Here…
• Study Day during Finals Week isn’t really a typical day in my life as a Christian college professor… but this year it reminded me of all the reasons why I enjoy my job.
• John Fea’s observations about the loneliness of people in our line of work got me thinking about history as being akin to the spiritual discipline of solitude.
• I’ve been trying not to get caught up in politics… but Mike Pence’s comments to the graduates of the Naval Academy rubbed me wrong in at least two ways.
…There and Everywhere
• For different reasons, Samuel Son and Brian Zahnd wished that Christians like me would pay more attention to Ascension Day (the Christian holiday that took place this week).
• Natasha Sistrunk Robinson on the risk and cost of being a black woman within evangelicalism.
• The rap artist Propaganda talked with Jonathan Merritt about faith and justice in hip-hop.
• One more response to the Tish Warren piece on blogging and authority, from Zach Hoag.
• Thanks to Pope Francis, Europeans no longer make up a majority of the College of Cardinals, as bishops from places like Laos, Mali, and El Salvador enter leadership.
• Why should Christians read biographies? John Piper has some thoughts…
• If you’re like me, you’re struggling to keep pace with all the good scholarship being done for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. Fortunately, The New Yorker ran a nice review essay dedicated to recent works on the life and legacy of the “complicated, superbly talented” Martin Luther.
• Last week I shared a piece about how the city of Richmond has added civil rights memorials to a commemorative landscape studded with Confederate statues. This week: the mayor of New Orleans made an eloquent appeal for another approach.
• How to teach controversial topics with civility? Andrea Turpin reflected on teaching feminism to fundamentalists — and fundamentalism to feminists.
• I’m pretty sure that an automated approach to teaching would struggle with the challenge Andrea raises…
• At least at the state level, are some Republicans finding conservative rationale for climate initiatives?
• I find it difficult to write well about my opinions on abortion… so I’m glad that I can simply point you to this terrific essay by Katelyn Beaty.
• On that issue or many others, is there a political future for moderates?
• If I weren’t a responsible professor didn’t have a grading deadline, I would spend hours and hours reliving all my favorite 1980s Mac programs.
The Pietist Schoolman 