‘A Letter to the New Atheists’, by ‘The Great Agnostic’ author Susan Jacoby
During the Gilded Age, which saw the dawn of America’s enduring culture wars, Robert Green Ingersoll was known as The Great Agnostic. The nation’s most famous orator, he raised his voice on behalf of Enlightenment reason, secularism, and the separation of church and state with a vigour unmatched since America’s revolutionary generation. When he died … Read more
‘Is the Secularization of America Really a Big Deal?’ by Brent Nongbri
A recent poll conducted in the US indicated that a growing proportion of adults have no religious affiliation, but does this matter? Brent Nongbri, the author of Before Religion, which was published in January by Yale University Press, investigates what lessons the religion of the Ancients can teach us about faith and secularization in the modern world.
‘Narrative History and the Collapsing of Historical Distance’ by Christopher Jones
After reading Sarah Osborn’s World: The Rise of Evangelical Christianity in Early America, recently published by Yale University Press as part of the ‘New Directions in Narrative History’ series, guest blogger Christopher Jones found much to discuss. The book raises questions surrounding the relationship of an individual reader to the figures of a historical narrative; how does … Read more
How Christianity came to Latin America: Extract from ‘New Worlds’ by John Lynch
With unsurpassed knowledge of Latin American history, John Lynch’s New Worlds: A Religious History of Latin America sets out to explore the reception of Christianity by native people and how it influenced their social and religious lives, from the Christian evangelists’ arrival in Latin America to the dictators of the late twentieth century. In this exclusive extract, Lynch … Read more
Art as Parable? Provocative new Yale book provides theological readings of secular art
Yesterday Yale University Press published Earthly Visions: Theology and the Challenge of Art, a book which is bound to provoke debate within the art history community. We take a look at this fascinating book, which provides theological readings of great secular works of art, and challenges the establishment notion that spirituality and religion were becoming increasingly irrelevant in art … Read more
