Friday 5 February 2016

Three Seconds of Fame

Image result for channel 9 news chattanooga tn

Last week a reporter from Channel 9 News, Chattanooga's local ABC station, contacted me by phone in order to ask me some questions about recent trends in church decline and growth. I explained over the phone that I am a religious historian and not a sociologist, and so the best information that I could offer would be from a historical perspective. I then started to narrate the story of how the South became the so-called "Bible Belt," including how an influx of Baptist and Methodist groups in the 18th and 19th centuries populated the region, helping to create an environment where evangelicalism flourished.

After a few minutes of discussion on the phone, the reporter asked if she could stop by my office within the next hour to talk some more. She brought along with her a cameraman and equipment to interview me for an hour in my office. I talked about all kinds of information on the growth and decline of churches in the South, avoiding questions about specific churches in the Chattanooga area.

Click here for the the result of that interview and the portion of my conversation with her that aired on television last night.

Monday 1 February 2016

Book Update

I recently received the production schedule for my forthcoming book, Jonathan Edwards and Transatlantic Print Culture. If all goes well, the book should appear in print sometime in August 2016.

During the time that I submitted the manuscript to OUP in December and now, and between packing for our move to a house that is currently under construction, my twelve-year-old son and I have been having a ball playing our electric guitars. Below is Nathan pretending to be Angus Young.