religion 
-
SOURCE: Boston Review
5/8/2023
Daniel Boyarin's Argument for a Non-Zionist Jewish Nationalism
by Joshua Abramson Cohen
Boyarin's latest work makes provocative arguments that there is a real collective identity of the Jewish people as a nation, but that it is independent of the Israeli state and territory.
-
SOURCE: Sojourners
5/1/2023
When a Leading Evangelist Held a Revival to Thwart Labor
by Matt Bernico
The events surrounding the 1886 Haymarket Affair, when a Chicago general strike for the 8 hour day became violent, revealed tensions present in Christianity today: what happens when Christians side with the bosses?
-
SOURCE: The Nation
3/29/2023
David Hollinger on Christianity's Place on the Right—and the Left
The historian discusses his new book on Christianity in America and the changes that have made the religious more conservative as the society became more secular.
-
SOURCE: New York Times
1/30/2023
The Latest SCOTUS Case to Privilege Religion Over Civil Society
by Linda Greenhouse
Historically, the Supreme Court has viewed workplace accommodations for religious workers in terms of protecting minority faiths and relieving undue burdens on employers and coworkers. A pending case brought by a Christian postal worker promises to upend that balance.
-
SOURCE: Religion Dispatches
12/12/2022
Why Can't the US Press Name the Bad Faith in Evangelical Politics?
by John Stoehr
Head-scratching accounts of "conflicted" evangelicals voting again and again for manifestly ungodly candidates would vanish if the media consulted (or hired) ex-evangelicals, who would explain the movement seeks power, not piety.
-
SOURCE: Canopy Forum
11/30/2022
Open Hearts, Closed Doors: Immigration and the Eclipse of Protestant Cultural Authority in America
by Nicholas T. Pruitt
Liberal Protestants in the early 1960s supported the reform of racially restrictive immigration laws, but ended up encouraging a more diverse nation where their brand of moderate religion was eclipsed by both multiculturalism and conservative white evangelicalism.
-
SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
11/17/2022
Mormon Support for Same-Sex Marriage isn't a Total Surprise
by Benjamin E. Park
A historian of the Latter Day Saints explains that the church has become more willing to tolerate general expansions of rights for LGBTQ Americans at the same time as it reserves the right to dictate sexual mores within its own ranks.
-
SOURCE: Faith and Leadership
11/1/2022
Broken Faith: What Must Christians Do About the White Nationalists Among Them?
by Anthea Butler
"Three major forces have combined to lead us perilously close to disaster: conspiracy theories, racial and historical panics, and the increasing language of spiritual warfare."
-
SOURCE: Dame
9/12/2022
What's in Store for American Religion When Faith in God is Waning?
by J.L. Tomlin and Thomas Lecaque
Two historians address the recurrent American preoccupation with gauging the nation's religiosity and issuing dire warnings about the disastrous results of a decline in piety.
-
SOURCE: The Atlantic
8/7/2022
Church-State Separation is Alien to Many Americans' Faith
by Caleb Gayle
The "classical" Christian curriculum pushes a historical vision that America was conceived by God as a beacon of righteousness, and that Christian duty is to eliminate secularism and religious pluralism.
-
SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
8/5/2022
Satanic Panic Has Featured in American Politics Since the Revolution
by Zara Anishanslin
Revolutionary patriots used the symbol of the Devil to convey the ideas of corruption and tyranny, and to elevate political disagreements to the plane of good and evil.
-
SOURCE: The Baffler
8/4/2022
It's Hard to Be God
by Joshua Craze
"One might think that becoming a god is a quick route to an easy life. The problem is that gods are beholden to their believers, and worshippers tend to have plans for their deities."
-
8/7/2022
A Writer Reflects on Four Enlightening and Challenging Lunches with the Father of Black Liberation Theology
by J. Chester Johnson
The author shared Arkansas roots with the influential theologian and teacher, from opposite sides of the color line. Their exchanges showed the possibilities of reconciliation and the height of the barriers created by racism in Americans' shared history.
-
SOURCE: Los Angeles Review of Books
7/15/2022
Review: David Sehat on the Struggle to Make a Secular America
by Johann N. Neem
In "This Earthly Frame," Sehat examines the way that activists in the 20th Century pushed the nation from an implicit privileging of Protestant Christianity toward a posture of "negative secularism" that separated the functions of government from doctrinal belief, and the transience of that victory.
-
SOURCE: Boston Globe
8/1/2022
The Demise of the Church-State Wall
by Steven V. Mazie
A political scientist and court correspondent says that SCOTUS has adopted a radical version of the "free exercise" clause of the First Amendment that makes a mockery of the historic separation of religious and political authority.
-
SOURCE: The Conversation
7/20/2022
Think You Know the Biblical Position on Abortion? You May Be Surprised
by Melanie A. Howard
Although the Bible was written at a time when abortion was practiced, it never directly addresses the issue.
-
SOURCE: Slate
7/4/2022
If "Heathen" Sounds Outdated, Historian Kathryn Gim Lum Says it Still Explains Racism in America
The concept of heathenism has always served to distinguish Americans as a group deserving of their good fortune and apart from others in need of transformation, either by persuasion or by violence.
-
SOURCE: The Atlantic
6/29/2022
Haitian Americans Reclaim the Traditions of Vodou from Centuries of Misperception
Maligned in the aftermath of the Haitian revolution, Vodou has since been blamed for the alleged barbarism of Haitian people and the poverty of the nation. A new generation of practitioners wants to recover the tradition and clear its name.
-
SOURCE: The New Republic
7/5/2022
SCOTUS's Religious Decisions are Part of War on Public Education
by Charles McCrary and Leslie Ribovich
"The court’s conservatives do not oppose secularism so much as they oppose public things. And so, that is what we ought to defend."
-
SOURCE: PsyPost
3/30/2022
Ignorance of American Political History Correlates to Support for Christian Nationalism
Survey research suggests that respondents who support the idea of a Christian America are not ignorant or unintelligent, but motivated to actively affirm statements about government and history that align with their theological precepts.
News
- How Tina Turner Escaped Abuse and Reclaimed her Name
- The Biden Administration Wants to Undo the Damage of Urban Highways. It Won't be Simple
- AAUP: Fight Tooth and Nail Against Florida's Higher Ed Agenda Because Your State is Next
- Texas GOP's Ten Commandments School Bill Fails
- Former Alabama Governors: We Regret Overseeing Executions
- Jeff Sharlet on the Intersectional Erotics of Fascism
- Scholars Stage Teach-in on Racism in DeSantis's Back Yard
- Paul Watanabe, Historian and Manzanar Survivor, Makes Sure History Isn't Forgotten
- Massachusetts-Based Historians: Book Bans in Florida Affect Us, Too
- Deborah Lipstadt's Work Abroad as Antisemitism Envoy Complicated by Definitional Dispute