Menu
Idea

Christianity

367
Filter by:

Filter by published date

Abandoned church in Coaldale, Pennsylvania, with an American flag hanging upside down over its door.

The Decline and Fall of Christianity in America

If we imagine religion as a technology, argues Notre Dame sociologist Christian Smith, we can better see the cause of its decline: obsolescence.
by Daniel N. Gullotta via The Bulwark on July 1, 2025
Portrait of Friedrich Nietzsche

Nietzsche’s Eternal Return in America

Nietzsche’s continued presence and resonance in America suggests that he never forgot his Emersonian inheritance.
by Sheluyang Peng via American Affairs on November 20, 2024
A senior quote from Bookter T. Washington High School 1921 yearbook.

The Myth of the Christian State

When religion became the veil for racial violence in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
by Ross D. Johnson via The Oklahoma Eagle on August 18, 2024
Michael Knott playing guitar

Michael Knott, Who Changed The Course of Christian Rock, Dies at 61

An entire industry wouldn't exist without him, yet few know his name. In his songs, Knott challenged the faithful to examine their faults and hypocrisies.
by Lars Gotrich via NPR on March 14, 2024
A collage featuring Thomas Jefferson and passages cut from the Bible.

What Thomas Jefferson Could Never Understand About Jesus

Jefferson revised the Gospels to make Jesus more reasonable, and lost the power of his story.
by Vinson Cunningham via The New Yorker on December 28, 2020
A man in a t-shirt reading "Wanted: Jesus Christ"

The Protest Reformation

In the 1960s, youth counterculture spawned Christian rock.
by Johanna Fateman via Bookforum on November 11, 2020
Church

“We Shall Meet the Same Lord Together:” Native Women and Christianity in the Early Republic

American Indian woman used Christianity to maintain their agency and kinship networks.
by Jessica Criales via The Panorama on December 2, 2019
Colonial men holding a copy of the 1649 Maryland Toleration Act.

Five Ways We Misunderstand American Religious History

From religious liberty to religious violence, it helps to get our facts straight.
by Thomas S. Kidd via Christianity Today on November 21, 2019
Colorful illustration of Larry Norman, haloed by yellow.

The Unlikely Endurance of Christian Rock

The genre has been disdained by the church and mocked by secular culture. That just reassured practitioners that they were rebels on a righteous path.
by Kelefa Sanneh via The New Yorker on September 17, 2018
Elvis Presley performing to a crowd of fans reaching toward him

How Christianity Created Rock ’n’ Roll

Rock music owes much of its claim to coolness to the Christian faith.
by David Hajdu via Public Books on June 21, 2018
A man waves a pride flag in front of the Supreme Court.

Our Trouble with Sex

A Christian story?
by Annette Gordon-Reed via New York Review of Books on August 17, 2017
Lakewood megachurch.

Supersized Christianity: Protestant Megachurches in America

Megachurches represent an enduring model of ecclesial organization in Protestantism.
by Joshua D. Ambrosius via Dissertation Reviews on April 26, 2016
Signing of the Declaration of Independence

Prior Convictions

Did the Founders want us to be faithful to their faith?
by Jill Lepore via The New Yorker on April 14, 2008
James Dobson in front of a cross.

James Dobson Was My Horror, and Yours

The Christian-right luminary built his long career on cruelty and submission.
by Sarah Jones via Intelligencer on August 27, 2025

What Besieged Universities Can Learn From the Christian Resurgence

Educators can fight back against Trump’s attacks by re-embracing “old-fashioned” disciplines and ideas.
by Molly Worthen via The New Republic on August 11, 2025
Frederic Remington painting of cowboys galloping through the desert, firing guns over their shoulders at their pursuers.

“Lord, Teach My Hands To War, My Fingers To Fight”

The cowboy apocalypse and American gun fandom.
by Rachel Wagner via Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera on July 15, 2025
Photos of William F. Buckley and James Baldwin.

