of the conference can be sent to John Wigger (U. of Missouri) at wiggerj@missouri.edu. Proposals for the student section can be sent to me at burkhojs@grace.edu. Hope to see you there!

Need help plagiarizing? Try Turnitin!

2011-11-12T21:12:00.001-05:00

Turnitin, the software designed to allow professors to identify cases of plagiarism, is becoming a teaching tool. Some professors are allowing their students to use the software to make sure they’ve paraphrased their sources appropriately. Some students, however, are finding that Turnitin can actually help them get away with plagiarizing! Find the whole article in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Nixon Documents Come to Light

2011-11-12T20:31:00.000-05:00

This past week the Nixon Library and the National Archives made numerous documents related to Nixon’s grand jury testimony available to researchers. A federal judge ordered the release of the documents after historian Stanley Kutz, who has written about the Nixon presidency, requested they be made public. Here’s the collection’s archival description:

In May 1975, the Watergate Special Prosecution Force (WSPF) decided that it was necessary to question former President Richard M. Nixon in connection with various investigations being conducted by the WSPF. Mr. Nixon was questioned over the period of two days, June 23 and June 24, 1975, and the testimony was taken as part of various investigations being conducted by the January 7, 1974, Grand Jury for the District of Columbia (the third Watergate Grand Jury). Chief Judge George Hart signed an order authorizing that the sworn deposition of Mr. Nixon be taken at the Coast Guard Station in San Mateo, California with two members of the grand jury present.

Read the documents here.

A New Debate over Authorship: Shakespears's Plays

2011-11-08T10:30:00.001-05:00

This week I am attempting to help my students in the class, Contemporary America and the World understand the backgrounds of American evangelicalism. Today we deal with the fundamentalist/modernist controversy, in which biblical higher criticism challenged traditional beliefs about authorship of the Hebrew canon. Interesting, it’s the canon of English literature that is facing controversies over authorship these days! Specifically, a new film challenges the assumption that Shakespeare wrote his own plays! Check out the story at History News Network here.

If something is too good to be true, it probably is ... propaganda

2011-11-02T00:39:00.001-04:00

We’ve all gotten those chain emails. You know -- the ones that offer a scoop that happens to be exactly what we’re looking for, or exactly what someone else may be looking for. Maybe it’s the report that comes from your evolutionist friend that archeologists have found an irrefutable missing link. Or perhaps it’s the report from your creationist friend that mainstream scientists are trying to cover up a new discovery that confirms a literal interpretation of Genesis. Then again, maybe its that email sent from a right-wing coworker that includes a picture of a young Obama at a Muslim rally. Or its evidence from your liberal friend that Michelle Bachman once said she wants to set up a theocracy.

You get the idea… the kind of allegations that end up on Snopes.com. The missing link turns out to be a fabrication … the new discovery turns out to be old evidence that was disproved two decades ago … the picture of Obama turns out to be photo shopped … and the Bachman connections to theocratic aspirations just aren’t true. The fact is, if we have strong feelings about politics, religion, or some other issue, its hard not to be attracted to something that seems to confirm precisely what we already believe … and want others to believe, even if it means we bypass the healthy dose of skepticism that ought to be there.

Well, its campaign season, and so another round of urban legends have begun. For example, have you heard that GOP presidential candidate, Rick Perry, has financial ties to the porn industry? For liberals who can't seem to stomach Christian conservatives, this seems too good to be true. And … it basically is. For more on this, see a recent piece by David McElroy, a former political advisor who has ditched politics altogether. I don’t necessary agree with McElroy about his radical rejection of American politics, but his piece, Dishonesty Runs Rampant when Partisanship Matters more than Truth, is refreshingly on the mark. Here’s a snippet:

The sick and twisted truth about human nature that we don’t want to realize: People are much more interested in accepting something that supports what they already believe than in finding out the truth. No party has a monopoly on this, because it seems to be human nature.

New Call for Papers on Alexander Mack, Jr.

2011-10-30T18:25:00.001-04:00

The Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College has announced a Call for Papers for a conference slated for June 6-8, 2012. The title for the conference is, "Pietist and Anabaptist Intersections in Pennsylvania: The Life and Influence of Alexander Mack, Jr." Proposals are due by January 27th and should be "related to some aspect of Mack's life or the Brethren experience in the eighteenth century." Contact the center's director, Jeff Bach (bachj@etown.edu), for more information.

Democratizing History

2011-10-29T21:57:00.000-04:00

I have an increasing number of students interested public history lately, and so I’ve been working to carve out opportunities for internships for them in the field. This search has also turned up interesting sites online. One site that particularly caught my interest is a blog maintained by Tom Scheinfeldt, the director of George Mason University’s Center for History and New Media. Here’s Scheinfeldts description for his blog, Found History:
Found History explores public history and digital humanities in all their forms. By taking seriously the work of amateurs and professionals alike, as well as new modes of digital scholarship and learning, Found History aims to foster a broader, more democratic understanding of what history and the humanities are.

Book on Faith and the Historian's Vocation finalist for Lilly Book Award

2011-10-23T21:13:00.000-04:00

This semester I used Confessing History: Explorations in Christian Faith and the Historian's Vocation as a textbook for our department’s Capstone Seminar in history. I learned today from John Fea's blog, (John served as one of the books editors), that the book was recently honored as a finalist for the Lilly Fellows Book Award. You can find more about this at the Way of Improvement Leads Home.

Occupy Wall Street in Context

2011-10-23T20:56:00.000-04:00

Has the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations piqued your interest in the historical significance of this symbol of American capitalism? Check out a recent History News Network piece and analysis by Wall Street historian, Steve Fraser: "A Century of Our Streets vs. Wall Street."

