Today’s Thanksgiving feast has its origins in an English Reformation tradition carried on by the pilgrims who arrived at Plymouth in 1620. In an affront to the Catholic liturgical calendar, Puritans celebrated days of fasting and days of feasting—notably the day of feasting at the end of the fall harvest—in gratitude for God’s provision. In an age where consumption of food is often far removed from fields where it is produced, a growing number of evangelicals have reinterpreted the holiday as a time not only to thank God for abundance, but to examine where abundance comes from and the ethics of food, hunger, and environment.
October 2, 1187: Muslim general Saladin captures Jerusalem from the crusaders (see issue 40: The Crusades).
October 2, 1792: A dozen English ministers form the Baptist Missionary Society "for the propagation of the Gospel among the Heathen, according to the recommendations of [William] Carey's Enquiry" (see issue 36: William Carey).
October 2, 1800: Slave and lay preacher Nat Turner is born in Southampton County, Virginia. Inspired by biblical texts, the deeply religious and ascetic ...
