Nathan Hatch’s respected and contested 1989 work The Democratization of Early Christianity argues that similar components of antiauthoritarianism and diffused governance between American Evangelicalism and democracy allowed both to flourish together as the new nation developed its own identity. Much has been written to nuance, complicate, and even upend his thesis in the twenty-five years … Read more
Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, is perhaps best known as the chief opponent of Arian Christology after the Council of Nicaea until his death in 373. One of his most influential works is his voluminous Contra Arianos (Against the Arians) that showcase his theological commitments to the co-eternality and consubstantiality of the Son to the Father. … Read more
Prior to the third century, the church was united around a few core principles regarding the presence of natural evil in the world: God was not the author of any form of evil, while specifically “natural” evils such as storms and diseases were products of demonic activity or the result of individual or institutional human … Read more
The Church Growth Movement has had a staggering impact on church ministry in the United States over the last half century. From its beginning in Pasadena, California in 1972, to the current day, the Movement has been praised and criticized. Yet, its influence on the practice of church ministry is profound. Its influence still reverberates … Read more
The political and religious developments of eighteenth-century New England are some of the most investigated artifacts of history. The First Great Awakening is a major feature of these developments, and several authors have revivified our interest in how best to understand this complex scene of historical events, characters, and interests. It is clear that democratization … Read more
Henry Hammond (1605-1660) was one of the most prominent representatives of what Andrew Ollerton has described as ‘episcopal Arminianism’ in the Church of England during the interregnum between the Civil Wars and the restoration of the monarchy. Within Arminianism, resistible prevenient grace needs to be, at the very least, universally available through the communication of … Read more
The Qurʾān’s revelation on seven aḥruf has been a subject of intrigue and scholarly debate, signifying divine sanction for the existence of its various qirāʾāt. Despite the ʿUthmānic recension’s efforts to standardize the Qurʾānic text, variant readings continued to proliferate, finding their use in diverse scholarly disciplines such as exegesis, grammar, Hadith, and fiqh. The … Read more
“I am as good a Liberal as any man living.” Charles Spurgeon held solid political opinions that often opposed the Conservative Party of his time. A self-professed “Gladstonite,” Spurgeon made his support for the Liberal Party clear in letters and various communications with friends and colleagues. However, these declarations have led to multiple misconceptions about … Read more
Evangelicals have responded to logical positivist historiography in various ways. Thus, an exploration of these several different evangelical approaches to historiography needs to be done. Considering these positions, it will be argued that an evangelical historiography for use inside the church should look different from an evangelical historiography for use outside the church. That is, … Read more
For the past two centuries, ecclesiastical historians have cited the Anglo-Irish clergyman and Plymouth Brethren pioneer, John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) as the mastermind behind the septarian dispensational arrangement of history. However, more than a century before Darby presented a dispensational schema replete with different economies related to the different peoples of God, as he perceived … Read more