Defending the Liberal Arts

2011-10-22T23:34:00.000-04:00

Frances Fox Piven

Peter Powers, Dean of the School of Humanities at Messiah college, (Grantham, PA) defended his institution’s decision to host a lecture by Frances Fox Piven in an op-ed piece in Harrisburg’s Patriot News on Thursday. Piven is a controversial Political Science scholar and activist (and, not surprisingly, no friend of Glenn Beck), and the lecture event at Messiah College sparked something of a firestorm – attesting to the tensions that exist within Christian higher education. As Powers observed, Christian colleges often find that some constituents want them to provide a comfortable place of indoctrination. But the very nature of the liberal arts approach is one that facilitates the critical examination of a wide range of ideas, yearns to uncover tension and ambiguity, and challenges students to toward a self-reflective existence. As Powers put it:

Christian institutions vary tremendously, but in general we seek to educate students who will think more deeply and act more effectively in the world. At Messiah College, we pursue this goal not by sheltering students from difficult questions, but by encouraging them to think about those questions as Christian people. Invited speakers with different points of view help us achieve this goal, just as do assigned texts and classroom discussions on thinkers who are Christians and those who are not. We approach Christian higher education this way because even the best of our tradition should be subject to critical thinking and because we believe truth might be revealed in diverse places in the world God has made.

You can find Powers’ op-ed here.

Blog continues series on Pietism

2011-10-21T16:52:00.002-04:00

Chris Armstrong, professor at Bethel Seminary (St. Paul, Minnesota) and blogger at Grateful to the Dead, continues his Religion of the Heart series, spotlighting the recent edited volume, The Pietist Impulse in Christianity. Check out Chris’s latest installment! I hope my provost will forgive me for plugging another institution, but the folks at Bethel have been doing a lot of thinking in recent years about the history of Pietism and its relevance for Christian higher education. See, Christopher Gehrz’s piece, “Education for ‘God’s Glory and Neighbor’s Good’ The Pietist Idea of a Christian College,” for example -- a study that also led to an article in Christian Scholar’s Review. (Gehrz, who also teaches at Bethel, has his own blog: The Pietist Schoolmen.) Its good to see this kind of ongoing thinking about Pietism’s historical significance!

Take an online class ... but remember to put on some clothes!

2011-10-21T16:19:00.001-04:00

I am teaching more and more on-line classes these days. So far, my classes have been “asynchronous,” meaning that my students and I aren’t expected to be online at the same time. But many schools opt for “synchronous” classes, which offer an online experience that is more like a real classroom – making use of webcams and other devices to enhance student interaction. This is raising a new set of challenges, however, as some of these webcams are capturing more than class content! As reported by the Chronicle of Higher Education, “Barking dogs, wailing babies, a naked spouse—all have made cameo appearances” in online classes at the University of Southern California.

Check out the article here, as well as numerous comments and other interesting stories about “netiquette” infractions.

American Muslims respond to Conservative Rhetoric

2011-10-21T15:50:00.001-04:00

Last spring I taught a course I designed called, “Islam, Politics, and the Middle East.” One the issues we examined was the rhetoric of the Religious Right concerning Muslims in America. In a way that resembles the anti-Communism crusades during the Cold War, conservatives have argued that radically militant Islam represents "true" Islam and that Muslims operate with a unified conspiracy to infiltrate America using “silent Jihad” (Immigration, back-door politics, securing infliential positions, etc.) The assumption is that America Muslims have no desire to participate in democracy, hoping rather to subvert it in order to eventually destroy it. Recently, American Muslim leaders (the Fiqh Council of North America) have responded, issuing a Fatwa (official statement) defending the compatibility of Islam and American democracy. As quoted in the Huffington Post, the Fatwa states:

As a body of Islamic scholars, we the members of FCNA believe that it is false and misleading to suggest that there is a contradiction between being faithful Muslims committed to God (Allah) and being loyal American citizens. Islamic teachings require respect of the laws of the land where Muslims live as minorities, including the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, so long as there is no conflict with Muslims’ obligation for obedience to God. We do not see any such conflict with the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. The primacy of obedience to God is a commonly held position of many practicing Jews and Christians as well.

Find the story at the Huffington Post here.

Back from Hiatus!

2011-10-20T06:35:00.000-04:00

Fall break, grading, building book cases, moving my office (still in progress), and preparing classes for a new session ... I've been on hiatus from The Hermeneutic Circle. But I'm back ... stay tuned.

Politics and the End of the World

2011-10-13T09:38:00.002-04:00

David Walsh, editor of History News Network, recently interviewed Matthew Avery Sutton, who teaches history at Washington State. Sutton wrote a 2009 book on the female evangelist and Los Angeles sensation, Aimee Semple McPherson in 2009. Walsh’s interview comes as Sutton is finishing a forthcoming monograph called American Evangelicals and the Politics of Apocalypse. This should be a fascinating read. Here’s a taste of this insightful interview that you can find here:

Walsh:

Let’s discuss the political implications. One of the direct consequences of millenialist theology was the rise of conservative fundamentalist Christianity in America. What can we expect today?

Sutton:
This is where I, as an historian, need to be a bit careful. In the Times, I wrote that throughout the twentieth century, when we have a so-called liberal president, there seems to be a rise in apocalyptic thinking among evangelicals on the heels of that. We had Roosevelt and a major rise in apocalyptic thinking. Then it sort of subsides until the 1960s, as things get crazy with the student movements, with Vietnam, we then see a rise again in apocalyptic thinking, especially in response to the Great Society. The symbol of that, for me, is the publication in 1970 of Hal Lindsey’s The Late, Great Planet Earth, which was the best-selling nonfiction book of the decade. And then it subsides in the 1980s and 1990s, but then during the Clinton years Tim LaHaye publishes the novel Left Behind, which became another insane phenomenon. The whole series revolved around the scenario I outlined earlier: the Rapture, the Tribulation, the rise of the Antichrist, the Battle of Armageddon, the Second Coming. But it subsides a bit during the Bush administration ...

