Beth Allison Barr, Author at Beth Allison Barr

American Religion Baptist History Church History Contemporary Connections Evangelicalism

The Modern Roots of Pagan Halloween

I remember trick-or-treating when I was small. The night air was crisp and cool (we lived in the northwest at the time). My little sister was batman, my older sister a ballerina, and I a clown. My dad held our hands as we walked through…

Beth Allison BarrOctober 5, 2016

American Religion Church History Contemporary Connections Evangelicalism Medieval History the Bible

Of Pastors and Power: Mark Driscoll and the Avignon Papacy

I made the mistake recently of reading Mark Driscoll’s 2008 Crossway book On Church Leadership. For those of you who have forgotten, or just blocked it, Mark Driscoll was the former pastor of the Mars Hill megachurch. He resigned deep in scandal in 2014, but…

Beth Allison BarrAugust 24, 2016

Academia Featured

Etiquette for Graduate Students

Next week I will meet with our new Baylor History graduate students for orientation. I am pretty certain that no one will be late. I am also pretty certain that no one will fall asleep. This will be one of their first official graduate meetings,…

Beth Allison BarrAugust 10, 2016

American Religion Complimentarianism Contemporary Connections Evangelicalism

No Room in Wayne Grudem’s World for a Female President

In a stunning statement, Wayne Grudem–Research Professor of Theology and Biblical Studies at Phoenix Seminary, former professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and co-founder of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood–pledged his wholehearted support of Donald Trump. “y conscience, and my considered moral judgment…

Beth Allison BarrJuly 31, 2016

Academia Featured Higher Education Professional Development

Starting Graduate School Well–Some Advice

I swam with dolphins last week. It wasn’t planned–they just appeared, a mom and her calf, swimming on our beach early in the morning. The water was clear as glass. It was so clear and so smooth , in fact, that the large dark shadows…

Beth Allison BarrJuly 27, 2016

American Religion British History Church History Complimentarianism Evangelicalism Medieval History the Bible

The Gender Inclusive Bible Debate (Medieval Style)

I remember this so well. It was 1997–the year I graduated from college, the year I got married, and the year I started graduate school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It was also the year that the world learned about Zondervan’s…

Beth Allison BarrJuly 13, 2016

American Religion Christian Patriarchy Church History Complimentarianism Contemporary Connections Evangelicalism Medieval History

Gender and the Trinity: A Medieval Perspective

Very recently, on June 16, Christianity Today published the article Gender and the Trinity: From Proxy to Civil War. Author Caleb Lindgren writes that the current debate over the nature of the Trinity is especially significant because it involves like-minded theologians dividing over a core…

Beth Allison BarrJune 29, 2016

Academia Higher Education Professional Development

Surviving Rejection on the Academic Job Market

I still remember checking my watch and thinking vaguely about what I would eat for lunch. It was around lunchtime, so normally there wouldn’t have been anything odd about my wandering thoughts. Except that I was in the middle of a job interview for a…

Beth Allison BarrJune 15, 2016

Apostle Paul Christian Patriarchy Church History Contemporary Connections Women's History

Silenced Women–Modern Lessons from an Ancient Murder

In the second century A.D., the pregnant wife of a prosperous Greek politician died from a vicious assault. Appia Annia Regilla Atilia Caudicia Tertulla, or Regilla, was born into an affluent Roman family in 125 A.D.; she married the Greek politician Herodes Atticus, also from…

Beth Allison BarrJune 1, 2016

British History Church History Evangelicalism Medieval History the Bible

Banning the Bible: Did It Really Happen in the Medieval World?

Yes, it did. But not the way you were taught in Sunday School. Let me explain. The Outer Tudor Gate leading to St. Bartholomew’s the Great Churchyard Last week I stood under the Tudor arch of St. Bartholomew the Great in London (unfortunately still marred…

Beth Allison BarrMay 18, 2016

Beth Allison Barr