When William F. Buckley Jr. Met James Baldwin

In 1965, the two intellectual giants squared off in a debate at Cambridge. It didn’t go quite as Buckley hoped.
by Sam Tanenhaus via The Atlantic on May 20, 2025
Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn.

Blacklists and Civil Liberties

On the Second Red Scare and the lessons that it can provide for us today.
by Clay Risen, Miguel Petrosky via Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera on May 13, 2025
Aimee Semple McPherson in front of her Gospel Car, painted with the words "Jesus is coming soon - get ready."

The “Lady Preacher” Who Became World-Famous—and Then Vanished

Aimee Semple McPherson took to the radio to spread the Gospel, but her mysterious disappearance cast a shadow on her reputation.
by Casey N. Cep via The New Yorker on April 14, 2025
Rufus Anderson

Christ vs. Culture, Religion vs. Politics

Religious leaders hid behind the separation of church and state to uphold the institution of slavery and the forcible removal of Native Americans.
by Emily Conroy-Krutz via Panorama on March 26, 2025
The Battle for the Mind (Tim LaHaye, 1980); from Creationism to Christian Nationalism

The Battle for the Mind (Tim LaHaye, 1980); from Creationism to Christian Nationalism

Tim LaHaye bridged Reagan-era anti-Communism to today’s Christian Nationalism, opposing humanism, evolution, and secularism, emphasizing biblical morality.
by Paul Braterman via 3 Quarks Daily on December 29, 2024
‘Two girls at Bamberg led to the stake, 1550’; etching by Jan Luyken from the 1685 edition of Thieleman van Braght’s The Bloody Theater, or Martyrs Mirror of the Defenseless Christians.

Dispirited Away

The rise and fall of an evangelical church, founded with progressive intentions and undone by dissension and bad faith.
by Caroline Fraser via New York Review of Books on December 26, 2024
Ballet dancers (all ages and genders)posing in christmas costumes.

How Christmas Became an All-American Holiday

What kind of Christmas did we used to know? To hear some critics and historians tell it, the holiday used to be a lot more religious than it is now.
by Samuel Goldman via Compact on December 24, 2024

Pete Hegseth’s Tattoos and the Crusading Obsession of the Far Right

The symbols sported by Trump’s defense pick show how the medieval past is being reimagined by Christian nationalists, behind a shield of plausible deniability.
by Lydia Wilson via New Lines on November 29, 2024
The Fallen Angels on the Wing by Gustave Doré, a dark painting of angels falling from heaven.

The Political Afterlife of Paradise Lost

From white supremacists to black activists, readers have sought moral legitimacy in Milton’s epic poem.
by Lucy Hughes-Hallett via New Statesman on November 7, 2024
A black and white photo of an American soldier on patrol in Kabul, Afghanistan, 2005.

God’s Directive

In the wake of the September 11 attacks, evangelical American missionaries followed military tanks into Afghanistan and Iraq to convert Muslims.
by Rozina Ali via New York Review of Books on October 31, 2024
Senator J.D. Vance and Patrick Deneen at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Toward a Christian Postliberal Left

A truly Christian postliberalism would imagine and enact an alternative modernity with a different standard of progress.
by Eugene McCarraher via Commonweal on October 22, 2024
A crowd of people in court during the Salem Witch Trials.

How Dogs Were Implicated During the Salem Witch Trials

Sometimes an accused witch was believed to have had a dog who would do her bidding; to others, the devil appeared in the form of a dog.
by Bridget Marshall via The Conversation on October 15, 2024
Co-founder of Moms for Liberty Tina Descovich speaks during the 2024 Joyful Warriors National Summit.

From the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s ‘Body of Liberties’ to Today’s ‘Moms for Liberty’

The "parental rights" movement, rooted in colonial theocracy, has evolved into a political force resisting racial, gender, and educational equality.
by Bruce Gourley via Church & State Magazine on October 1, 2024
Headlights on the road and a forest fire on the horizon.

Meaning in Decline

The surprising influence of premillennial eschatology on American culture.
by Daniel G. Hummel via Comment on September 5, 2024
View More
30 of
367

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

Person

brought to you by
© Bunk History