What's an Evangelical to do? NPR spotlights Evangelicals, Mormons, and Political Relationships

2011-10-13T09:22:00.004-04:00

A recent NPR piece highlighted the conundrum that evangelicals might face in 2012. What if Mitt Romney is the Republican nominee? Romney’s faith poses a problem, of course, for evangelicals who, according to Patrick Mason of Claremont University, believe Mormons are contributing to the “erosion” of American society and are “challenging the authority of traditional Christianity.” Yet when it comes to political battles, evangelicals have been known to align themselves with questionable company if it might mean winning on larger issues. We’ve seen more evangelical-Catholic agreement on social/moral issues and many evangelicals were willing to get in bed with McCain in ‘08 because he shared conservatives’ social convictions – even though Obama was more open about his Christian faith. So while Mormonism may be viewed as a radical threat to historic Christian orthodoxy, Romney may represent the best chance evangelicals have to oust the current administration. You can find the piece here.

In a related piece, NPR's Guy Raz interviewed Quin Monson, associate political science professor at Brigham Young University, about the relationship between Mormons and the GOP. Find this story here.

Michael Kazin on Ken Burns, Prohibition and Abortion

2011-10-11T19:59:00.001-04:00

I'm a Ken Burns fan, but in a review of his new documentary on Prohibition, Burns gets mixed reviews. Michael Kazin, history professor at Georgetown University, offers the review on the New Republic here. He also describes how the movement for a dry America parallels the contemporary anti-abortion effort.

Islam, Evangelicals, and the Virtues of the Historical Method

2011-10-11T09:48:00.000-04:00

The historical method inevitably moves us toward greater degrees of critical awareness not only about societies of the past, but of the present as well.

It teaches us to deconstruct, to question, to be skeptical. It requires us to be ruthless in the search for truth. More than this, if we’re honest, the historical method invites us to be self-critical as well. I’m not talking about this in the popular sense – of constantly getting down on oneself. Rather, this means that we allow ourselves to ruthlessly apply the same sense of skepticism and critical thinking to ourselves and our own history – one might call it self-deconstructing. While this might sound negative, its actually quite liberating. In fact, its required if we are to fruitfully engage our own society in helpful and appropriate ways. This is why I find Thomas Kidd’s (Baylor University) new book, American Christians and Islam: Evangelical Culture and Muslims from the Colonial Period to the Age of Terrorism, so absolutely essential. Kidd’s analysis does not argue how American Christians should respond to Muslims. Rather, he describes the historical reasons why they respond to Islam in the way they do. In short, Kidd’s book is a valuable tool that can help us practice the healthy kind of self-criticism. That is, the understanding we need to be reflective individuals, mindful of how we approach the “other” (in this case Muslims) and the historical reasons for why we often respond the way we do.

Goshen College Tragedy

2011-10-10T21:43:00.000-04:00

About a year ago, the campus where I teach (Grace College) was hit with tragedy when one of our students was killed near our campus in Winona Lake. Now our thoughts and prayers are with the folks at Goshen College, where long time Biology professor, Jim Miller was killed during a home invasion. Last night the Goshen community gathered for an emotional vigil.

The Best and Worst of Evangelical Voices in the Public Square

2011-10-10T21:08:00.005-04:00

I mentioned in an earlier post that evangelicals in America, despite what we sometimes hear, are a very diverse crowd. Sometimes that diversity is evident in the degree of sophistication that evangelicals bring to the public sphere. I was reminded of this fact this morning during media coverage of the battle for the GOP nomination. Just after introducing Rick Perry to a gathering of Christian conservatives, Southern Baptist Convention pastor Robert Jeffress weighed in on Mitt Romney’s LDS faith, using the label of “cult” to refer to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Jeffress’ comment is typical of the right wing of the evangelical political spectrum, where such loaded and simplistic generalizations are routine. In contrast to Jeffress, we find Richard Mouw, President of Fuller Seminary, articulately countering the accuracy of Jeffress’ labeling. In this case, the diversity is not over specific issues, theology, or even who evangelicals should vote for. Rather it can be seen in the manner in which these two individuals engage in the public square. When so many evangelicals seem inclined toward Jeffress’ predictable caricatures, Mouw’s example of civil and intelligent discourse is certainly refreshing.

CFH in Mexico 5: Anabaptists and Evangelicals

2011-10-10T17:51:00.003-04:00

Looking over the program for the conference, one of the presentations I was most interested in hearing was Devin C. Manzullo-Thomas’ paper, “Between Legalism and Liberalism: The Brethren in Christ, the New Evangelicals, and the Rhetoric of Religious Identity in Postwar America.” Devin is a graduate student at Temple University who is working on the Anabaptist-evangelical relationship in the context of the Brethren in Christ denomination. This is something that David Cramer and I are particularly interested in. Devin’s paper was insightful and informative and his thesis will be a nice addition to the developing literature on the topic. You can download a copy of Devin's paper at: http://temple.academia.edu/DevinCManzulloThomas. By the way, Devin has a blog I would recommend for all things Brethren in Christ: The Search for Piety and Obedience.

CFH in Mexico 4: Moravians?

2011-10-09T21:36:00.002-04:00

I must admit, I didn’t think anyone would even know who the Moravians were, but one Mexican undergraduate student who attended my paper asked specifically how the Moravians compared with Quakers. Turns out he is working on a thesis on New England!

CFH in Mexico 3: The sights (and smells) of the Spanish Inquisition

2011-10-09T21:23:00.002-04:00

The conference was held in the 16th century Palace of the Inquisition, which housed accused heretics as they waited trial. The Plaza of Santo Domingo is across the street. Those condemned were burned in this square – at least until too many people complained about the smell and they subsequently moved the burn site outside the city limits.

