Death by Secularism?
On November 22, 1967, in Decree 4377, the Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha declared religion officially dead. The measure coincided with a sweeping attack on religious institutions in the small Balkan...
View ArticleReading Newman’s The Idea of a University
The nineteenth-century Catholic theologian John Henry Newman was recently canonized by Pope Francis. Newman is the author of many important works, but none are as relevant to Christian higher education...
View ArticleThe Abyss of History
If the past several weeks has taught us anything, it is that history can be unpredictable and unnerving. A year ago, who could have predicted that American cities and states would come to a virtual...
View ArticlePrecious Protector
A Review of Alexander Norman, The Dalai Lama: An Extraordinary Life. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt, 2020. 410pp. In the not-too-distant future, the current Dalai Lama will pass away and a new one...
View ArticleNon-Religious Turning Points in Religious History: Before 1900
Time will tell if COVID-19 produces lasting changes in Christianity and other faiths, but religious history is full of non-religious turning points. Today we look at three from before 1900, including a...
View ArticleChristmas Gifts for the History Buff in Your Life
This blog serves a number of purposes. It helps Christians think more deeply about the history of their faith, and to understand its relevance for the church today. It creates space for some Christian...
View ArticleThe Future of Catholic Universities
A review of James L. Heft’s The Future of Catholic Higher Education (Oxford University Press, 2021) During the years that radicals suppressed France’s 22 universities after the French Revolution,...
View Article9/11 and the Liberal Arts
[This past September 11, I was asked by a new interfaith center on Valparaiso University’s campus to participate in an event remembering that terrible day. Participants were asked to speak from our own...
View ArticleUkraine’s Greek Catholics
The war in Ukraine has called attention to the country’s religious life and its history. Most air time is giving to the Orthodox church, about which my colleague Nicholas Denysenko is a leading expert....
View Article“Are Latter Day Saints Christians?”
It’s a question that understandably vexes Latter Day Saints, but it lies behind an important LDS-evangelical dialogue that took place for many years beginning in the early 2000s. Spearheaded by the...
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