Impious and amoral, petty and vindictive, Richard Nixon is not the typical protagonist of a religious biography. But spiritual drama is at the heart of this former president’s tragic story. The night before his resignation, Richard Nixon wept—and prayed. Though his demanding parents had raised him Quaker, he wasn’t a regular churchgoer, nor was he …

American history has profoundly shaped, and been shaped by, Christianity. Turning Points in American Church History provides a brisk and lively yet deeply researched survey of these intertwined forces from the colonial period to the present. Elesha Coffman tells the story of Christianity in the United States by focusing on 13 key events over four c…

In the fourth episode of Secondary Sources, co-hosts Prisca Bird and David McFarland interview Dr. Leah Payne and discuss her book "God Gave Rock and Roll To You: A History of Contemporary Christian Music" (Oxford, 2024). This episode is a fantastic follow-up to the May 2024 CFH Book Talk episode also featuring Dr. Payne. Our conversation went in a…

Today’s political and cultural polarization has led to suspicion and animosity in our churches, our workplaces, and even our families. It has also led to a false sense that our options are limited to choosing a side. But there is a better way. Shirley Mullen invites readers to claim the powerful, redemptive potential of the courageous middle. Far f…

The beloved Little Housebooks by Laura Ingalls Wilder have sold over 60 million copies since their publication in the first half of the twentieth century. Even her unpolished memoir, Pioneer Girl, which tells the true story behind the children’s books, was widely embraced upon its release in 2014. Despite Wilder’s enduring popularity, few fans know…

The story of five best-selling novels beloved by evangelicals, the book industry they built, and the collective imagination they shaped Who are evangelicals? And what is evangelicalism? Those attempting to answer these questions usually speak in terms of political and theological stances. But those stances emerge from an evangelical world with its …

In God Gave Rock and Roll to You (OUP, 2024), Leah Payne traces the history and trajectory of CCM in America and, in the process, demonstrates how the industry, its artists, and its fans shaped–and continue to shape–conservative, (mostly) white, evangelical Protestantism. For many outside observers, evangelical pop stars, interpretive dancers, pupp…

Exhibiting Evangelicalism provides the first account of the growth and development of historical museums created by white evangelical Christians in the United States over the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Exploring the histories of the Museum of the Bible, the Billy Graham Center Museum, the Billy Sunday Home, and Park Street Church, Devin …

Cultural Christians in the Early Church, which aims to be both historical and practical, argues that cultural Christians were the rule, rather than the exception, in the early church. Using different categories of sins as its organizing principle, the book considers the challenge of culture to the earliest converts to Christianity, as they struggle…

In 1908, Unitarian pastor Bertrand Thompson observed the momentous growth of the labor movement with alarm. “Socialism,” he wrote, “has become a distinct substitute” for the church. He was not wrong. In the generation after the Civil War, few of the migrants who moved North and West to take jobs in factories and mines had any association with tradi…

In Gin, Jesus, and Jim Crow, Brendan J. J. Payne reveals how prohibition helped realign the racial and religious order in the South by linking restrictions on alcohol with political preaching and the disfranchisement of Black voters. While both sides invoked Christianity, prohibitionists redefined churches’ doctrines, practices, and political engag…

What has been the history of the Conference on Faith and History? What have been the high points, the difficult points, and what have we learned as an organization that seeks to explore the relationship between the Christian faith and history? And what would one generation of historians wish to pass on to the next generation of historians? Listen i…

South Asia is home to more than a billion Hindus and half a billion Muslims. But the region is also home to substantial Christian communities, some dating almost to the earliest days of the faith. The stories of South Asia’s Christians are vital for understanding the shifting contours of World Christianity, precisely because of their history of int…

Christians need to pause once in a while to get their bearings. For perspective on our own times and how we got here, it helps to listen to wise guides from other eras. In An Infinite Fountain of Light (IVP Academic, 2023), the renowned American historian George Marsden illuminates the landscape with wisdom from one such mentor: Jonathan Edwards. D…

Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) is one of the most widely known Christians of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. After the death of her husband, Jim, and four other missionaries at the hands of Waorani tribesmen in Ecuador, Elliot famously returned to live among the same people who had killed her husband. Her legacy, however, extends far beyond…

Walter Lippmann was arguably the most recognized and respected political journalist of the twentieth century. His “Today and Tomorrow” columns attracted a global readership of well over ten million. Lippmann was the author of numerous books, including the best-selling A Preface to Morals (1929) and U.S. Foreign Policy (1943). His Public Opinion (19…

Since the shootings in Buffalo, Laguna Woods, and Uvalde, the AACC (Asian American Christian Collaborative) has been a crucial Christian organization that is actively pursuing advocacy and policy efforts to address gun violence in the United States. During April of 2023, the Anxious Bench proudly partnered with the AACC to raise awareness about the…

Though born into slavery, Sojourner Truth would defy the limits placed upon her as a Black woman to become one of the nineteenth century’s most renowned female preachers and civil rights advocates. In We Will Be Free, Nancy Koester chronicles her spiritual journey as an enslaved woman, a working mother, and an itinerant preacher and activist. On Pe…

Drawing on the evidence from medieval and early modern sermons, and in particular the narratives of the cursed carolers and the dance of Salome, this book explores these changing understandings of dance as they relate to religion, gender, sin, and community within the English parish. In parishes both before and during the English Reformations, danc…

Dr. Jonathan Tran hosts a conversation with author, Dr. Melissa Borja, about her book, Follow the New Way. Every year, members of the Hmong Christian Church of God in Minneapolis gather for a cherished Thanksgiving celebration. But this Thanksgiving takes place in the spring, in remembrance of the turbulent days in May 1975 when thousands of Laotia…