CFH in Mexico 2: The Challenges of intercultural dialogue about Evangelical Identity

2011-10-08T13:37:00.002-04:00

I have become acutely aware of the challenges of defining evangelical identity in a global context while here in Mexico. Latin Americanists are well aware of this of course, but this is less familiar to those of us who have not had many experiences with the nuances of religious life in the Latin American context. In the United States, “evangelical” refers to a particular kind of Protestant person but in the Latin American context, “evangelical” is synonymous with “Protestant” – essentially the generic alternative to Catholic identity. So it becomes a challenge when Protestants from the United States and Latin America come together for a conference on religious history. Needless to say defining terms becomes important. And this becomes yet even more complicated when we move this discussion outside of the Americas. I just had a conversation with two individuals from Germany who, interesting enough, are also participating in this conference. Because of my interest in the Moravians and in pietism, I know a bit about how Germans feel about “evangelicals” and so I asked one of them what they thought about all the talk about evangelicals that the conference was generating. We had an engaging discussion about the way evangelicalism is a pejorative term in Germany. Although in America, evangelicals are not without stigma, thoughtful individuals will acknowledge that evangelicals are an incredibly diverse lot. But for many Germans, evangelicalism is monolithically militant, bigoted, and permeated by the worst elements of what we would call “fundamentalism.” It would seem that it is crucial for American evangelicals (and historians of evangelicalism) to engage in international gatherings such as this one, if nothing else to wrestle with the challenges of talking about what the identifier “evangelical” means in various global contexts.

CFH in Mexico 1: The Program

2011-10-05T11:39:00.003-04:00

Later this afternoon I fly to historic Mexico City for a conference on “Protestantism, History and Identity in the Americas.” The conference is sponsored by CFH as well as a host of Latin American organizations and is designed to bring together English and Spanish speaking historians from South, Central, and North America. This kind of interaction across geographical boundaries is especially important given the geo-political nature of the world today and the growth of non-western regions. Joel Carpenter, long time Calvin College professor and Director of the Nagel Center for World Christianity, has gotten behind this conference and it has received strong support among Christian historians. I will be presenting a paper on Saturday morning. See the program for more details!

Post by PJ, #1: Reading Wallmann's "Pietismus und Orthodoxie"

2011-10-04T18:14:00.002-04:00

[the original post can be found at Pietismus.blogspot.com]

With the dissertation behind me, I decided to return to an article my first mentor at the IEG recommended I read before attempting any investigations into August Hermann Francke’s theology: Johannes Wallmann’s “Pietismus und Orthodoxie.”* It was written at the time as a review of Pietism scholarship, but still holds invaluable insight into understanding Pietism.** So, I thought I would bullet a two interesting things that jumped out at me during this read:

Wallmann reminds us that the phrase “Lutheran Orthodoxy” is much more fluid and complex as we tend to think it. Although there have been attempts by scholars to construct a “Reform” party within seventeenth-century Lutheranism, those members who are grafted into it do not always fit the mold of those opposing the work of Lutheran Orthodoxy. We need to be clear and careful when we draw lines between religious figures within the same confession. There is much more fluidity in thought than we tend to recognize. See for instance Hans Schneider’s German Radical Pietism.
We need to keep the influence of eschatology in the back of our minds as we read Pietist writings. The “hope of better times” in Spener’s theology played a role in how he formulated church reform.

* a reprint of Wallmann’s article is found in Martin Gerschat, ed. Zur Neueren Pietismusforschung

** yes folks, I capitalize the “P”

Glimpses of Winona Heritage, No. 1

2011-10-03T23:37:00.001-04:00

This clipping comes from The Continental, a Progressive Era magazine that catered to popular interdenominational religion, pithy news commentary, and inspirational stories. Between stories, the magazine was chock full of advertisements for colleges and seminaries, religious gatherings, conference events, and Victorian consumer goods. It was, therefore, a prime place to advertise Winona’s diverse events and speakers. This snippet, from September 18, 1913 announces a new initiative from Dr. Solomon Dickey, owner of the Winona Bible Conference, which would take the Winona experience on the road during the winter months. Spotlighting various English churchmen, the traveling Bible conferences visited major cities throughout the nation.

Those Ancient Aliens

2011-10-03T18:01:00.000-04:00

If you’ve spent any amount of time watching the History Channel, you know about the ongoing series “Ancient Aliens.” For those not initiated into the realm of fringe historiography, Ancient Alien theorists believe that Aliens provided the knowledge and expertise for ancient peoples to build their great cities and to develop advanced technology that has since been lost. In some cases, it is believed that ancient peoples interbred with aliens or tried to emulate them. The common assumption is that anything that people living in the ancient world interpreted in religious terms (spirits, gods, angels, etc.) was in fact of alien origin.

To say that ancient alien theories are outside mainstream historical circles would be a great understatement. But what interests me is not what these theories say about the ancient world, but what they say about us. As any good history student knows, sometimes historiography says as much about the present as the past. So what does the popularly of ancient alien theories say about us? Perhaps it indicates a paradoxical rejection of, and at the same time fascination with the mysterious. On one level, it seems difficult to accept mystery. After all, the fact is we still don’t know how the ancients built some of their monumental structures or accomplished such a high degree of architectural precision. And we know that the ancient world was much more technologically advanced than we might believe at first glance. So our first instinct is to find some sort of explanation that alleviates the tension that we feel when we realize how much we don’t know. But on another level, these theories speak to our simultaneous fascination with mystery, the sensational, and the attraction to conspiracy theories. Using aliens to explain the past may be bad history, but the History Channel is well aware that it makes for good ratings!

When Political Enemies Become Enemies of God

2011-09-29T18:59:00.003-04:00

In the run up to the 2008 presidential election, we heard some pretty radical rhetoric coming from the Religious Right as they ratcheted up their opposition to Obama. Some, in fact, even played the Antichrist card. With another election year approaching, no doubt we'll see another round of this. The post below comes from John Fea at The Way of Improvement Leads Home.

Is Obama the Antichrist?

Some conservative evangelicals fear that Barack Obama may be the Antichrist. The Antichrist, according to a dispensational reading of the Bible, is the Satan-inspired world leader who will at first appear to be a popular and charismatic figure, but will eventually turn on Christians and usher in a devastating season of persecution known as the "tribulation." He will finally be defeated by a returning Jesus Christ at the Battle of Armageddon.

In yesterday's New York Times, Matthew Sutton, a historian of American evangelicalism who teaches at Washington State University, published a piece titled "Why the Antichrist Matters in Politics?" He argues that evangelical Christian fears of Obama are not unlike the kind of fears conservative Protestants expressed about FDR and the New Deal.

Here is his conclusion:

The left is in disarray while libertarianism is on the ascent. A new generation of evangelicals — well-versed in organizing but lacking moderating influences — is lining up behind hard-right anti-statists. While few of the faithful truly think that the president is the Antichrist, millions of voters, like their Depression-era predecessors, fear that the time is short. The sentiment that Mr. Obama is preparing the United States, as Roosevelt did, for the Antichrist’s global coalition is likely to grow. Barring the rapture, Mrs. Bachmann or Mr. Perry could well ride the apocalyptic anti-statism of conservative Christians into the Oval Office. Indeed, the tribulation may be upon us. Fair enough. I have no doubt that there are evangelical and fundamentalist Christians in America who believe that Obama is the Antichrist. But I am not yet convinced that this kind of apocalyptic vision will play a major role in the GOP election. We will see if Sutton is correct. In the meantime, I would like to know which one of the GOP candidates is using such rhetoric. I haven't heard it yet.

Rob Bell and Historical Perspective

2011-09-28T11:17:00.002-04:00

Rob Bell, provocative writer and founder of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan, announced this week that he is leaving his congregation in order to pursue a platform with a “broader audience.” When Rob Bell’s latest book, Love Wins: Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person who ever Lived, came out earlier this year, the popular pastor became something of a whipping boy for evangelicals, many of whom made renewed efforts to shore up orthodox definitions of heaven and hell. Indeed, Bell’s book immediately sparked a veritable cottage industry of popular publishing designed to provide the predicable rebuttal to Bell’s descent into heresy. I remember discussions that emerged all across the campus of the evangelical college where I teach – discussions that could become a case study of the relationship between theological dogma and boundary definition for religious communities.

There is an irony, however, that I can’t help but tease out. The evangelical context in which I currently reside has Brethren roots that connect with the pietist movement in 18th century Germany. And what is ironic about all the fuss over Bell’s book among evangelicals in my denomination (OK, “fellowship”), is the fact that the notion of apocatastasis, the technical term for “universal restoration” (a post-heaven or post-hell process in which all things and people will finally be restored to fellowship with God; often proof-texted from Acts 3:21) has had a fair amount of adherents among the Brethren over the centuries. This has even included Alexander Mack, the founder this branch of Brethrenism, as well as some of the other Pietists that influenced him. Although Mack would reject apocatastasis later in life, it remained on the margins among the Brethren for decades.

In the end, perspectives of Bell’s book will run the gamut. But historical awareness will always provide a useful framework for dialogue about contemporary ideas.

Students and the Conference on Faith and History

2011-09-27T21:23:00.001-04:00

Students who know me have realized that sooner or later, I'm going to tell them about the Conference on Faith and History. I was reading some of the posts on the CFH graduate student blog tonight and realized how well this organization is continuing to reach out to history students, both graduate and undergraduates. Gregory Jones is doing good work. (Having served as the CFH graduate student representative a number of years back, I think this is wonderful.) If you're reading this and happen to be enrolled in History Capstone Seminar with me this semester, you should pay this blog a visit!

A Playground for Church Historians

2011-09-27T19:16:00.001-04:00

Teaching in a small, two-person department of history, I get spread pretty thin. But church history was my historical "first love." If you love church history too, you'll love this blog: "Grateful to the Dead: A Church Historian's Playground." The blog is just as alluring as its title!

Excellent Resource for Pietist Sources

2011-09-27T10:17:00.001-04:00

A great resource for electronic, full-text (!) early editions of pietist authors is the Herzog August Library (Wolfenbüttel, Germany). The digital library is easy to use and users have the option of reading online or downloading these works in pdf format. Amazing!

Ironic Liberty

2011-09-26T18:03:00.002-04:00

My research this week has reminded me that one of the greatest ironies during the American Revolution was the fact that some of those who were most adamant about securing American “liberty” were responsible for trampling over the freedoms of their fellow colonists. I am referring to the contests that erupted in Pennsylvania, particularly in Northampton County, between radical patriots and members of various Peace Churches who attempted to remain neutral or refused to take up arms against the king. Mennonites, Moravians, and Brethren (among others) were imprisoned, humiliated, fined and impoverished for refusing to be drawn into an armed conflict that they did not feel could be reconciled with their Christian faith. Local patriots attempted to coerce these individuals into militias against their will. Mennonites and others responded with calls for “freedom of conscience,” obviously sensing the irony of the situation. This thread runs through Francis S. Fox’s, Sweet Land of Liberty: The Ordeal of the American Revolution in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. Check it out sometime!

Radical Protestants and the Politics of Empire

2011-09-23T14:13:00.002-04:00

I will be presenting a paper called "Radical Protestants and the Politics of Empire: Moravian Aspirations in British North America" at the Coloquio Internacional “Historia, Protestantismo e Identidad en las Américas held October 6-8 in Mexico City.

Here is a taste of the paper:

In the summer warmth of June 1752, Colonial Pennsylvania’s Lieutenant Governor, James Hamilton, entertained three representatives from a small but controversial – some would say “radical” – religious group known as the “Moravian Brethren.” With roots in the Czech Reformation and comprised of a network of pietist congregations and societies that had for decades spread out from the small village of Herrnhut, in Saxony, the Moravians established religious communities throughout the Atlantic World. In British North America, Moravians had subsequently carved out a little settlement in the “forks” of the Delaware River in 1742, naming the site Bethlehem. The settlement became the center of an aggressive missionary enterprise among native populations throughout the region. A decade after the founding of this settlement, frontier Pennsylvanians, including the Moravians, found themselves living in a war zone, trying to survive in the midst of the American theater of the Seven Years War. They would also find themselves embroiled in the political fray of the American Revolution.

Traveling from their frontier village, the three Moravians sought a hearing with the Lieutenant Governor to ensure him of their loyalty to the English crown since rumors were circulating that they were secretly French sympathizers. The irony of this visit rests in the fact that their spokesman, the Moravian leader August Spangenberg, declared to Hamilton that it was an “established maxim” among the Moravians that they would not “intermeddle“in politics of any kind – even as they sat in the Governor’s office conversing with him about politics!

