Religion & Liberty Online Archives

History

February 01, 2024

John M. Perkins and the Gift of Drawing Closer

Last month I wrote about John M. Perkins, who is black, and wealthy philanthropist Howard Ahmanson, who is white. Forty years ago, together in a hotel near the Mumbai, India, airport, they wanted their driver, a Dalit (“untouchable”), to have a room. Continue Reading...
January 19, 2024

Vladimir Lenin: Bloodthirsty Superstar

Whenever I read a story involving one of the profusion of holy relics preserved and exhibited over the centuries, whether it be the Shroud of Turin or the finger bone of the fifth-century patroness Saint Genevieve, to this day displayed in a small glass cylinder in the Chapel of St. Continue Reading...
December 25, 2023

Santa Claus vs. Artemis: A Christmas Story

As we deck the halls with boughs of holly this year, read the story of Christ’s Nativity, sing hymns and carols, exchange gifts, and light our homes in increasingly irrational competition verging on mutually assured destruction with our neighbors, we must not lose sight of the real “reason for the season”: Santa’s victory over the pagan goddess Artemis. Continue Reading...
December 19, 2023

William Wilberforce: Abolitionist, Reformer, Evangelical

On February 24, 1807, the House of Commons voted by 283 votes to 16 to end the trade in human slaves in all British territories. The outcome was testimony to the tenacity, zeal, and commitment of the most prominent evangelical Member of Parliament at the end of the 18th century, William Wilberforce (1759–1833). Continue Reading...
November 17, 2023

Hannah More: Pioneer of Voluntary Christian Schools

Hannah More (1745–1833) was a most extraordinary woman. A poet and playwright mixing with the leading figures of her day in the theater and arts, she found evangelical faith and deployed her considerable writing skills in support of William Wilberforce’s campaign against the slave trade. Continue Reading...
October 19, 2023

John Newton: From Slave Trader to Abolitionist Pastor

John Newton (1725–1807) is a pivotal figure in the English evangelical revival or awakening. His is an early example of a settled evangelical ministry in the second half of the 18th century, involving pastoral work, hymn-writing, and even mentoring the likes of a William Wilberforce. Continue Reading...
September 17, 2023

On Constitution Day, Celebrate the Anti-Federalists

Constitutional questions used to be intellectually serious, steeped in competing traditions, and shaped by schools of thought often rooted in divergent interpretations of the American past. No more. Now we get pressing questions like, “Can Trump run for president from prison?,” Continue Reading...
August 25, 2023

The Countess of Huntingdon: Challenging the Established Church

Among the central figures of the British evangelical revival that we have been revisiting is Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, (1707–1791). She was a source of finance and a steadying influence, and through her aristocratic connections Selina provided opportunities for the preaching of the gospel in the upper echelons of society. Continue Reading...
July 14, 2023

The “National Apostasy” of John Keble

From the 1830s onward, a movement developed in the Church of England that sought to reclaim a classic High Church tradition within Anglicanism that gave weight to the apostolic succession, sacraments, the Christian year and festivals, and liturgical order. Continue Reading...