The Gender Inclusive Bible Debate (Medieval Style)
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The Gender Inclusive Bible Debate (Medieval Style)

ByBeth Allison Barr

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 gender-neutral edition of the NIV (which eventually became known as…

Gender and the Trinity: A Medieval Perspective
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Gender and the Trinity: A Medieval Perspective

ByBeth Allison Barr

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 Christian belief: the nature of the Trinity. Is Jesus, the…

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

ByBeth Allison Barr

Yes, it did. But not the way you were taught in Sunday School. Let me explain. Last week I stood under the Tudor arch of St. Bartholomew the Great in London (unfortunately still marred by scaffolding). If it had been the 16th century, I would have looked out over an open grassy field just outside…

Did Medieval Christians Accommodate Paganism?
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Did Medieval Christians Accommodate Paganism?

ByBeth Allison Barr

The Roman Pantheon is awesome. And I mean “awesome” in the sense that my good-English-professor-friend would approve: it evokes feelings of awe and wonder. I caught my first glimpse of this 2000 year-old building after stepping from a stone-paved street into the Piazza della Rotonda. We were on our way back from the Roman Forum…

The Christian History of “Pagan” Easter
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The Christian History of “Pagan” Easter

ByBeth Allison Barr

I bought Easter candy for my students. It was a mistake. Although the students made a valiant effort to eat as much as possible, they left a few Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs (a particular weakness of mine) in the candy basket. Needless to say, they didn’t last long. Reese’s eggs are just one of many…