Mark A. Noll

On October 25, many churches will once again observe “Reformation Sunday,” commemorating the day in 1517 when Martin Luther is said to have nailed his Ninety-Five Theses concerning theological reform on the door of the Castle church in Wittenberg, Saxony. This event continues to be regarded as . . . . Continue Reading »

The Bible Made Impossible: Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture by Christian Smith Brazos, 234 pages, $22.99 How to Go from Being a Good Evangelical to a Committed Catholic in Ninety-Five Difficult Steps by Christian Smith Cascade, 205 pages, $24 Most of the time, Christian . . . . Continue Reading »

Those of us who call ourselves “evangelical scholars” are accustomed to suspicion from the church and incredulity from the academy. Modern scholarship, many in the churches believe, has proven itself implacably hostile to faith. Evangelical Christianity, many in the academy believe, holds to . . . . Continue Reading »

The Cousins' Wars:  Religion, Politics, Civil Warfare, and the Triumph of Anglo-America.By Kevin Philips.Basic. 651.pp. $32. Perceptive students of the 1996 presidential election have noticed an uncanny trend that links geography, religion, and politics. Take the nine regions into which the . . . . Continue Reading »

Just as I Am:The Autobiography of Billy Graham by billy graham harper san francisco/zondervan, 760 pages, $28.50 Several recent developments suggest that the time has come to take stock of Billy Graham: the frailties of his age, the encroachments of Parkinson’s disease, the death or retirement of . . . . Continue Reading »

In holy writ, the conjunctions between authentic faith and the worlds of commerce are strangely varied: the Hebrew Scriptures contain much in the Pentateuch on the protection and use of property, but a different realm of existence is central to the prophets: “Ho, every one who thirsts, come to . . . . Continue Reading »

(For Alva Steffler) Last Christmastide the angel came at six fifteen. While volunteers began to poke the guests awake, collect the mats, and fix the coffee for the breakfast line, the smoke rose from first cigarettes, and one large man groaned off the floor, breath harsh, a map of beet- red lines . . . . Continue Reading »

One Holy and Happy Society: The Public Theology of Jonathan Edwards by gerald r. mcdermott pennsylvania state university press, 203 pages, $29.95 Gerald McDermott, who teaches religion at Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia, has written a persuasive revisionist account of Jonathan Edwards . . . . Continue Reading »

Ronald L. Numbers, who holds a chair in the History of Science and Medicine at the University of Wisconsin, has performed a desperately needed service in this book, and he has performed it very well. Toward the end of the volume there is trenchant, if succinct, interpretation, but mostly this is a . . . . Continue Reading »

While the United States has been preoccupied with another Kennedy scandal, the controversies over Clarence Thomas and Mike Tyson, and the political fallout from a recession that may or may not be over, to the north something truly important is taking place. With increasing concentration over the . . . . Continue Reading »