W-2 PEOPLE FILES
- John D Wilsey - Billy Wilson - Kimberly Wilson - Sandy Wilson - Mark Wingfield -
john d wilsey
John D. Wilsey is Associate Professor Church History and Philosophy at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Research Fellow at the Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy. He is also the author of American Exceptionalism and Civil Religion: Reassessing the History of an Idea and One Nation under God? An Evangelical Critique of Christian America. Wilsey is a columnist for World Opinions, and his other public writings have appeared in outlets such as Law and Liberty, Current, Acton’s Commentary, Christianity Today, Providence, Public Discourse, 9Marks Journal, The Gospel Coalition, Aeon, History News Network, The American Conservative, The Imaginative Conservative, Anxious Bench, Religion and Liberty, and Religion in American History. He has reviewed numerous books for Themelios, Southeastern Theological Review, Public Discourse, Fides et Historia, Westminster Theological Journal, Trinity Journal, The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, Journal of Church and State, Evangelical Quarterly, Journal of Markets and Morality, H-Diplo, Ad Fontes, and The London Lyceum. He is an elder at Kenwood Baptist Church at Victory Memorial in Louisville.
John D Wilsey Files
Nationalism...is the multifaceted and contested ideology that forms the vocabulary and imagination of a political community. And religion has always played an important role in the development of nationalism. Sometimes nationalism is harmful, but sometimes it is a necessary part of our collective effort at identifying ourselves and our ideals. In one sense, we are all nationalists. If we look to the Constitution as the supreme law of the land, then we are nationalists of one sort. If we look to America as a New Israel, then we are nationalists of another sort. But not all nationalisms are the same.
Elie Kedourie, a twentieth-century scholar who taught at the London School of Economics, mapped nationalism’s subtleties and complexities, particularly those introduced by the influence of religious and philosophical ideas. Kedourie wrote or edited over twenty books in his career, and Anthony Smith summarized his work on nationalism by observing that he saw three kinds of relationships between nationalism and religion.
First, some nationalistic expressions are secular. Secular, revolutionary nationalism displaces and stamps out traditional religion as a partner alongside the state in securing order and social cohesion. Its key marker is its open hostility to traditional religion. This kind of nationalism is exemplified by eighteenth-century revolutionary France and twentieth-century revolutionary Russia. But even the violently secular revolutionary French and Soviets employed religious rituals, symbols, and behaviors for nationalistic purposes.
Second, some nationalistic expressions find an alliance with traditional religion. In this model, institutional religion subordinates itself to a nation in support of its political agenda. Under this kind of nationalism, acquiescent religions are subsumed into the state and become defined by the nation’s aims rather than by trans-political creedal tenets. An example of this would be the Anglican established church in England, with the monarch as the head of the church. English nationalism, especially as it was manifested in the nineteenth century, was informed by the sacred texts, images, symbols, and rites of the Anglican establishment.
We do not have to look far for examples of Christian nationalism emanating from the right. But equally troubling is the secular nationalism and state-driven civil religion that’s emerging from the left.
Third, nationalism often takes traditional religion and fashions it into a political theology. This kind of nationalism consists in a composite of theological themes that are articulated for a nationalistic agenda. For example, biblical ideas such as mission or election are borrowed from a coherent theological framework and redefined according to political goals. So in the 1840s, American manifest destiny represented a redefinition of the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19–20 from carrying the gospel of salvation in Christ to the world to extending the American Union over all North America. This third brand of nationalism takes religious doctrines and perverts them for purposes for which they were never designed, as opposed to the second brand of nationalism, in which traditional religion is not essentially redefined. Such a model seems consistent with how Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry define today’s Christian nationalism in their book, Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States (Oxford, 2020).
-John D Wilsey ; Public Discourse; Progressive Nationalism 2.22.22
Elie Kedourie, a twentieth-century scholar who taught at the London School of Economics, mapped nationalism’s subtleties and complexities, particularly those introduced by the influence of religious and philosophical ideas. Kedourie wrote or edited over twenty books in his career, and Anthony Smith summarized his work on nationalism by observing that he saw three kinds of relationships between nationalism and religion.
First, some nationalistic expressions are secular. Secular, revolutionary nationalism displaces and stamps out traditional religion as a partner alongside the state in securing order and social cohesion. Its key marker is its open hostility to traditional religion. This kind of nationalism is exemplified by eighteenth-century revolutionary France and twentieth-century revolutionary Russia. But even the violently secular revolutionary French and Soviets employed religious rituals, symbols, and behaviors for nationalistic purposes.
Second, some nationalistic expressions find an alliance with traditional religion. In this model, institutional religion subordinates itself to a nation in support of its political agenda. Under this kind of nationalism, acquiescent religions are subsumed into the state and become defined by the nation’s aims rather than by trans-political creedal tenets. An example of this would be the Anglican established church in England, with the monarch as the head of the church. English nationalism, especially as it was manifested in the nineteenth century, was informed by the sacred texts, images, symbols, and rites of the Anglican establishment.