The notion that they remained unsoiled by the kind of partisanship and schisms political involvement entailed was often repeated by Moravians, with the rationale that politics was “prejudicial to our main business of preaching the Gospel.” To their credit, eighteenth century Moravians did, in fact, try hard to remain untainted by the imperialism of Great Britain, for they were remarkably enlightened about the way political and religious motivations were often intertwined within the colonial context. Much of this was a direct result of the teachings of Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf. A member of the nobility, Zinzendorf was responsible for providing protection for the first refugees from Moravia and he quickly became the group’s spiritual leader as well as its patron. Long interested in missions, Zinzendorf crafted a missionary program that intentionally transcended national and political loyalties. They thought of themselves as “cives universi” (residents of the whole world). This position, essentially a posture of neutrality, was a lofty ideal, but was naturally more difficult to maintain in practice. This was true in peacetime and especially so during periods of war. The fact of the matter is that Moravian leaders, even if it was through indirect channels, sometimes did become “intermeddled” in colonial politics. And I would like to suggest in this essay that the way that we have come to understand the relationship between Native peoples and colonial governments can provide a useful path toward understanding how Moravians interacted with these same colonial powers.

Billy Long in a Tea Party Twister

2011-09-23T11:14:00.001-04:00

U.S. Representative Billy Long (R-MS 07) has found himself in the middle of a split among Tea Partiers and conservatives over federal spending. Long rode the wave of Tea Party discontent into office this past January claiming he was “Tea Party before Tea Party was Cool.” Of course much of his campaign rhetoric focused on Government spending and the evils of D.C. bureaucracy. Then the Joplin tornadoes hit. In the destructive wake of nature’s fury, FEMA doled out over 100 million dollars for disaster aid. Understandably, the Presbyterian and former auctioneer welcomed the aid and had nothing but positive comments for Washington, giving FEMA a “12” on a scale of 1 to 10. No one could fault Long for embracing the federal aid, right? But he’s actually come under fire from some of his fellow Tea Partiers (even in Joplin) for accepting federal money and softening his anti-government rhetoric in the aftermath of the storms. Long has said that spending is simply a matter of priority, and in an emergency such as this, it is appropriate for the government to make disaster relief a priority. This makes sense to me, but clearly some in the Tea Party believe that not even an act of God should temper one’s political disposition. For more, see NPR’s “A Foe of Big Government seeks aid for Joplin.”

How do you explain 9/11? Ask a history major!

2011-09-21T15:53:00.000-04:00

If I had a dime for every parent of a prospective student who has asked me, "So what can you do with a history major?" I'd never have to work again. The answer of course is that there are a myriad of professions in which the skills and dispositions that history majors develop can be used for great success. Critical thinking and writing, reflection, the ability to empathize with those of vastly different perspectives are just a few of the invaluable qualities of good historians that are highly sought out by employers. Case in point is J.D. Jordan, an artist who majored in history and has gone on to be a successful artist and designer. You can find him at Cloudjammer Studios in Atlanta. I don't know J.D. personally, but I learned about him from a Newsweek article back in 2008 which was passed on to me by a colleague and has since been bouncing around the web. In "I'm an Artist, but not the Starving Kind," J.D. says,

It took me a couple of years out of college to realize that my own B.A. in history was an asset. I landed my first salaried job during the heady days of unstoppable Internet growth, when the fact that I hadn't gone to art school was no impediment to getting hired as a senior Web specialist at a studio. Then the World Trade Center was attacked, and suddenly, I was answering questions about Islam, oil policy, and our government's struggle against a new enemy for my colleagues -- degreed artists all -- who didn't understand the basic issues of the day.

J.D.'s story confirms what we've always known to be true anecdotally. And now, John Fea, history professor at Messiah College, is collecting more evidence that speaks to the variety of places that history majors can find jobs and success. He has compiled over 35 interviews with people from all walks of life who attest to the long range benefits of graduating with a history major. Check out his blog series, So what CAN you do with a history major?

Thinking about Ankara

2011-09-20T14:33:00.000-04:00

A few months ago, I joined a group of Grace college students for a trip to Turkey. In addition to many of the sites related to the New Testament, we spent several days in the capital, Ankara, which was the site of a bomb blast that killed three people ealier today. Turkey is a particularly interesting place since the eastern part of the country is culturally closer to the Middle East while the west is quite European. And I think it depends on how one percieves Turkey as to whether or not it seems like a safe place. Several people asked me if I felt safe there. I certainly did - the areas we visited the most were not unlike other parts of Europe I am familiar with. Yet if one thinks of Turkey as part of the middle east, then we might assume that terrorism like this is to be expected. As in many other examples, conclusions are often linked to perceptions.

Sex, Missions, and Historiography

2011-09-20T10:04:00.002-04:00

There was a curious confluence of reading material on my desk this week. I finally got around to reading Trinity Evangelical Divinity Professor Robert Priest’s article in Current Anthropology: "Missionary Positions: Christian, Modernist, Postmodernist.” (42:1, Feb 2001). This insightful piece examines the origins of the phrase “missionary position” and the way it has found its way into various scholarly discourses about power, sex, and cultural encounter. A dated article, I am nevertheless grateful to my good friend Carlos Tellez for pointing me to this source. The latest issue of the Journal of Moravian History also arrived in my mailbox this week – a special issue devoted to “Moravians and Sexuality.” The Moravians have been getting a lot of interest these days, especially over sex. In the eighteenth-century, Moravians made marital relations a sacred rite and, somewhat controversial for the time, encouraged their married congregants to try more than just one position. The issue includes articles by Paul Peucker, Peter Vogt and Katherine Faull. The historiography of missions draws all of these threads together. The Moravians, of course, loom large in missions history and as they fanned out across the Atlantic World, they grappled with the same questions of power and cultural relationships that Priest explores so thoroughly. Who knew the history of missions could be so sexy!

