If last year we celebrated Easter amid the physical death of a pandemic, this year of the COVID vaccine we remember Jesus’ resurrection amid the apparent dying of his church in the United States. Having hovered around 70% since Gallup began polling, the share of Americans who belong to a faith community is now below … More Don’t Look for the Living Among the Dead
Although I just wrote a biography about a man dedicated to the art of practical joking, I can’t stand April Fool’s Day. Because even if I were clever enough to come up with hilarious practical jokes, I’d feel guilty about making other people to look foolish. But driving to work today, it struck me that … More In Praise of Folly
One of my favorite projects in recent years reached fruition last December, when Baylor University Press published Faith and History, a devotional featuring reflections by 40-some members of the Conference on Faith and History (CFH). I know that many of you picked up a copy, and I’ve heard enough positive feedback to feel like we … More Our Free Lenten Devotional Series on Faith and History
Six months from now, my religious biography of Charles Lindbergh will officially come out. So while there’s still much to be done between now and then, it feels like a good moment to start turning serious attention to my next book project. While I’d love to return to the genre of biography before too long, … More How You Can Help Me Start a New Book on Christian Higher Ed
I’ll never forget February 1, 2016. I had just got back from the first meeting of a spring course and barely sat down in my office when the phone rang: G.W. Carlson had had a stroke. I was stunned. Not just because GW was my friend and mentor, or because he had seemed so hale … More Five Years Later… The Legacy of GW Carlson
For about a dozen years now, I’ve been active in the Conference on Faith and History, serving on its executive board since 2016. This week that board voted not only to endorse the American Historical Association’s condemnation of the January 6th insurrection in Washington, DC, but to publish our own statement, which I’ve reprinted below. … More The Conference on Faith and History Condemns the Assault on the U.S. Capitol
Yesterday Vice President Mike Pence declined to invoke the section of the 25th Amendment that would allow him temporarily to assume presidential powers from Donald Trump, setting up a historic impeachment vote today in the House of Representatives, with Democrats and even some Republicans likely to vote to send Donald Trump to a second Senate … More “A Time to Heal”
…Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. Luke 2:19 If you want the Christian life in a nutshell, I’m not sure you could do much better than this famous verse from Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth, which ascribes two related but distinct actions to Mary. She ponders. That doesn’t mean that … More Twelve Days: Ponder and Treasure
I’m mildly proud of myself for getting almost all the way through a twelve-day Christmas devotional series before even mentioning the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” But here on day eleven, I’ve been thinking about the apocryphal story that the song originated as a kind of catechism for English Catholics to teach their children … More Twelve Days: Pipers Piping
At the stroke of midnight in the midwinter cold, the new year begins in darkness. When the morning breaks, the world will appear unchanged, grey and still, with long months of short days yet to come. Still, it is new. All around us is a slow resurrection. Not the turn of a calendar page, but … More Twelve Days: The Light Shines