We do not have to look far for examples of Christian nationalism emanating from the right. But equally troubling is the secular nationalism and state-driven civil religion that’s emerging from the left.
Third, nationalism often takes traditional religion and fashions it into a political theology. This kind of nationalism consists in a composite of theological themes that are articulated for a nationalistic agenda. For example, biblical ideas such as mission or election are borrowed from a coherent theological framework and redefined according to political goals. So in the 1840s, American manifest destiny represented a redefinition of the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19–20 from carrying the gospel of salvation in Christ to the world to extending the American Union over all North America. This third brand of nationalism takes religious doctrines and perverts them for purposes for which they were never designed, as opposed to the second brand of nationalism, in which traditional religion is not essentially redefined. Such a model seems consistent with how Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry define today’s Christian nationalism in their book, Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States (Oxford, 2020).
-John D Wilsey ; Public Discourse; Progressive Nationalism 2.22.22
billy wilson
William Marion Wilson (born October 4, 1958) is the president of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was previously the vice chairman for ORU board of trustees. Wilson attended the Pentecostal Theological Seminary in Cleveland, Tennessee, where he earned his Master of Arts and Doctor of Ministry degrees.
June 2, 2023: Charisma: ORU Celebrates 10 Years of Billy Wilson’s ‘Transformative Leadership’
Since Dr. Billy Wilson took office as Oral Roberts University’s fourth president in June 2013, the Christian university not only has continued its commitment to excellence in education, but it has seen a great deal of positive growth toward a bright future.
Since Dr. Billy Wilson took office as Oral Roberts University’s fourth president in June 2013, the Christian university not only has continued its commitment to excellence in education, but it has seen a great deal of positive growth toward a bright future.
kimberly wilson
Feb 15, 2023: Religion News Service: A 300-year-old church hopes to connect with spiritual but not religious neighbors
It’s also hosted speakers, including Kimberly Wilson, who performed “A Journey,” her one-woman show about Black women who shaped American history; writer Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati, author of “Hollywood to the Himalayas,” which details her life as a Hindu convert; and the Rev. Matthew Wright, an Episcopal priest and Sufi practitioner who teaches about contemplation. A current series features author Mark Greene, host of the “Remaking Manhood” podcast.
It’s also hosted speakers, including Kimberly Wilson, who performed “A Journey,” her one-woman show about Black women who shaped American history; writer Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati, author of “Hollywood to the Himalayas,” which details her life as a Hindu convert; and the Rev. Matthew Wright, an Episcopal priest and Sufi practitioner who teaches about contemplation. A current series features author Mark Greene, host of the “Remaking Manhood” podcast.
sandy wilson
May 19, 2023: Christian Post: ‘He changed my life’: 5 remembrances of Tim Keller
“Tim Keller was a once-in-a-century sort of person. There is no pastor I know, in the last 100 years, who did what Tim Keller did to take the Reformed faith to the street, to the church, and to the academy,” said TGC Interim President Sandy Willson, as quoted in the condolences.
“He will be remembered among this generation’s most effective Christian pastors, apologists, and evangelists. Tim not only made the most articulate arguments for the Christian faith; he also demonstrated our faith with his humble and gracious spirit and his relentless passion to see the lost come to know the Lord he so loved.”
“Tim Keller was a once-in-a-century sort of person. There is no pastor I know, in the last 100 years, who did what Tim Keller did to take the Reformed faith to the street, to the church, and to the academy,” said TGC Interim President Sandy Willson, as quoted in the condolences.
“He will be remembered among this generation’s most effective Christian pastors, apologists, and evangelists. Tim not only made the most articulate arguments for the Christian faith; he also demonstrated our faith with his humble and gracious spirit and his relentless passion to see the lost come to know the Lord he so loved.”
mark wingfield
Mark Wingfield serves as executive director and publisher of Baptist News Global. He recently served 17 years as associate pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas. Prior to that, he spent 21 years in denominational journalism. His latest book is Why Churches Need to Talk about Sexuality (Fortress Press). He and his wife, Alison, are parents of two adult sons and live in Dallas.
Mark Wingfield
“What in the name of everything righteous and holy is wrong with 30 per cent of Americans? We’ve spent six years diagnosing why evangelical Christians have taken the bait and followed someone who is the antithesis of their professed faith. We’ve exhausted that inquiry, and nothing productive will come of it right now. What we need to focus on instead is those who are Trump enablers through their silence”.
--Mark Wingfield; Baptist News Global; How many indictments will be too many? 8.1.23
--Mark Wingfield; Baptist News Global; How many indictments will be too many? 8.1.23