Here…
• Welcome back to blogging, Jared Burkholder!
• If you read Jared’s return post, you’ll notice a plug for a Pietist Vision event coming up… I gave less subtle plugs on behalf of myself for an April visit to Messiah College and my appearance on the podcast Christian Humanist Profiles
• Our newest Past & Presence webisode inspired a reflection on the sacredness of paper clips and other artifacts one encounters in historical research
…There and Everywhere
• Even when I don’t agree with him, Christian Piatt is helpfully provocative with his questions: What does it mean to “Repent, for the kingdom is at hand”? And is following Jesus more about right hearts than right minds or right actions?
• A Christian publisher suddenly dropped a manuscript by Brandan Robertson, who identifies as both evangelical and queer.
• And a student at Wheaton College who questioned its stance on sexuality had an apple thrown at him by a peer.
• Gordon College had experienced controversy last year over its position on this issue… Now it’s back in the news for a decision that is much less mundane than it sounds: the sale of some rare books in its collection.
• This Atlantic article on schools and universities acknowledging dark moments in their pasts reminded me of our fall discussion of confession as an element of institutional history.
• It’s not exactly a great time to be a for-profit college…
• …but it’s a great time to be Liberty University, “an unexpected model for the future of higher education” according to the Chronicle of that sector (subscription required).
• Historians everywhere have been up in arms after a Republican-dominated legislative committee voted in favor of a misbegotten bill from an Oklahoma pastor-politician (and there’s an unpromising combination) mandating that his state board of education reject the recently revised AP US History course in favor of a more patriotic alternative. Not unexpectedly, I most appreciated the responses from my favorite U.S. historian-bloggers, Tracy McKenzie and John Fea.
• Is this project on the “Spanish flu” a model for collaboration between historians and computer scientists?
• RIP Theodore Hesburgh, one of the great university presidents of the 20th century.
• And while we’re at it… RIP Leonard Nimoy, creator of the greatest character in the Star Trek universe.
• And farewell to what’s probably “the last great NBC comedy.”
