American Religious History

The Blinders that We Wear: When Biblical Scholarship Becomes a Liability for People of Faith

Volume 1 | June 6, 2022

Theme: Biblical Scholarship, Debate

Discipline: American Religious History

When Dean Greg Sterling asked me to help explore whether biblical studies are an asset or a liability for people of faith, I thought to myself, “Why, they are both, of course.” I have always prized biblical studies for their ability to illumine the biblical text. Yet, when biblical scholarship becomes an end in itself,…

“Church Doctor” Thomas H. Olbricht: Impressions and Sentiments of a Former Student

Volume 1 | June 6, 2022

Theme: In Memoriam

Discipline: American Religious History

When Professor Hans Rollmann delivered one of the six papers at the American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature (AAR/SBL) in 2003, recognizing the scholarship in the Churches of Christ from the previous fifty years, his focus was on “Tom Olbricht as Theologian.” Rollman closed his paper by suggesting that because of Olbricht’s extensive influence…

Christian Higher Education: Questioning Assumptions and the Asymptote of Truth

Volume 1 | June 6, 2022

Theme: Christian Higher Education, Religion & Politics

Discipline: American Religious History

Tom Olbricht as Historian

Volume 1 | June 6, 2022

Theme: In Memoriam

Discipline: American Religious History

I am grateful and humbled to pay tribute to the significance of the life and work of Tom Olbricht for Churches of Christ, the Stone-Campbell Movement, and Christ’s universal Church, through his multifaceted scholarship and leadership. In preparation, I read many of Tom’s articles and essays, surveyed his autobiographies, and listened to recordings in which…

A Different Direction

Volume 1 | June 6, 2022

Theme: Religion & Politics

Discipline: American Religious History

Imagine with me an evangelical coming of age in the 1970s. Let’s call her Rachel. Her father was an independent Baptist pastor in southern Illinois, someone more interested in the prophecies of the book of Revelation than in Republican Party politics. Rachel’s parents wanted her to attend Moody Bible Institute, as they had, but she…

White Evangelical Alignment with Political Forces of Our Time

Volume 1 | June 6, 2022

Theme: Religion & Politics

Discipline: American Religious History

“The Myth of the Eternal Return”: From the Primitives to American Religion and Politics and Points In Between

Volume 1 | June 6, 2022

Theme: Religion & Politics

Discipline: American Religious History

The noted phenomenologist of religion, Mircea Eliade called it “the myth of the eternal return”—the attempt on the part of those he describes as primitive people to escape their own profane time, their own historical moment, and to live in the beginning of time, in the primordium, in the time of creation.  When Eliade uses…