What Is a Heretic?
What does it mean to call someone a heretic? Guest blogger Joey Cochran surveys the history of heresy — and wonders if the word now functions as anything more than "name-calling."
View ArticleThe Christians Who Didn’t Take Communion… for 350 Years
As COVID-19 temporarily keeps millions of Christians from taking Communion, Chris recalls the story of the Schwenkfelders, a small movement that declined to take that sacrament for about 350 years.
View ArticleThe Bishop of the Resistance
Chris introduces us to a Lutheran pastor less famous than Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Niemöller, yet almost as admired during World War II for his principled resistance to Nazi totalitarianism.
View ArticleThe Good Shepherd
Not Jesus, but the novel by C.S. Forester that inspired a Tom Hanks WWII movie — both featuring a surprisingly religious protagonist.
View ArticleThe Satyr Shall Cry To His Fellow: Bible Translation and Weird Fiction
Today’s post concerns two topics of long-standing interest to me, and how – very oddly – they intersect. One is horror and supernatural fiction; the other is Bible translation and its dilemmas. How on...
View Article“Every Protestant Heart Owes Catharine… Because She Made Luther Happy”:...
I am excited to welcome to the Anxious Bench for today’s guest post Samuel L. Young (PhD, Baylor University), a postdoctoral teaching fellow for Baylor’s Department of History. Young’s dissertation,...
View Article“Our Protest Here is in Consequence of the Protest of Luther”: Martin Luther...
I am delighted to welcome Sam Young back to the Anxious Bench for more of his fascinating research on Luther’s complicated legacy for American women. If you missed his first post, check it out here. As...
View ArticleA Very Not-So-Merry Christmas: How Protestantism Nearly Killed St. Nick
We all give thanks that the excesses of the Reformation didn’t kill Christmas in the end.
View ArticleMartin Luther and “Shiny Happy People”: Reflections on Parenting, God, and...
Parenting has been something that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. With a recently mobile toddler in our household, the question of how to teach a little one boundaries has felt very pressing...
View ArticleMedieval Christians’ Most Burning Questions Answered: “Why do we say ‘Amen’...
Have you heard the one about Bernard of Clairvaux, the peasant, and the horse? The abbot Bernard, so the legend goes, is riding down a country road one day when he meets a peasant. Now, being the...
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