Christian History Home > News > 2004
ST. PATRICK'S DAY
The Real St. Patrick
Ted Olsen
MEMORIAL DAY
Memorializing the Civil War
Every May we're reminded of the war that split our country, but the Christian stories of that struggle remain buried. Here are some facts you probably didn't know.
Ted Olsen
LENT & HOLY WEEK
Why "Easter"?
Ted Olsen
LENT & HOLY WEEK
The Beginning of Lent
Ted Olsen
CHRISTMAS
Christmas Traditions
Unearthing the origins of Yuletide customs.
Ted Olsen
CHRISTMAS
The Real Saint Nicholas
The story of Santa Claus's namesake.
Ted Olsen
CHRISTMAS
Let Me Count the Days
Cracking the mystery around a popular carol.
Elesha Coffman
CHRISTMAS
Theology in Tune
Christmas carols evoke warm memories, but the concepts they communicate were refined in often fiery debates.
Elesha Coffman
CHRISTMAS
Raising Cane
The origins of the candy cane.
Elesha Coffman
CHRISTMAS
Happy(?) Advent
The time before Christmas hasn't always been a celebration.
Ted Olsen
Think TV
A PBS special personalizes the questions of God, morality, miracles, and the afterlife in the lives of C. S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud.
David Neff
Romanticism Gone to Seed—Part II
Have the holiness and Pentecostal movements really been "hyper-vertical" and "anti-domestic"?
Chris Armstrong
Getting the Word Out
An exhibit at the Huntington Library shows how Bibles big and small gave power to the people.
David Neff
The Friends of The Christ of The Passion
Popular interest in the person of Jesus is widening to include his closest friends. But who were these people, really?
Chris Armstrong
The Roots of Pentecostal Scandal: Romanticism Gone to Seed
The sexual stumblings of prominent ministers point to a hidden flaw in Pentecostal spirituality.
Chris Armstrong
Cockroaches and the Nicene Creed
To an accompaniment of whale songs, the worshippers glory in God's creation; there's no service quite like the annual blessing of the animals at St. John the Divine.
Jennifer and Edwin Woodruff Tait
Courting the Catholic Voter
A new book tells the fascinating story of how America's Catholics decided past elections.
Reviewed by Steven Gertz
The Politicians' Patron
As the Roman Catholic "patron saint of politicians," Thomas More is not quite a model for all seasons.
Elesha Coffman
The Vanishing Act of the Church in Turkey
A church worn down by Christian rivalry and Islamic jihad hangs on in the land of Nicea and Ephesus.
Collin Hansen
VETERAN'S DAY
How to Pray for Our Troops
This Veteran's Day, let's commend our men and women of the services to the God who brings good even from the most evil circumstances.
Chris Armstrong
Now That You've Got Political Power, What Are You Going to Do with It?
History offers warning and hope for our modern-day Christian populism.
Collin Hansen
The Lord of the Rings, The Passion of the Christ, and the Highway of Holiness
Has God been "re-routing" us through popular movies, books, and cultural events?
Chris Armstrong
I Was in Prison and You Abused Me
What would Jesus do at Abu Ghraib?
Steven Gertz
Do Nigerian Miracle Ministries Discredit the Faith?
The spiritual dynamism of West African Christianity is now well known even in the West. Do credulity-stretching, highly publicized miracles discredit what God is doing in that region?
Chris Armstrong
Holy America, Phoebe!
It swept across church lines, transforming America's urban landscape with its rescue missions and storefront churches. Yet today, the "holiness movement" and its charismatic woman leader are all but forgotten.
Chris Armstrong
Is Christianity Oppressive to Women?
Sometimes our Christian heritage must be overcome, not celebrated.
Linda Hartz Rump
"St. Mugg" and the Wrestling Prophets
A modern British journalist gives us timely words from yesterday's sinner-saints.
Chris Armstrong
The Ageless Drama of the Passion
Watching Gibson's film, we are transported 600 years back in time to a medieval art form.
Jennifer Trafton
Rediscovering the Language Jesus Spoke
Millions of Americans have spent two hours listening to the characters in Mel Gibson's The Passion of The Christ speaking in an exotic, unfamiliar tongue. Yet not all find Aramaic so alien.
Steven Gertz
Should We Fight for "Under God"?
The right approach to these two little words may not be obvious.
Collin Hansen
To Spank or Not To Spank?
