Category: Uncategorized

Making Baptist History Public Webinar

For those who weren’t able to Zoom in and are interested in the subject, last month’s webinar on Between Dixie and Zion–part of the wonderful Making Baptist History Public series organized by Andrew Gardner–has been uploaded to YouTube. I am grateful for the opportunity to have been a part of the series, most especially because of the thoughtful response of Rev. Dr. Allison Tanner of Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church in Oakland, CA, and the great questions and comments offered by the congregants of Ravensworth Baptist Church, which is located outside DC. Here’s a very thorough write-up on the event from Jeff Brumley of the Baptist News. And here is the video:

Between Dixie and Zion Webinar

I’m very grateful to the Baptist History and Heritage Society for inviting me to participate in their Making Baptist History Public webinar series. The concept is great–scholars of Baptist history talk about their work with a sponsor congregation and a pastoral respondent. This Thursday, 11/3, I’ll be speaking to members of Ravensworth Baptist Church in Virginia. Allison Tanner of Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church in Oakland will be the respondent. Everyone’s invited, though! You just have to register here.

Dorothy Thompson and Zionism

Source: LOC

I have a new article out in the most recent American Jewish History on journalist and political commentator Dorothy Thompson’s relationship to the Zionist movement and Israel.

Thompson was a remarkable figure. She was the first woman to lead an American newspaper’s overseas news bureau (as the Berlin bureau chief for the Philadelphia Public Ledger). She endured a lively but tumultuous marriage to Sinclair Lewis (for a time). She was the first American columnist to interview Hitler, whom she mocked as “insignificant” and “formless” in a 1932 profile for Cosmopolitan. During the crises of the 1930s, Thompson became perhaps the foremost American advocate of a political solution to the growing international refugee crisis (as well as privately supporting a number of individual refugees). After the initial outbreak of WWII in 1939, she used her platform as one of the most widely-read political commentators in the US to urge American support for the Allies.

What prompted my interest in Thompson, though, was that she famously went from being a fervent supporter of the Zionist movement in the early 1940s to one of its leading critics after the establishment of Israel in 1948. This shift alternately puzzled, excited, and angered her contemporaries. How and why did it happen? Read “‘Weizmann to her was God’: Dorothy’s Thompson’s Journey to and From Zionism” to find out…

New Review of BDZ

Jackson Reinhardt has offered a thorough and generous review of Between Dixie and Zion in the Alabama Review. Here’s a brief excerpt:

“…this text is a fantastic academic resource. Robins’ careful and expert analysis of primary sources–from small Baptist newspapers to presidential recollections–and secondary sources on all manner of topics–Palestinian history, Jewish history, history of Baptists, evangelicals, and Christian Zionism–is highly commendable. His emphasis on how personal, contextual encounters shape theological and ideological commitments of anti-/pro-Zionism should be seriously considered and employed by future histories focusing on American Christian perspectives on Palestine. Rather than merely reciting the prevailing political and theological positions of a given period from merely established scholars and authorities, following Robins’s method can provide future histories on Christian Zionism with all the nuance, complexity, and problematics a denominational missionary, leader, and layperson encounters.”

Experiencing the Pandemic

Last semester, I taught a course on public history called “History Outside of the Classroom.” This was my first time teaching that course–really, it was my first time teaching that kind of course at all. I was interested in it, though, because I thought that the pandemic presented a unique opportunity for students to do a different kind of historical work than they usually do in my classrooms.

So, I organized the class around gathering materials for an online exhibition about the Merrimack community’s experiences during the pandemic. Students were tasked with legally and ethically acquiring relevant artifacts and interviews, as well as preparing them for exhibition. Altogether, they did a fantastic job–as I told them repeatedly, I think they created something of real historical value. I’m very pleased to now share their work with the public. Please have a look at Experiencing the Pandemic: a Merrimack College Public History Project.

Another Review of Between Dixie and Zion

From Eve Spangler in the Journal of Religious History: “Robins correctly identifies the ways in which Orientalism shaped the major questions that constituted the internal Southern Baptist conversation about Israel and Palestine: the suffering of the Jews, the call to missionary zeal, and the ambitions of the Western powers for global dominance even before the Cold War. He uses archival materials adroitly and thoroughly. He writes gracefully and clearly. He takes us deftly through a rich array of debates to show how the original Southern Baptist scepticism about Zionism and Israel morphed into unconditional and aggressive support….Robins’ book is an important contribution to the history of American religious communities’ role in the Middle East. It will be useful as a text for courses in theological seminaries and in the sociology of religion.”

New Review of Between Dixie and Zion

I’m happy to report that another review of Between Dixie and Zion just dropped. Thomas Kidd reviewed the book for Church History and, thankfully, posted it publicly for readers of his blog at The Gospel Coalition. Kidd, who co-wrote the book on Baptist Christianity in America, raises some good questions about the extent to which early twentieth century Southern Baptists can be described as “evangelical.” I might post some thoughts on those questions here if I can find some time during the semester. In the meantime, check out Kidd’s thoughtful review of “a book that anyone interested in Baptist history or American views of Israel should definitely read.”

Interview with Tavis Smiley

This week, I did an interview for Tavis Smiley’s new show on KBLA 1580 about the evangelical-Israel relationship (prompted by this piece in The Conversation). As usual, I was double-billed with Dame Dash.

You can listen here:

Two Reviews of Between Dixie and Zion

I’m happy to share excerpts from two reviews of Between Dixie and Zion.

Yaakov Ariel reviewed BDZ in the 2020 volume of Southern Jewish History:

“Between Dixie and Zion is impressive in the extent and depth of its research. Unearthing a large array of primary sources and refusing to follow convention perceptions, Robins weaves a fresh and complex portrayal of Baptist images of and involvement with Palestine and its peoples….Students of religion in America will therefore find Robins’s book highly instructive. They will join readers who are interested in the history of Christianity and the Holy Land, as well as the development of Christian attitudes towards Jews, Zionism, Arabs, Muslims, and Eastern Christianity.”

Eric Newberg reviewed it in the Autumn 2020 issue of the Journal of Church and State:

“…for those seeking a meticulously researched account of formative encounters of Southern Baptists that shaped their perspectives on the question of Palestine, this book is just that and more. It makes a significant and judicious contribution to the body of scholarship of the engagement of evangelical Christians with the complexities of Israel/Palestine.”

I’ve learned a lot from the work of both of these scholars in studying American evangelical engagement with Jews and Zionism over the years, so I am very grateful to have my own work so thoughtfully reviewed by them.

If you want to buy Between Dixie and Zion, try here or here or here. If you’re looking to borrow it, start here.