Dale M. Coulter

Three events this past fall suggest the need to grapple with the nature of populism again, especially religious populism and its relationship to renewal and the life of the mind. While each of these events deal with different slices of Christianity (Pentecostal, Evangelical, and Catholic), they all . . . . Continue Reading »

I was recently reminded of the ongoing problems with a historical paradigm that has been with us since the Jazz Age, when fundamentalist Baptists and Presbyterians in largely northern denominations broke with modernist Baptists and Presbyterians. Given this historical paradigm, Protestantism tends . . . . Continue Reading »

Advent evokes struggle, the struggle to let in the light and dispel the darkness. Preparing the way of the Lord is not a passive enterprise, but a peregrination to break through the veil with prayers, praises, and lamentations so that the rays of righteousness may peer over the horizon igniting the . . . . Continue Reading »

When Cardinal Jorge Borgoglio became Francis there was a ripple of excitement that ran through parts of the Pentecostal community. This excitement was related to then Cardinal Borgoglio’s actions in Argentina as represented in the picture of prayers being offered for him by Raniero . . . . Continue Reading »

I’ve always been struck by the ascription of philanthropia to God in Titus 3:4. God is a lover of humanity. Philanthropia is also closely associated with humanitas , as Jerome understood when he employed the Latin term in his translation of the verse. God’s love for humanity is an . . . . Continue Reading »

Since moving to Virginia I have experienced a divided mind although I know scripture warns against such. Growing up on the east coast of Florida, I have a strong inclination to side with the claim that the first Thanksgiving really occurred on September 8, 1565 between Pedro Menéndez de . . . . Continue Reading »

I love being part of ecumenical dialogues because I always learn as much about my own family of churches as I do about the other traditions represented. A few years ago I was involved in an ecumenical conversation as one of five representatives of Pentecostalism. The team members were from various . . . . Continue Reading »

In 1939, the historian Christopher Dawson penned the essay ” Catholicism and the Bourgeois Mind ,” a call for resistance to the bourgeois mentality. Dawson set a hostile tone almost immediately by declaring that “it is difficult to deny that there is a fundamental disharmony . . . . Continue Reading »

I wish to thank Gerald McDermott for his response to my opening First Things blog . Rather than addressing what he says in a straightforward manner, in part because I recognize agreement on the basic thrust and do not wish to quibble over the details, let me propose a way forward. First, I think my . . . . Continue Reading »

In his short treatise How to Study Poetry , Plutarch (d. ca. 120) takes a somewhat cautious approach to the form. On the one hand, he commends poetry as providing an introduction to philosophy (in the ancient sense of a quest for wisdom to live a life that flourishes). On the other hand, he . . . . Continue Reading »