Enjoy this conversation between Dr. Joey Cochran and Dr. Paul Gutacker on Gutacker's book, The Old Faith in a New Nation. BOOK SUMMARY Conventional wisdom holds that tradition and history meant little to nineteenth-century American Protestants, who relied on common sense and “the Bible alone.” The Old Faith in a New Nation challenges this portrayal…

Enjoy this conversation between Dr. Joey Cochran and Dr. Daniel Hummel about his book, The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism. In The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism, Daniel G. Hummel illuminates how dispensationalism, despite often being dismissed as a fringe end-times theory, shaped Anglo-American evangelicalism and the larger American cultura…

In this third episode of Secondary Sources, co-hosts Prisca Bird and David McFarland interview Dr. Lynneth Miller Renberg. Secondary Sources is a podcast that seeks to connect scholars and secondary teachers who are both committed to the effective discipleship of students through compelling historical research and dynamic pedagogy. It is produced b…

Debates over curriculum have long been part of the discussion over what is taught in history courses. Most recently these questions have come to the surface with the 1619 project, debates over Critical Race Theory (CRT), and most recently Florida Governor Ron Desantis decision not to allow the AP’s African American History to be taught in Florida P…

In this second episode of Secondary Sources, co-hosts Prisca Bird and Zachary Cote interview Dr. Paul Gutacker. Secondary Sources is a podcast that seeks to connect scholars and secondary teachers who are both committed to the effective discipleship of students through compelling historical research and dynamic pedagogy. It is produced by secondary…

This episode is a book talk with Dr. James C. Ungureanu about his book, Science, Religion, and the Protestant Tradition.Faith and History

Heidi Olson Campbell hosts a panel on witch-hunts and magic, which includes panelists Elaine Breslaw, Lisa Diller, Aaron Larsen, and Philip Jenkins.Faith and History

In this inaugural episode of Secondary Sources, co-hosts Prisca Bird and David McFarland interview Dr. Andrea Turpin. Secondary Sources is a podcast that seeks to connect scholars and secondary teachers who are both committed to the effective discipleship of students through compelling historical research and dynamic pedagogy. It is produced by sec…

This is the podcast of our CFH virtual coffee panel on the topic of secondary sources. Moderator Paul Thompson discusses secondary education with Ron Sorenson, Veronica Gutierrez, Zachary Cote, David McFarland, and Prisca Bird.Faith and History

This is the podcast recording of the CFH Book Talk on The Revival of Evangelicalism with author, Andrew Michael Jones.Faith and History

For five hundred years, Latina/o culture and identity have been shaped by their challenges to the religious, socio-economic, and political status quo, whether in opposition to Spanish colonialism, Latin American dictatorships, US imperialism in Central America, the oppression of farmworkers, or the current exploitation of undocumented immigrants. C…

Dr. Joey Cochran discusses Religion and the American Revolution with Dr. Katherine Carté in this book talk.Faith and History

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The Conference on Faith and History welcomes University of Texas, Dallas graduate student Ang Li, who will moderate a panel of scholars that include Jane Hong, Tim Tseng, and Jonathan Tran. Panelists will discuss the various ways Asian Americans grappled with issues of Race and Religion. How does Asian American racism differ from that of African Am…

In this episode, Tim Larsen, Jon Boyd, and Joey Cochran discuss the recent IVP compendium on the history of evangelical biblicism, Every Leaf, Line, and Letter.Faith and History

CFH Secretary, Jonathan Den Hartog, introduces and interviews the new President, John Fea.Faith and History

The October 2021 Virtual Coffee discussed "The Difference Made by Distance: How the Long View Impacts Womens History." This panel was hosted by Elizabeth Marvel with guest panelists Melissa Harkrider, Meghan DiLuzio, and Beth Allison Barr.Faith and History

This episode is a discussion on current issues in the study of Latin American history moderated by Veronica Gutierrez with panelists Ron Morgan and Lourdes de Ita.Faith and History

This episode is a book talk between the OUP Spiritual Lives series editor, Timothy Larsen and Elesha Coffman about her book, Margaret Mead.Faith and History

In this book talk, Joey Cochran hosts a conversation with Whitworth Assistant Professor, Aaron Griffith, about his recent history, God's Law and Order: The Politics of Punishment in Evangelical America.Faith and History

In this episode, social media coordinator, Joey Cochran, interviews Dr. Thomas Conner about his book War and Remembrance: The Story of the American Battle Monuments Commission.Faith and History

In this episode host Malcolm Foley discusses the topic of the Racial Reckoning and Black Scholarship with panelists Paul Thompson, Alicia Jackson, and Carey Latimore.Faith and History

Host Joey Cochran moderates a discussion on current issues in Baptist history with guest panelists Dr. Melody Maxwell, Dr. Geoff Chang, and Dr. Barry Hankins.Faith and History

In this episode, Katherine Goodwin hosts a panel discussing current trends in women's history. Panelists include: Anthea Butler, Andrea Turpin, and Veronica Gutierrez.Faith and History

Host Alyssa Lehr Evans moderates a conversation with historian, Heath Carter, on The Past, Present, and Future of the Religious "Left."Faith and History

Listen to a conversation between Joey Cochran and Dr. Timothy Larsen on the recent publication of the Oxford Handbook of Christmas.Faith and History

This episode is a roundtable with Malcolm Foley, Esau McCaulley, and Steven Harris. These three discuss how African-Americans inhabit history and construct history.Faith and History