Apr 6, 2012
As we conclude this series in modern church history, we examine the intellectual challenges that confronted the church in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Perhaps the most obvious of these was the rapid progress of scientific discovery – things like James Hutton’s work in geology (radically redefining the...
Mar 25, 2012
It would be nearly impossible to overestimate the impact of John and Charles Wesley on contemporary American Protestantism. From the hymns we sing, to the small groups we attend, to the empowerment of the laity to teach and preach, to the eventual ordination of women into professional ministry, the Wesleys – and the...
Mar 7, 2012
The religious zeal that marked the first Puritan colonies was destined to wane. As new generations were born, and new waves of settlers arrived, new priorities and visions of the good life began to take shape. Many professed a Christian faith and had connection to the church, but not with the same rigor as...
Feb 25, 2012
The Reformation gave birth not to a solitary Protestantism, but to a wide variety of Protestantisms. (The Reformers came to quick agreement that the Bible – and not the traditions or authorities of the Catholic Church – was the ultimate arbiter of truth. What they could not agree upon was what the Bible intended...
Jan 30, 2012
When Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses outside the door of the campus church in Wittenberg, he had no intention of dividing the Catholic Church. But within a decade of that event, such acts of protest had gained irreversible momentum, and “Protestantism” was officially born. Throughout the 16th century new church...