A 6th-century abbot and a group of 17th-century Calvinist "divines" weigh in on the issue
Chris Armstrong
For All the Saints
A new book reminds us to get our heads and hearts together, in the company of the "cloud of witnesses."
Reviewed by Chris Armstrong
The Pagan-Buster
How a brilliant monk laid the groundwork for Christian Europe.
Chris Armstrong
Hey, John Kerry, WWFFD?
"What Would the Founding Fathers Do" about the application of Christian principles to American politics? A few cautionary words.
Elesha Coffman, introduced by Chris Armstrong
"Knock, knock." "Who's there?" "The Amish."
UPN's "Amish In the City" shows us our modern selves in a mirror that is positively medieval.
Chris Armstrong
The Prohibition of Gay Marriage
We can learn from the defeat of American Christian activism's greatest legislative victory.
Collin Hansen
Testify!
A glimpse inside the world of "holiness testimony," through the story of an ex-slave woman evangelist.
Chris Armstrong
Top Ten Stories of 2003 … with a Christian History Twist
Here is our review of "the Christian history that made the stories that made the news."
Chris Armstrong
Would You Like to Super-Size Your Ministry?
Joan Kroc's $1.5 billion bequest to the Salvation Army promises to boost its admirable outreach, but history suggests new challenges and temptations lie ahead.
Collin Hansen
When God—or Allah—Is in the Details
What do Islamic "sharia" law and the colonial Massachusetts' Puritan experiment have in common?
Steven Gertz
Resolutions Worth Keeping
The Origins of New Years' Resolutions, and One Famous List
Chris Armstrong
"The Bible Alone"? Not for John Calvin!
When we seek answers to churchly and societal issues in the Bible alone, citing the Reformation principle of sola scriptura,we are actually contradicting the Reformers.
Chris Armstrong
The Blood-and-Fire Mission of the Salvation Army
Where did this tuba-playing, kettle-wielding social force come from, and what's it all about?
Chris Armstrong
Just a Closer Walk … with the Historical Jesus
Mel Gibson's movie raises again the question: How much can we know historically about Jesus' life and times?
Chris Armstrong
Why some Jews fear The Passion
Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ gives Christians the chance to disavow a shameful history of anti-Semitism.
Collin Hansen
One Nation Under Secularism
France's peculiar aversion to public religiosity is rooted in a sordid history of sectarian violence.
Collin Hansen
A Problematic Partnership?
Would the Spanish friars of California's historic missions have lobbied for the separation of church and state?
Steven Gertz
The Doctrine Doctor
JaroslavPelikan has written a history of the Christian tradition on a scale no one else has attempted in the twentieth century.
Mark A. Noll
CHRISTMAS
The Real Twelve Days of Christmas
Celebrating Christ's birth with saints of the faith during the actual Christmas season.
Edwin and Jennifer Woodruff Tait
Compassionate in War, Christian in Vision
The man behind the Geneva Conventions knew the heights of success and the depths of failure.
David Neff
Is Speaking Truth a Hate Crime?
New hate law bills highlight the need for peaceful yet critical Christian witness. A 12th-century abbot leads the way.
Steven Gertz
Gutenberg: A God's-Eye View
The rise, fall, and redemption of the Father of the Information Age.
Chris Armstrong
Revisiting the Pagan Olympic Games
New scholarship on the ancient Olympics reminds Christians why Emperor Theodosius outlawed the event so many centuries ago.
Steven Gertz
The "assumed" fate of Jesus' mother
Or, "What's 'up' with the Feast of the Assumption"?
Sarah E. Dahl, introduced and with a postscript by Chris Armstrong
A Tragic Anniversary
10 years ago this Wednesday, on April 7, 1994, the newly Christianized African nation of Rwanda erupted into unprecedented ethnic slaughter. Where was the church then? And how can it help Rwandans recover today?
Timothy C. Morgan
LENT & HOLY WEEK
Why does Easter's date wander?
Farrell Brown
Mel Gibson's Next Act: "The Man of the Passion"?
Thousands want Mel to make his next movie about a famous medieval friar.
Chris Armstrong
St. Mugg's Wrestling Prophets, Part II: The "Weird Little Dane"
How a struggling soul built a bridge to Christ for those caught in the world's snares.
Chris Armstrong
How Will It All End?
Left Behind is neither the first nor the last word on "last things."
Steven Gertz
Let Us Not Set Asunder
The threat of gay marriage challenges Christians to defend older, better definitions of marriage. But what are those definitions, and how did they develop?
Collin Hansen
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