The Pietist Schoolman

I’m happy to pass along this announcement about “A Celebration of the Covenant Pilgrimage,” a four-week adult Sunday School class that will be presented at Salem Covenant Church next month (January 6, 13, 20, 27), kicking off a year-long celebration of our congregation’s 125th anniversary.

Alas, I’ll be in Europe for most of the course, but I’d certainly recommend it to any of my readers who are interested in Pietism and the history of the Covenant Church (two connected themes I’ll be exploring myself two weeks after the conclusion of David’s class, as the speaker for Bethlehem Covenant’s annual Winter Seminar — learn more here).

It’ll be taught by Dr. David Hawkinson, a Covenant minister, pastoral counselor, and longtime contributor to the newsletter Pietisten. I hope he won’t mind me adding that his father was Zenos Hawkinson — the longtime North Park history professor whose essay on Pietism and education gives this blog its name.

Here’s the text of the course announcement:

In this four-part series, we will look into the origin of the elements that shaped our history and which continue to nurture and challenge our identity as a Covenant movement. Each session will include engaging a core biblical text as we explore some critical historical moments that helped shape our evolving narrative. We invite you to join us to learn, share your questions, and your own experience. This is an opportunity for us to celebrate our unique place and mission in God’s great story.

The influential Swedish Lutheran theologian, Carl Olof Rosenius, begins his hymn “With God As Our Friend,” expressing the joy found in the distinctive faith of the Covenant experience: Word and Spirit; companionship with God and with each other; Jesus as the Guide along the way. Dr. Hawkinson will engage us in a journey into these deep themes, rooted in historic Pietism which flowed throughout the Swedish landscape, awakening hearts with new life and mission.

The class will be offered twice each Sunday, 9:50am and 11:00am. (Worship at 8:30, 9:50, and 11:00am.) Here’s the week-by-week schedule:

1. “The Beginning” (Jan. 6, 2013)
2. “The Swedish Experience” (Jan. 13)
3. “The American Experience” (Jan. 20)
4. “The Modern Experience and the Future” (Jan. 27)