237: Kristin Du Mez and Knowing Christian History

Kristin Du Mez is Professor of History at Calvin University and author of Jesus and John Wayne. If you haven’t heard about this book yet, you will soon because it is lighting Evangelicalism on fire. Kristin shares about growing up a bit sheltered in Northwest Iowa Dutch country, how moving and travel began to expand her understanding of the world, and why she decided to address militarism in the Christian faith. Kristen’s story reminds us that we need to know Christian history to understand our faith.

Listen to Kristin’s story now!

Stories Kristin shared:

Growing up in Dutch Reformed circles in Northwest, Iowa
Feeling supported and nurtured in that area
Moving to Tallahassee, FL and learning that she was a little sheltered
Spending a year in Germany
Growing up always believing and making a profession of faith in college
Cultivating spiritual experiences through reading in Christian history
Observing how faith can be used to grasp for power
A summer of discontent
How understanding Christianity changed her faith
The history of biblical literalism and how that shaped her
Taking off the pressure to be right
Landing on intellectual engagement as a way to inform her faith
Deciding to address militarism in Christian faith
Wrestling with whether she should be bringing issues to the fore
How the cold war influenced our faith today
How the Bible gets distorted and treated as truth
The fruit of the Spirit as the definition of biblical masculinity

Great quotes from Kristin:

My working assumption was that Christianity is constant within history. If anything, my historical studies disrupted this notion of communion with my fellow believers.

If you’re holding on so tightly to your narrow conception of truth, that’s a faith that can easily be shaken.

A lot of Evangelicals have bought into a very us versus them mentality, that God is on our side and therefore anything that I do is righteous.

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