Beth Allison Barr, Author at Beth Allison Barr

Contemporary Connections Featured Medieval History

Medieval Christmas Tradition Behind Sausage Roll Jesus Controversy

Greggs, the largest UK bakery chain, recently sparked outrage among Christians. It created a Nativity scene to help promote its 2017 Advent Calendar. In one of the publicity shots, three (very white) wise men dressed in elaborate robes kneel by a straw-filled manger. But instead…

Beth Allison BarrDecember 13, 2017

Uncategorized

A Serious Proposal for Academic Conferences: Ban Harvey Weinsteins

It was during a major academic conference. A male colleague alerted me that a female graduate student had left the reception early. A fellow conference attendee had cornered her and began making sexually inappropriate advances—both physical and verbal. Luckily one of her male friends realized…

Beth Allison BarrNovember 15, 2017

Academia Featured Higher Education Professional Development

Top Ten DON’TS for Conference Presentations

I both love and hate conferences. I love them because of the free-flowing ideas and high energy. I love them because of the networking opportunities. I love them because they force me to finish critical pieces of my own research projects. Conferences are exciting, intellectually…

Beth Allison BarrNovember 1, 2017

British History Church History Contemporary Connections Evangelicalism Medieval History Women's History

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

Norman apse and chancel of St. Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield, London “Water You turned into wine; Opened the eyes of the blind; There’s no one like you; None like you; Into the darkness You shine; Out of the ashes we rise; There’s No one like…

Beth Allison BarrOctober 18, 2017

Featured Local History Texas History

The Death and Historical Afterlife of a World War II Soldier

Last Friday, 29 September 2017, we lost another World War II veteran.Out of the more than 16 million men and women who served in the American armed forces during World War II, less than 600,000 survive in 2017. More than 300 die every day. As…

Beth Allison BarrOctober 4, 2017

British History Christian Patriarchy Church History Evangelicalism Medieval History

Burning Witches in Medieval Europe?

Kilkenny lies deep in southern Ireland. Its history lies just as deep in the medieval past. The thirteenth-century cathedral of St. Canice stands next to a 9th-century monastic tower; a castle still sits on the site of William Marshall’s 12th-century Norman foundations; and a fourteenth-century…

Beth Allison BarrSeptember 21, 2017

American Religion Baptist History Christian Patriarchy Evangelicalism Local History Texas History Women's History

An Ordinary Preaching Woman in a Texas Baptist Church, c. 1930

In a 2006 interview, Wayne Grudem argued that female leaders in the church (especially pastors) are disobeying God’s word and thus open to “the withdrawal of God’s hand of protection and blessing.” As Grudem explained:“A woman who serves as a pastor, preaching to both men…

Beth Allison BarrSeptember 20, 2017

American Religion Christian Patriarchy Church History Evangelicalism Medieval History Women's History

The Medieval Counsel of Biblical Womanhood

The Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood exploded my twitter feed last week. As a Texan with both friends and family in Houston, I really just wanted to see the update on Hurricane Harvey. But the Nashville Statement dominated my news feed. I confess after…

Beth Allison BarrSeptember 6, 2017

American Religion Contemporary Connections Evangelicalism Medieval History

Evangelical Silence and Trump: A Reformation Irony

“Trump’s religious advisers have been mostly silent.” Tom Gjelten wrote these words for NPR just days ago, in his aptly titled article “Trump’s Evangelical Advisers Stand By their Man.” In the aftermath of Trump’s shocking response to Charlottesville, the silence emanating from his Evangelical Advisory…

Beth Allison BarrAugust 23, 2017

American Religion British History Christian Patriarchy Contemporary Connections Evangelicalism Women's History

Should Women Rule? Netflix’s The Crown and Complementarian Theology

Riding the London Eye is deceptively peaceful. The city that slowly unfolds below seems a different place from the noise and heat of the crowded South Bank. I always look first for Cleopatra’s Needle, the 3500 year-old Egyptian obelisk shipped to England in the nineteenth-century…

Beth Allison BarrAugust 9, 2017

Beth Allison Barr