Competing Fundamentalisms

2011-09-20T00:22:00.003-04:00

In the last chapter of his recent book, Christian America and the Kingdom of God, Richard T. Hughes has argued that fundamentalist Protestants and fundamentalist Muslims have increasingly seen themselves in a battle of apocalyptic significance between themselves and the other. For both sides, the goal is global religious hegemony. One need only tune in to the radical religious right to realize he’s correct. Some of this can also be found in more mainstream evangelical circles. Lately I’ve been seeing signs around my town advertizing a local revival event complete with Christian America and anti-Muslim overtones. It resembles a similar event held last year sponsored by our local Tea Party. Call it end-times enthusiasm, a neo-cold war, or Christian nationalism, but historian Thomas Kidd, in American Christians and Islam: Evangelical Culture and Muslims from the Colonial Period to the Age of Terror, has shown us that this kind of Christian/Muslim contest has been a part of evangelical rhetoric since the colonial era. We just happen to live in a time when the political circumstances have produced an especially militant strand of anti-Muslim sentiments among ultra-conservatives. For the historical context of what we’re seeing now, Kidd’s book is an absolute must read – check it out!

Don't Lecture Me

2011-09-19T20:33:00.004-04:00

Sometime I feel guilty about not lecturing more in my classes. After all, most of my experiences in higher education as a student revolved around listening to lectures and taking notes. And the image of the respected scholar waxing eloquently about lofty ideas is often what I think people expect of me as a professor. The fact is, I’m not a dynamic lecturer. What’s more, in my experience, students are much more satisfied with their classroom experience when I don’t do it! While this may not be good for my self-esteem, research (such as this piece) confirms that lecturing is not the most effective approach for many students.

A Tale of Two Johns

2011-09-19T18:01:00.001-04:00

An example of Okely’s correspondence with Ettwein

John Okely and John Ettwein, two Moravians who lived during the American Revolution, may have had common names and a common identification as Moravians, but they differed drastically when it came to the patriot cause. Okely jumped on board the rebel bandwagon, serving as a member of the Northampton County (PA) committee of safety. Ettwein disagreed with Okely, believing that fighting in war, no matter what the cause, was tantamount to murder.

Ironically, Okely’s committee became instrumental in harassing members of the peace churches, including the Moravians, who would not take up arms in the Revolution because it conflicted with their consciences and compromised their desire to remain neutral in the midst of political disputes. For the Moravians, the pacifist ethic was not nearly as cut and dry as it was for other churches, such as the Quakers or Mennonites. Sources don’t indicate how it all went down, but it would seem that Okely ended up supporting the prosecution of his fellow Moravians, including Ettwein, for their pacifist convictions. In the years following the Revolution, Okely was no longer welcome among the Moravians at Bethlehem. Go figure …

How Not to Write a Book Review

2011-09-18T22:38:00.002-04:00

Writing good book reviews is an art that is worth pursuing – an art I don’t claim to have mastered. As with most things, sometimes there’s plenty to learn about book reviews from bad examples. How about this one: John Wilson Croker on John Keats. I’m no expert on either, but I found the recent article, “How Not to Write a Book Review: What a Hatchet job on John Keats teaches us,” by Robert Pinsky, a writer for Slate Magazine, a fun read. I was thinking about book reviews because the students in my Civil War class presented their own reviews the other day and it turned into a wonderful learning experience. The fact that it worked was nothing I had done – it was simply because the students had chosen authors from a variety of interpretive perspectives. Several presented on Lincoln biographies they had read –so the class was able to see some conflicting assessments. It turned into a great discussion about perspective, objectivity and historiography. I always feel fortunate when the learning environment actually works!

Moravians in the Evangelical Imagination

2011-09-18T17:44:00.001-04:00

This week I read through a new popular biography of Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, called Lord of the Ring: in Search of Count von Zinzendorf, by 24-7 prayer guru, Phil Anderson. The title is a nod to the gold rings that members of Zinzendorf’s college prayer group, the Order of the Mustard Seed, used as a token of membership and obviously plays off of Tolkien’s trilogy popularized recently in movie theaters. I have mixed feelings. On one hand, I am glad that Zinzendorf is getting attention these days, especially among evangelicals (at least UK evangelicals). And Anderson has a reasonably good sense for biographical writing. But on the other hand, I cringed at this portrayal of Zinzendorf, which is part hagiography, part youth-group devotional and part Indiana Jones. In the process of telling us about Zinzendorf, who comes off looking like a pious version of the mysterious Gandalf the Gray, the author attempts to dramatize his own “pilgrimage” to Herrnhut, complete with dangerous mishaps and miraculous rescues.

For modern evangelicals, the Moravians have always served as exotic examples of radical Christianity – those zealous missionaries who warmed John Wesley’s heart and readily volunteered to die as martyrs. I admire these Moravians too, but as a historian, I know that evangelicals have rarely made the effort to really get to know the Moravians, most of whom would likely be too radical by the standards of modern evangelicals. In the end, this biography does little more than reinforce the popular caricatures of Moravians that have lived for centuries in the imagination of evangelicals.

Let's try this again

2011-09-17T21:49:00.003-04:00

Sometimes ideas inspire me; other times people inspire me. This weekend, John Fea, a great historian who teaches at Messiah College, was gracious enough to give two talks at Grace College, where I work. He spoke in chapel and then did an evening “Lyceum” lecture on his new book, Was American Founded as a Christian Nation. John’s energy, his encyclopedic knowledge of historiography and the historical profession, and his engaging personality is inspiring. I’d love to be more like John, even in some small ways, and I was reminded of how effective his blog, The Way of Improvement Leads Home, is for his career. So I’ve decided to take another stab at blogging. Thanks for the inspiration John. And by the way, your talks hit their mark perfectly!

Engaging John Howard Yoder's What Would you Do?

2010-05-10T09:51:00.007-04:00

I just got my copy of this classic text the other day and I plan to start in on it today. I was a bit disappointed to find out that most of the chapters are not written by Yoder. But as this is such a short read, I'm sure we'll have time this summer to get into something more substantial from Yoder's writing.

