Sightings Articles
Paula White and the Mainstreaming of American Pentecostalism
Trump's appointment of Paula White is an indicator of shifting lines within the Christian right
November 7, 2019
How Evangelicalism is Shaping College Football
Considering Evangelicalism's role in shaping the economy of college football.
September 26, 2019
On Gods and Kings
How are we to “sight” the always intricate, sometimes chaotic, and too often hidden relationship between religious convictions and political order? More often than not it requires piecing together a jigsaw puzzle with hints from hither and yon, in bo...
January 28, 2019
John Allen Chau’s Evangelical Errors
As a theologian who has done fieldwork in conflict zones and written on risk, my first response upon reading about John Allen Chau’s death at the hands of the Sentinelese people was anger. I do not want to squelch the anger, which seems to me to be r...
December 6, 2018
Jimmy Carter (and Hope) in the News
“True evangelical hope,” a headline in the current (May 23) Christian Century, drew and held my attention this week. It signaled an interview by Elizabeth Palmer with President Jimmy Carter. They got right to the point of “evangelical” issues and con...
May 14, 2018
Evangelical Identity Crises
The champion among contenders for a “crisis” of experience and identity these years is American evangelicalism, which was born from the crises of the eighteenth century, and has been part of the Protestant package ever since. Polls, the press, and fo...
February 19, 2018
In Search of a Rectification of Names
After eighty years, the college fellowship that I attended as an undergraduate at Princeton has altered its name. “Princeton Evangelical Fellowship” is gone, replaced by “Princeton Christian Fellowship.” I was not surprised or annoyed. The original t...
October 26, 2017
In Defense of the Liberal in the Study of Religion
Editor's note: In observance of the holidays, Sightings will be off next week. We wish to thank all those who have contributed, read, shared, and responded to our columns this past year. See you in 2017! In the aftermath of the U.S. president...
December 22, 2016
InterVarsity Blues
The world of Evangelical higher education keeps making news. Wheaton College in Illinois recently dealt with a flap over a faculty member’s theological comments about Christianity and Islam. She is no longer at Wheaton. And last week, the InterVarsit...
October 17, 2016
Is Trump an Outsider Candidate?
Editor's note. This is the second in a series of essays on the Trump phenomenon—or "Trumpism," if such a thing can be defined—and what it reveals about the relationship between religion and politics in America today. Be sure to check out the previous...