by Bob Schoone-Jongen. About the time when Spring Break arrives I hit the line in the HIST 152 syllabus calling students to consider the 18th-century Enlightenment and its offspring. Of course this leads to political liberalism and the notion that we should trade kings and queens for politicians who won their place through innate ability rather …
Continue reading Enlightenment and Elections
by Kristin Du Mez. Several years back, I heard Tim Gloege give a conference paper on Henry Crowell, Quaker Oats, and American Fundamentalism at a meeting of the American Society of Church History. To this day, that talk stands as one of the smartest, most engaging papers I’ve heard presented at an academic conference. I …
Continue reading Ask the Author: Tim Gloege on Guaranteed Pure
by Frans van Liere. During spring break I was asked by my church friend Phyllis Van Andel to conduct a book discussion for the Calvin Academy for Lifelong Learning (CALL). It could be on any book I wished to discuss, she said. CALL classes are always fun to teach, because of the great enthusiasm of …
Continue reading Hella Haasse, Threshold of Fire
by Kristin Du Mez. [This piece originally appeared in the Oxford University Press Blog on March 21, 2015. The first portion is republished here with permission of the author.] The much anticipated Valentine’s Day release 50 Shades of Grey set off a flurry of activity on social media sites, with bloggers lining up to cajole, shame, reason, or plead with …
Continue reading The Crime is the Fruit of the Theology: Christian Responses to 50 Shades of Grey
by Eric M. Washington. For African-American historians, February can be a busy month. For me, I did a podcast for the Reformed African American Network, I give a short presentation to AHANA[1] students here at Calvin about my journey into African-American history, and I gave a short presentation on the history and centrality of Black …
Continue reading February is over: What does an African-American Historian do in March?
by Kristin Du Mez. [This piece originally appeared as a guest contribution to Religion in American History. The first portion is republished here with permission of the author.] I wasn’t going to write on Gordon Wood and Bernard Bailyn. I’m not a colonialist. It’s been years since I’ve read their work, which in my recollection is far and …
Historical Horizons 