We lost a great cultural critic and writer last week. I have benefited immensely over the years from Barbara Ehrenreich‘s work on social class in America. She is well-known for her 2001 book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By...
obituaries
Michael Gerson and Alan Jacobs remember Frederick Buechner
Vocation is where “your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” –Frederick Buechner Writer and theologian Frederick Buechner passed away last week. Michael Gerson remembers him: When the late Frederick Buechner — novelist, preacher, Christian apologist — was asked...
John Erickson, champion of the Bible cause, 1933-2022
I started my 2015 book The Bible Cause: A History of the American Bible Society with these words: John Erickson sits at a table in his home in Crawford, Nebraska, on a chilly March 2015 morning. He is sipping bottled...
David McCullough, RIP
One of our most talented historical writers passed away yesterday. American historians have criticized David McCullough as a popularizer. Many have suggested, perhaps rightly so, that his work was not sensitive to issues of race, class, and gender. (I would...
The Philadelphia Inquirer remembers Richard S. Dunn
Here is the obituary: Richard S. Dunn, 93, formerly of Philadelphia, an award-winning professor emeritus of American history at the University of Pennsylvania, director emeritus of the groundbreaking McNeil Center for Early American Studies, co-executive officer emeritus of the American...
Albert Raboteau, RIP
Princeton University religion professor Albert Raboteau‘s book Slave Religion was the first book I ever read on the history of the religion and the African American experience. Here is Adelle Banks at Religion News Service: Albert J. Raboteau, an American...
Charles Sellers, RIP
I read Charles Sellers‘s 1991 book The Market Revolution: Jacksonian America, 1815-1846 during my first year of graduate school. While I learned much from the book, I was never convinced by his portrayal of American farmers as “antinomian” evangelicals who...
James Loewen, RIP
I never met James Loewen, but I have used his book Teaching What Really Happened once or twice in my “Teaching History” course at Messiah University. I remember about twenty years ago I gave a talk at a conference (I...
Rachel Zoll, RIP
Such sad news. She was an outstanding religion reporter and always said such complimentary things about this blog. Here is the AP: Rachel Zoll, who for 17 years as religion writer for The Associated Press endeared herself to colleagues, competitors...
Walter Mondale, RIP
Mondale was a Minnesota senator, vice-president, and presidential candidate. Here is The Washington Post: Walter F. Mondale, the former Democratic senator and vice president whose unusually candid and forward-looking bid for the pinnacle of American politics was blocked by President...
Robert Middlekauff, RIP
Middlekauff is best known as the author of The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789. It was the first book to appear in the Oxford History of the United States series, which also includes James McPherson’s Battle Cry for Freedom:...
John Polkinghorne, RIP
A couple weeks ago I was part of a Messiah University Zoom event in which several faculty members shared their spiritual pilgrimages. (Annie Thorn of “Out of the Zoo” fame organized the event). One of my co-panelists was Ted Davis,...
Sarah Obama, RIP
If you are like me and fell in love with “Granny” reading Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father, this is sad news. Here is CBS: Sarah Obama, the matriarch of former President Obama’s Kenyan family has died, relatives and officials...
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...
Rush Limbaugh dies
Here are the titles and/or subtitles of some of his obituaries: NBC News: “The Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree outraged critics with his long history of sexist, homophobic and racist remarks.” Washington Post: “Rush Limbaugh, conservative radio provocateur and cultural...
Melvin Banks, RIP
Here is a taste of Daniel Silliman’s obituary of a major player in twentieth-century evangelicalism. I am guessing most white evangelicals have never heard of him: Melvin E. Banks, founder of the largest black Christian publishing house in the United...