Ancient Americans and Colonial Encounters

2010-02-11T21:03:00.007-05:00

It was my privilege to lead a group of students on a historical tour of Mexico over J-term! The trip focused on pre-Columbian archaeological sites and Spanish colonialism.

Celebrations in Iran

2010-02-11T19:50:00.003-05:00

I find the story of the 1979 Iranian Revolution one of the most fascinating chapters of Mideast history and challenges to US foreign policy. In light of the 31st anniversary of the Revolution and questions about the Iranian government's response to both celebrations and protest, I found this Guardian article a good read: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/10/iranians-reclaiming-revolution.

U2 at Soldier Field

2009-09-14T16:14:00.005-04:00

I must admit, I'm a big U2 fan! And last night, I was fortunate enough to commune with the four artists from Dublin -- commune, that is, amid 65,000 other people -- at Chicago's Soldier Field. It was an unbelievable performance - a true liturgy of transcendent rock and roll. (For an interesting interpretation of the U2 performance as liturgy, check out Robert Vagacs: Religious Nuts, Political Fanatics: U2 in Theological Perspective.)

Scholarship in the Pietist Tradition?

2009-07-24T21:42:00.003-04:00

Pietism is sometimes stereotyped as an anti-intellectual movement that cared little for formal education and scholarship. Yet all the major pietist figures were well educated and theologically sophisticated -- francke, Spener, Zinzendorf to name a few. Of course they were striving for a balanced spirituality that offered an alternative to highly intellectualized scholastics, but they did not throw all reason out the window. Pietist centers, at least those with moderate leanings, often centered around universities -- Halle, of course, but also Jena and Wittenberg. In the English context, we find Oxford's Holy Club and at the Cambridge, the Cambridge Methodists. So how do we sometimes get this idea that scholarship is incompatible with the Pietist tradition?

Mennonites Gather

2009-07-21T20:58:00.003-04:00

The Mennonite Church USA held its annual convention recently (June 30 – July 5) in Columbus Ohio. What did they discuss? Here's just a smattering of the many seminar titles:

“Unashamedly Evangelical and Unapologetically Justice Centered”

“What happens when Lutherans Apologize to Mennonites?”

“The Historical Jesus and the Holy Spirit”

“Pro-life, Pro-peace: Practicing a Consistent Ethic of Life"

“Peace building in Palestine-Israel”

The gathering also passed resolutions on human trafficking and national healthcare. For details, go to http://www.mennoniteusa.org/Home/Convention/tabid/258/Default.aspx.

Additionally, Gregory Boyd was a featured speaker. See his comments on his contribution to the conference: http://www.gregboyd.org/blog/a-night-with-mennonites-and-jim-wallis/

Pietist-Anabaptist Intersection

2009-07-21T20:23:00.003-04:00

Neo-Anabaptists like Gregory Boyd and Shane Claiborne essentially offer a path of engaging society that is transnational, rather than one that integrates faith and nationalism. I have been thinking about the way the pietist leader, Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf is a figure that could serve as a bridge between the pietist and Anabaptist traditions. Zinzendorf’s vision is often called ecumenical because it allowed many different confessions or denominations to come in under the Moravian umbrella and work together without giving up the distinctive elements of their respective tradition. But Zinzendorf’s vision went beyond this. Moravians believed that the Holy Spirit worked universally throughout all people groups and nationalities. God’s spirit did not operate within the boundaries of the Christianized world. In theory, this allowed the Moravians to work within a variety of territories, nations and indigenous areas without the baggage of a political, cultural or national agenda. This is exactly what neo-Anabaptists today are advocating. Of course we can debate about how successful the Moravians were or to what degree they really could be free from cultural imperialism, but they at least offered an alternative to the colonialism that permeated their day and age. Perhaps the Moravians are a manifestation of a pietist-Anabaptist intersection.

With God on our Side?

2009-05-20T16:20:00.003-04:00

William Martin's, With God on our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America (Broadway Books, 1997) is a great read for someone like myself who is finding increasing dissonance between my evolving views on politics and my conservative upbringing within the Religious Right. It is clear that Martin feels little sympathy with American conservatives, but this does not generally get in the way of his helpful analysis. Although the book is written for a popular audience, Martin effectively links the activism of today’s conservative Christians with a broader Protestant heritage rooted in the evangelicalism of the 18th century and the social activism of the 19th. Although I recognize these elements within evangelical history, I am always hesitant to ascribe too much continuity across large swaths of time – contextualization inevitably suffers. However, it is helpful to see the broader historical narrative and place this generation of political activists within an historical framework.

Conservative evangelicals may feel challenged by this text on a number of levels. Martin helps us see that the efforts of the Religious Right in the political arena have often been short sighted, entangled by partisan wrangling and generally have lacked an authentic commitment to justice, compassion and charity – even under the guise of “compassionate conservatism.” This inevitably raises the question of evangelicalism’s saliency within the contemporary political scene and the Right's consistency with Christian ideals. Many evangelicals would, for these reasons, hesitate to blindly follow the standard raised by James Dobson, the late Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. And if my conversations with students on the (Christian) campus where I teach is any indication, the emerging generation is looking for a better way to engage the public arena. In discussing With God on our Side with my students this semester, it is clear that they are looking for a Christian witness that goes beyond the prevailing paradigm of the Christian Right’s political agenda. They seek to be authentically engaging, intellectually sophisticated, committed to justice and equality, and to the powerful witness of the Prophet Micah’s words -- "do justly ... love mercy ... walk humbly."

A week in Herrnhut

2009-05-15T21:25:00.004-04:00

I have studied the Moravians for years but only recently (this past March), made the pilgrimage to Herrnhut, Germany - the center of the world for eighteenth century Moravians. My time was spent in the Unity Archives researching for future writing projects. I stayed in a bed and breakfast only a short walk from Gottes Acker (the cemetary) and Zinzendorf's grave. I walked August Bebel Strasse (pictured) each morning en route to the archives. Herrnhut (pictured) was a picturesque place in Zinzendorf's day and it remains a beautiful little town.