Stefano Villani is Professor of Early Modern European History at the University of Maryland. This interview is based on his new book, Making Italy Anglican: Why the Book of Common Prayer Was Translated into Italian (Oxford University Press, 2022). JF:...
Trinity Church in New York City was formed in 1697 by a small group of Anglicans. Alexander Hamilton, Eliza Hamilton, and Angelica Schuyler, three of the stars of the hit Broadway musical “Hamilton,” are all buried in New York City’s...
I spent the last two Saturdays touring colonial Philadelphia with the students in my Colonial America course at Messiah College. One of my favorite places to visit on these tours is Christ Church–the flagship Anglican Church in 18th-century Philly. And...
In the wake of bishop Michael Curry’s sermon at the recent royal wedding, Grant Shreve offers us a brief introduction, with scholarly links, to the African American experience in the Anglican Church. Here is a taste of his piece at...
Fred Witzig is Professor of History at Monmouth College. This interview is based on his new book, Sanctifying Slavery and Politics in South Carolina: The Life of Alexander Garden (University of South Carolina Press, 2018). JF: What led you to write Sanctifying...
Over at the U.S. Intellectual History blog, Sara Georgini of the Massachusetts Historical Society examines the impact of the American Revolution on Boston Anglicans through a close reading of their prayer books. Georgini describes the “humble prayer book” as “a...
This comes from the archives. I wrote it back in 2011 when I was doing a weekly column at Patheos. Here is a taste: On Monday we will once again celebrate George Washington’s birthday. (He was actually born on February...
I know he wants to reunite Pink Floyd and recently received the endorsement of The New York Times, but this should not deter conservative evangelicals from voting for him. When pundits talk about Kasich they place him in the so-called “establishment” lane of...
Cathedral of St. John’s–Providence, R.I. According to this New York Times article, over half of the slavery voyages from the United States left from Rhode Island ports. Most of those Rhode Island slave traders were Episcopalians (Anglicans). Katherine Seelye describes what...
Over the last few years I have had the opportunity to work closely with several local congregations as they have explored their history. This work has been fun, but it has also been meaningful and rewarding. It seems that more...
This morning (AHA Day 2) I had the privilege of presenting a paper on a panel devoted to religion and the American Revolution at the Winter meeting of the American Society of Church History. The session was entitled “Fracturing a...
John Pierson, the Anglican missionary to Salem, NJ, was writing one of his regular reports to London:<!–[if !mso]>st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } <![endif]–> “during the Long Days in the Summer Season I Served Penn’s Neck Church in the Afternoons and Since the Days...
Here is an interesting piece in The Economist about the rise of evangelicalism in the Church of England. A taste: As the number of people who are actively committed to the Church of England falls, the proportion of churchgoers who […]
If you go to Google and type in “Religion in Jamestown” you will find a post I did on the subject back in July 2009. Every September that post ends up being one of the most visited posts at The...
Actually, I am not sure that the people who will wake in a few hours to watch the royal wedding really care about the religious dimensions of the ceremony. But for those who do, Patheos has provided answers to eight...
I try to keep things civil here at The Way of Improvement Leads Home. (Such a task is rather easy when you don’t get many readers writing comments). I have no problem with people disagreeing with the things I write […]
So wrote the Anglican bishop of Toronto when a priest at St. Peter’s Anglican Church gave holy communion to a dog. From the Toronto Star: St. Peter’s Anglican Church has long been known as an open and inclusive place. So...
Rev. Jonathan Mitchican wonders why Christian priests no longer wear cassocks. Is this recent trend in priestly fashion representative of larger cultural changes in American life? Mitchican explains: …But what I lament isn’t so much the loss of the cassock...
A few years ago Mark Noll asked this question in light of the recent cordial relations between evangelicals and the Roman Catholic Church. Now we need to ask this question again in light of the Vatican’s recent attempt to get […]
OK–I admit that my title is a little provocative. But as some of you know I have been doing a lot of research and thinking of late about the religious dimensions of the American Revolution. I have been exploring the...
