Posts From Bruce Ashford

How to Get the Most out of an Academic Conference

As I write, I am preparing to attend several academic conferences, including the Evangelical Theological and Philosophical Societies, the Society for Biblical Literature, and the American Academy of Religion. (Or, as I call these conferences, “Revenge of the Nerds”). I’ve attended these meetings for more than fifteen years now, starting as a doctoral student and [ Read More ]

How America Lost Its Mind

Kurt Anderson’s Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire is one of the bestselling and most discussed books of the year. In this fast-paced and provocative work of revisionist history and diagnostic journalism, Anderson argues that Americans have recently become untethered from reality and that Trump’s election represents the high point of our collective delusion. More importantly, Anderson argues Americans [ Read More ]

The 7 Deadly Sins of Political Junkies

I’ve been following politics in America since I was a teenager. I’ve listened to countless radio talk shows, watched an imponderable number of talking heads on cable news networks, and read the political news and opinion columns of a dozen different papers. As a writer, I also publish opinion pieces regularly with several conservative media [ Read More ]

A “Yes” and a “No” to the Most Important Religious Book of the Year

Rod Dreher’s The Benedict Option is the bestselling and most discussed religious book of the past year. In it Dreher argues that the past few decades in American life have revealed the extent to which Bible-believing Christians have been decentered socially, culturally, and politically. An increasing number of Americans—including those with cultural power—view historic Christianity as implausible, [ Read More ]