A lot of people are talking and writing about The Eyes of Tammy Faye, a new film on televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker. I hope to see this soon. I am particularly interested in Vincent D’Onofrio‘s portrayal of Jerry Falwell. Over […]
American religious history
Is evangelical Christianity a religious movement, or is it something else?
I first read historian Paul E. Johnson’s 1978 book A Shopkeeper’s Millennium: Society and Revivals in Rochester, New York, 1815-1837 in 1989 while I was studying church history at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Johnson argued that evangelical religion in Rochester, […]
Yale’s Harry Stout is still going strong
I am teaching Harry Stout’s The Divine Dramatist again this Fall. I find it to be the most undergraduate accessible biography of Whitefield available. My students really like it. Stout has been busy of late. He has two biographies in […]
Live-tweeting PBS’s Billy Graham documentary
As a historian of American evangelicalism, I thoroughly enjoyed last night’s PBS documentary “Billy Graham: Prayer. Politics. Power.” As as an evangelical Christian, I also enjoyed it. Billy Graham’s message–the Good News–changed my life. I will always have a deep […]
The Author’s Corner with Crawford Gribben
Crawford Gribben is Professor of History at Queen’s University Belfast. This interview is based on his new book, Survival and Resistance in Evangelical America: Christian Reconstruction in the Pacific Northwest (Oxford University Press, 2021). JF: What led you to write […]
David Edwin Harrell, historian of Pentecostalism, has died
Most American historians know Harrell for his biographies of Oral Roberts and Pat Robertson. Here is an obituary of the longtime Auburn University professor: Retired Auburn University history professor David Edwin Harrell, who wrote biographies of TV evangelists Pat Robertson […]
A discussion of early New England church records
This is a really interesting conversation between historians Francis Bremer, Jeff Cooper, Richard Boles, and Doug Winiarski. The Congregational Library and the New England Hidden History program sponsored this discussion. Watch:
The Author’s Corner with Ben Wright
Ben Wright is Assistant Professor of History at The University of Texas at Dallas. This interview is based on his new book, Bonds of Salvation: How Christianity Inspired and Limited American Abolitionism (LSU Press, 2020). JF: What led you to […]
The Author’s Corner with Richard Boles
Richard Boles is Assistant Professor of History at Oklahoma State University. This interview is based on his new book, Dividing the Faith: The Rise of Segregated Churches in the Early American North (NYU Press, 2020). JF: What led you to […]
The Author’s Corner with Evan Haefeli
Evan Haefeli is Associate Professor of History at Texas A&M University. This interview is based on his new book, Against Popery: Britain, Empire, and Anti-Catholicism (University of Virginia Press, 2020). JF: What led you to write Against Popery? EH: I […]
Episode 76: Howard Thurman: Theologian, Mystic, Activist
Howard Thurman was a mid-20th century theologian, writer, activist, and mystic who had a profound influence on the leaders of the Civil Rights movement. Thurman’s writings–especially his 1949 work Jesus and the Disinherited–provided an intellectual and spiritual guide to those trying to […]
Marilynne Robinson and the history of American Christianity
Casey Cep of The New Yorker has written the best piece on Marilynne Robinson I have ever read. As some of you know, Robinson has a new book out in her “Gilead” series. It is titled Jack. In these excerpts, […]
When Canadian Methodists erased women evangelists from their history
Check out historian Scott McLaren‘s interesting piece at Borealia, a blog about early Canadian history. McLaren, the author of Pulpit, Press, and Politics: Methodists and the Market for Books in Upper Canada, explores the ways early Methodist historians erased “the […]
The Author’s Corner with Francis Bremer
Frank Bremer is Professor Emeritus of history at Millersville University. This interview is based on his new book, One Small Candle: The Plymouth Puritans and the Beginning of English New England (Oxford University Press, 2020). JF: What led you to write One Small […]
The Author’s Corner with Eric Smith
Eric Smith is Senior Pastor of Sharon Baptist Church in Savannah, Tennessee and Adjunct Professor of Historical Theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. This interview is based on his new book, Oliver Hart and the Rise of […]
GOP Convention: Night 3
Yesterday was my first day of face-to-face teaching since March. I am not yet in “classroom shape,” so I was exhausted by the end of the day. Mentally, I was still reeling from multiple technology failures (mostly due to my […]
The Author’s Corner with Christopher Blythe
Christopher Blythe is Research Associate at the Maxwell Institute’s Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies at Brigham Young University. This interview is based on his new book, Terrible Revolution: Latter-day Saints and the American Apocalypse (Oxford University […]
The Author’s Corner with William Hart
William Hart is Associate Professor of History at Middlebury College. This interview is based on his new book, “For the Good of Their Souls”: Performing Christianity in Eighteenth-Century Mohawk Country (University of Massachusetts Press, 2020). JF: What led you to write “For […]
The Author’s Corner with Kate Moran
Kate Moran is Associate Professor of American Studies at Saint Louis University. This interview is based on her new book, The Imperial Church: Catholic Founding Fathers and United States Empire (Cornell University Press, 2020). JF: Why did you decide to […]
Placing John MacArthur’s decision to open his church in historical context
Get up to speed on this story here. Messiah University alum Morgan Lee interviews historian Daniel Williams for Christianity Today’s “Quick to Listen” podcast. Here is a taste: Lee: Thoreau’s vision of civil disobedience, and even that of the Civil rights […]