Menu
22
View on Map
Filter by:

Filter by published date

Painting of a Dutch merchant with his wife and an enslaved servants, standing on the shore with Dutch ships sailing in the background

The Legacies of Calvinism in the Dutch Empire

In the 17th century, Dutch proselytisers set out for Asia, Africa and the Americas. The legacy of their travels endures.
by Charles H. Parker via Aeon on December 9, 2021

A Modest Proposal

More importantly, our misappropriation of “puritan” has allowed scholars to ignore and the public to misunderstand religion.
by Carla Gardina Pestana via Commonplace on May 21, 2024
Demonstrator holding a Christian nationalist sign with a cross painted like the American flag.

The Peril Radicalizing Some Evangelicals Goes Beyond Christian Nationalism

Christian supremacists are plotting the end of America as we know it.
by Matthew D. Taylor via Religion News Service on April 4, 2024
W.E.B. DuBois

How W. E. B. Du Bois Helped Pioneer African American Humanist Thought

On the complex relationship between Black Americans and the Black church.
by Christopher Cameron via Literary Hub on July 27, 2023

Doing the Work

The Protestant ethic and the spirit of wokeness.
by Ian Buruma via Harper’s on June 20, 2023
Abraham Lincoln.

Abe’s Ambitious Religious Creed

Through the tragedies and uncertainties of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln may have found a deepened connection to his religious faith.
by Barton Swaim via The Wall Street Journal on May 5, 2023
"Sinners In The Hands of an Angry God" title page.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God: Annotated

Jonathan Edwards’s sermon reflects the complicated religious culture of eighteenth-century America, influenced not just by Calvinism, but Newtonian physics as well.
by Ed Simon via JSTOR Daily on February 20, 2023
Drawing of enslaved persons harvesting sugarcane.

Wesley, Whitefield, and a Gospel That Disrupts

Two preachers who shaped American Christianity diverged sharply on whether to protest or exploit slavery, with consequences that persist today.
by Ian Olson via Plough Magazine on August 22, 2022
The book cover for "They Knew They Were Pilgrims."

A History of the Pilgrims That Neither Idolizes Nor Demonizes Them

Historian John Turner tells the story of Plymouth Colony with nuance and care.
by Grant Wacker via The Christian Century on January 14, 2021
Map of Boston from 1722.

This "Miserable African": Race, Crime, and Disease in Colonial Boston

The murder that challenged Cotton Mather’s complex views about race, slavery, and Christianity.
by Mark S. Weiner via Commonplace on July 13, 2020
Karl I of Austria.

Feeling Blessed

At the Habsburg Convention in Plano.
by Christopher Hooks via The Baffler on May 8, 2024
Cover page of "Cotton Mather's Spanish Lessons." Beige cover with a small red image of a tonsured monastic scribe with a book in front of him, evidentally engaged in scholarship.

Structures of Belonging and Nonbelonging

A Spanish-language pamphlet by Cotton Mather explodes the Black-versus-white binary that dominates most discussions of race in our time.
by Joseph Rezek via Los Angeles Review of Books on February 1, 2023
A photograph of John Brown and scraps of his writing.

The Irrevocable Step

John Brown and the historical novel.
by Willis McCumber via The Baffler on May 2, 2022
Pastoral landscape with classical architecture. Copy after Thomas Cole’s “Dream of Arcadia”, by Robert Seldon Duncanson, 1852.

An Ugly Preeminence

On the devout abolitionists who excoriated American exceptionalism.
by Ian Tyrrell via Lapham’s Quarterly on January 26, 2022
Olympic surfer
partner

Centuries of U.S. Imperialism Made Surfing an Olympic Sport

With an eye toward U.S. power, Americans spread the sport making its Olympic debut.
by Thomas Blake Earle via Made By History on July 25, 2021
Embarkation of the Pilgrims.

Puritanism as a State of Mind

Whatever the “City on a Hill” is, the phrase was not discovered by Kennedy or Reagan.
by Glen A. Moots via Law & Liberty on April 30, 2021

The Puritans Are Alright

A review of "Hot Protestants: A History of Puritanism in England and America."
by Ed Simon via Los Angeles Review of Books on December 16, 2020
An illustration of a pilgrim looking toward the sky with a group of others gathered around kneeling.

What Liberty Meant to the Pilgrims

Most adult men could aspire to participation in the religious and political government of the colony. But this communal liberty did not imply personal liberty.
by Nathanael Blake via National Review on June 18, 2020
Washington takes the oath of office surrounded by Founders.

The Faith of the American Founders

What were the religious beliefs of the American founding generation? What do they mean for us today?
by Steven Green, Thomas S. Kidd, Mark David Hall, Brooke Allen via Cato Unbound on June 16, 2020
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

Managing Our Darkest Hatreds And Fears: Witchcraft From The Middle Ages To Brett Kavanaugh

America has a history of dealing with witches - and it has culminated in a modern movement of politically active ones.
by Diane Purkiss via Athenaeum Review on October 14, 2019

Baby, Christmas Songs Have Always Been Controversial

Long before “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” holiday songs played a part in the War on Christmas.
by Neil J. Young via The Atlantic on December 24, 2018

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

brought to you by
© Bunk History