Tag Archives: Religion

Being a Christian Scholar in a Secular Academic World

Posted on November 12, 2025 by theamericanplutarch

The culture wars of our times have been centered in universities since the emergence of the Counter Culture in the 1960s. University scholars have often taken the lead in progressive stances on ethical, cultural, and religious issues. For many years … Continue reading →

Posted in Christianity, General Essays | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Fanny Allen (1784-1819): From Vermont to the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph

Posted on September 11, 2025 by theamericanplutarch

Fanny Allen’s commitment to the Great Commission was not flashy, the stuff of grand tales of perseverance, suffering, and martyrdom—more the everyday, the challenges to faith of family and friends, the renewed commitment time and again, the daily putting on … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Christianity, Great Commission | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Juniper Berthiaume (1744-?) French Missionary to the Penobscot Tribe

Posted on September 11, 2025 by theamericanplutarch

Pope Francis said on his Apostolic Journey to Canada in July 2022, “I have been waiting to come here and be with you! Here, from this place associated with painful memories, I would like to begin what I consider a … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Christianity, Great Commission | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Missionary John Thayer

Posted on September 11, 2025 by theamericanplutarch

John Thayer (1755-1815) was a New England convert, educated at Yale where he was taught that all things Roman Catholic were despicable. Then he went to Europe and underwent a conversion—a most unexpected religious change. He wrote a book about … Continue reading →

Posted in American History, Christianity, Great Commission | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Louis Hennepin (1626-1704), Missionary of Hope

Posted on September 11, 2025 by theamericanplutarch

When a person thinks back to the colonial American past imagining what the first Catholic missionaries who braved the elements, journeyed into the forests, and canoed down American rivers, must have been like, they are thinking of such a person … Continue reading →

Posted in American History, Biography, Christianity, God's Providence, Great Commission | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Saint Anthony of Padua, Franciscan Thaumaturgist

Posted on August 4, 2025 by theamericanplutarch

St. Anthony (1195-1231, Anno Domini) was a Franciscan thaumaturgist famous for his erudition, oratory, works of charity, and miracles. A native of Portugal, for a time he was a cleric with the monastic order of St. Augustine. In his early … Continue reading →

Posted in Christianity, FAQs of Christianity | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

God’s Providence: What did Early American Religious Thinkers Believe about the Role of God in Human Affairs?

Posted on March 29, 2024 by theamericanplutarch

The eighteenth century in America was a time of awakening from the slumber of the past. Light was shed on the darkness of superstition, irrationality, autocracy, aristocratic privilege, and dogma. The individual, weighed down by the chains of time, institutions, … Continue reading →

Posted in American History, Christianity, God's Providence | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment