Dale M. Coulter

Pope Francis’ recent address to a conference of prosperity-preaching ministers sponsored by Kenneth Copeland has many people talking. On the one hand, there are those who have expressed deep concern and dismay about this event. They wonder what ecclesial status Tony Palmer—a longtime . . . . Continue Reading »

A recent meeting of ministers associated with the prosperity-preaching Word of Faith branch of charismatic Christianity received a surprise announcement: Pope Francis had sent a message to the conference. It was something of a historic moment. Beginning around the thirty-minute mark of the above . . . . Continue Reading »

As a child of adoption I have lived most of my life around those with whom I share no physical characteristics. This was never really an issue for me: My adoptive parents—both of whom are around a foot shorter—gave me all the love any child requires. I have always had a profound sense of . . . . Continue Reading »

In a collection of essays entitled The Sanctified Church, Zora Neale Hurston described the traditions of the African American holiness and Pentecostal churches as a “revitalizing element” in black music and religion. As someone deeply invested in African American folk culture, . . . . Continue Reading »

The issue of populism in the Evangelical ethos raises a concern for the need to differentiate between pop culture as folk culture and pop culture as mass culture. At its best, Evangelicalism seeks to preserve and foster folk culture and the critics of Evangelical piety need to recognize this . . . . Continue Reading »

Greg thank you for engaging my original post with such charity. In many ways, you were harsher on your own tribe than I would have been. Moreover, although I invoked Warfield my primary target was not the Reformed tradition per se, which I agree is broad and deep and has much to commend it. Instead, . . . . Continue Reading »

We are currently in the midst of Ordinary Time on the church calendar—the time between the times, or even “off season,” to borrow a sports metaphor. Although not in this year’s cycle, Christians usually encounter a gospel reading from John and the first miracle at the wedding . . . . Continue Reading »

The quest to find a unifying principle for the new forms of republicanism that sprouted in the wake of the French and American revolutions preoccupied the nineteenth century. One proposal was for democracies to look to culture as an organizing center for a common life, because culture concerned . . . . Continue Reading »

Whether John MacArthur wanted it or not, his Strange Fire conference has re-ignited the long-standing debate about the miraculous within Protestantism. With its penchant to classify everything, contemporary Evangelicalism has labeled this debate as being between cessationists and . . . . Continue Reading »

The installation of Hailemariam Desalegn as the prime minister in the fall of 2012 was a “Catholic” moment in the history of Ethiopia, which up to this point had been led by members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. This development may be insightful, not simply as an example of the rise of Protestantism in Ethiopia, but also as a mirror for a kind of political discourse that is both religious and committed to religious freedom. Continue Reading »