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 of baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes, the manger boasts […]
Medieval Christmas Tradition Behind Sausage Roll Jesus Controversy Read More »
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 what was happening and intervened so that she could escape.
A Serious Proposal for Academic Conferences: Ban Harvey Weinsteins Read More »
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 stimulating, and productive. They can also be advantageous for budding
“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 you; None like you” In 2010 Chris Tomlin recorded these opening lyrics to “Our God” at a Passion Conference. He couldn’t
Romans 8:31, Chris Tomlin, And The Faith Of A Medieval Woman Read More »
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 the Veterans Statistics page from The National WWII Museum in
The Death and Historical Afterlife of a World War II Soldier Read More »
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 inn, Kyteler’s Inn, still operates in the old town.The inn
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 and women, is disobeying the word of God. There
An Ordinary Preaching Woman in a Texas Baptist Church, c. 1930 Read More »
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 scrolling through headline after headline I mostly just felt tired.
“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 Board screamed. It seemed even louder after prominent business leaders
Evangelical Silence and Trump: A Reformation Irony Read More »
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 and hoisted along the Victorian Embankment Gardens. The startling incongruity
Should Women Rule? Netflix’s The Crown and Complementarian Theology Read More »