9/8/11 – On this week’s episode of CWC: The Radio Show… Sam, Sara, Amy, and I discuss the Minnesota State Fair, disrespect for crop and seed art, the opening week of the NFL season, electric lawnmowers, and why ancient Athens looms so large over Western philosophy. Get episodes here, or click on the logo on … More This Week on CWC: The Radio Show
In my introduction to this new series blogging through Mark Noll and Carolyn Nystrom’s Clouds of Witnesses: Christian Voices from Africa and Asia (InterVarsity Press), I noted that the authors had made a point of selecting men and women not yet widely known by Christians in the West, and that they faced the challenge of … More Clouds of Witnesses: Africans and Empire
A couple of years ago I was asked to give three talks as part of our church’s mid-spring “family camp,” at Covenant Pines in northern Minnesota. There weren’t many stipulations, not even a suggested topic, but I was encouraged to be “inspiring.” Now, as a trained scholar who studies some pretty awful episodes in human … More Clouds of Witnesses: Introduction
9/6/11 – Fascinating story in the Detroit Free Press about Covert Township, MI, which has had racially integrated schools since African-American settlers first arrived, the year after the end of the Civil War. (H/T to my friend Mark Totten.) Not nearly as remarkable, but kind of fun: we stopped in Covert during our vacation in … More Ahead of Its Time
One of my favorite things about the church we attend is its music ministry. Even for a church of our size, it’s remarkable that we have enough musically gifted members (some of them professional musicians, most talented amateurs) to support multiple adult, youth, and children’s choirs, a contemporary worship band, bell choirs, a wind ensemble, … More My Four Favorite Sounds
9/5/11 – How is Labor Day observed, or not observed? Nathan Gilmour asks about churches; John Fea about colleges and schools (Bethel is off, for the record); and Will McDonald has a long, excellent piece lamenting that Major League Baseball pays so little attention to this holiday, unlike Memorial Day or Independence Day (H/T Craig … More Labor Day Silences
Labor Day Edition September 5, 1882 – New York City hosts America’s first Labor Day parade Here’s how the New York Times began its report on the proceedings: The parade of the working men yesterday, although not so large as its organizers had predicted, was conducted in an orderly and pleasant manner. Those who rode … More This Week in History
Here at The Pietist Schoolman My 100th post: a “This Week in History” segment featuring two devastating fires, Lincoln’s killer’s killer, and the rises and falls of the Dutch and British empires. A two-part post jumping off from the recent discussion of “Dominion theology” and its influence on Republican presidential candidates Michelle Bachmann and Rick … More That Was the Week That Was
9/2/11 – Coming up next week… A labor history-themed This Week in History, stories of African and Asian Christian leaders, and the belated return of my series on Christian colleges, Pietism, and the “usable past.”
Probably the best comment I ever got back from a peer reviewing one of my manuscripts was the one suggesting that I should put the educational philosophies of Karl Olsson and Carl Lundquist in conversation with the one articulated by philosopher James K. A. Smith in Desiring the Kingdom. I was familiar with DtK before … More “You say pietism, I say Pietism”
The Pietist Schoolman 