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Christian History

Today in Christian History

March 13

March 13, 1815: Presbyterian medical missionary James Hepburn is born in Milton, Pennsylvania. In the course of his missions work, he compiled the first Japanese-English dictionary and supervised the first complete translation of the Bible into Japanese (which was published in 1888).

March 13, 1925: Austin Peay, governor of Tennessee, signs the "Butler Bill," prohibiting any teaching that contradicted the Genesis creation story. By July, John Scopes was on trial for violating the legislation and the "trial of the century" had begun (see issue 55: The Monkey Trial and the Rise of Fundamentalism).

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March 28, 1515: Spanish mystic Teresa of Avila, founder of a reformed Carmelite order, is born. Though her contemporaries noted her practicality and administrative skills, her legacy stems from her mysticism, evidenced in her Autobiography, Way of Perfection, Book of Foundations, and Interior Castle.

March 28, 1592: Czech theologian Jan Comenius, educator of the Bohemian (or Moravian) Brethren, is born in Nivnice, Czechoslovakia. As today, the region was tormented by warfare, and Comenius believed ...

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