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religion

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    1/18/2021

    Warnock’s Election Reminds Us that Black Churches are Vital to Democratic Success

    by Robert Greene II

    Democratic politicians must recognize the historical role of Black churches not just as gathering places where visiting politicians may speak to voters, but as organizing spaces where political agendas are formed. Dems who wish to emulate Rev. Warnock's victory need to embrace Black churches in a deep way.

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    12/9/2020

    The Persistence Of Creationism Shows Losing Could Make Trumpism More Extreme

    by Adam Laats

    Modern sophisticates were confident that the Scopes Trial marked the defeat and discrediting of creationism. Those alarmed by the denialism of Trump supporters about the election results should remember that the rumors of fundamentalism's demise were greatly exaggerated. 

  • SOURCE: Discover
    11/29/2020

    The Complicated History of Religion and Archaeology

    Modern archaeology has largely succeeded in instituting professionalization and historical rigor to the study of sites of theological significance, but the discipline has a long and continuing historical entanglement with efforts to find proof of religious doctrines.

  • SOURCE: The Conversation
    10/19/2020

    Religious Identity And Supreme Court Justices – A Brief History

    by Nomi Stolzenberg

    In recent decades, religious influence on the Court has been shaped by conservatives of different faiths, construed as part of a mythical Judeo-Christian tradition, coalescing around a common agenda defined less by affiliation with a religious denomination than with opposition to liberalism and secularism.

  • SOURCE: NPR
    9/24/2020

    The Evangelical Vote (audio)

    NPR's "Throughline" examines the growth of evangelical christianity as a political movement and its influence over the nomination of a Supreme Court justice and the election. 

  • SOURCE: The Way of Improvement Leads Home
    9/22/2020

    Amy Coney Barrett and the “Kingdom of God”

    by John Fea

    Liberal critics have seized on a quote from the potential Supreme Court Nominee's graduation speech to Notre Dame law students as evidence of a theocratic mindset. A historian of American religion warns the metaphor of the "kingdom of god" is widely used in political rhetoric.

  • SOURCE: The New Republic
    9/18/2020

    What Trump Taught America About the Bible

    by Peter Manseau

    The Bible is a powerful talisman for the majority of Americans, but Trump’s successful use of it these past five years suggests that, to many, it is a book whose content matters less than the one holding it; an expression of tribal identity as much as creed.

  • SOURCE: Going Medieval
    7/30/2020

    On Sex with Demons

    by Eleanor Janega

    "The idea of having sex with demons or the devil... has a long and proud history. A concern about sleep sex demons traces at least as far back as Mesopotamian myth where we see the hero Gilgamesh’s father recorded on the Sumerian King List as Lilu, a demon who targets sleeping women, in 2400 BC."

  • SOURCE: Patheos
    7/23/2020

    Os Guinness, Eric Metaxas, and Their Dangerous Myths of American History

    by Abram Van Engen

    "Only when we begin to see the multiplicity and complexity of history can we begin to understand how God moves in it and through it, and how we, in the present, can and should respond—righting wrongs and attempting to shine a light in dark places," writes Abram Van Engen.

  • SOURCE: University of South Carolina
    7/22/2020

    The Long History of How Jesus Came to Resemble a White European

    No one knows exactly what Jesus looked like, and there are no known images of him from his lifetime. Art history professor Anna Smartwood House writes about the complicated history of the images of Christ and how historically they have served many purposes.

  • 5/31/2020

    Trump and the Puritans

    by Martyn Whittock

    No one would ever call Donald Trump a Puritan. But the 17th century religious movement is a foundation of Trump's America.