Over the past eighteen months, I have been traveling the world searching for objects related to the history of Christianity. Over the course of my journey I have visited some of the world’s great museums. And as much as I have enjoyed these world-class institutions, I have also found special benefit in visiting much smaller ones. While the great museums try to tell the stories of entire ages and civilizations, their smaller siblings usually have much more modest goals—to tell …

It is impossible to consider the modern history or contemporary state of Christianity without accounting for the sudden rise, the explosive spread, and the worldwide impact of Pentecostalism. To that end, I’ve been reading several books on the subject, focused especially on the Azusa Street Revival, which most historians consider the setting in which Pentecostalism began. Here are a few key points I’ve learned about the Azusa Street Revival and the Azusa Street Mission that housed it. Its roots were …

There are entire academic disciplines that exist in a kind of self-perpetuating circle. Professors teach students so those students can become professors and, in turn, teach more students. Such disciplines serve no practical purpose and have no reason to exist beyond academia. Like mathematics, for example. It serves no purpose in the world and nobody ever uses math once they graduate. It exists only within schools so it can create that perpetual cycle of students and professors. Thankfully, there are …