The Pietist Schoolman

Here…

• My favorite movie of the year is a documentary on teaching by one of my best friends.

• Latest evidence that it’s hard to define “evangelical,” the wide range of evangelical responses to a wedding sermon.

• The best version of the “Pietist option” is probably a multiethnic church.

…There and Everywhere

• Paige Patterson, the controversial president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, was finally removed from office (but kept on as president emeritus and possibly theologian-in-residence).

(One positive result of that story: it gave Andrea Turpin a platform to share some of her research on Christianity and women’s higher education.)

• It doesn’t sound like we’ve heard the last of the controversy around Patterson, who is still scheduled to address the Southern Baptist Convention during its annual meeting next month.

• Also forced out… Grove City College psychologist and blogger Warren Throckmorton, from his blog at Patheos Evangelical. Here too, I’m sure we haven’t heard the full story…

• A new study by sociologist Francesca Tripodi finds that conservative Christians often “[draw] upon the same kinds of skills taught in Bible study to determine if the news they were reading was accurate.” (H/T Kristin Du Mez)

• Jay Phelan wondered if “evangelicalism will die along with Billy Graham. Something called evangelicalism will remain, but it will be indistinguishable from fundamentalism.”

• A secular case for original sin: “What if, by connecting with the criminal, with the deranged or patently evil… we gain some deeper understanding?”

• John Kasich reminded people again why he’d make for an appealing Republican alternative to Donald Trump.

• Meanwhile, it was striking to see two leading Senate Democrats speak at the Festival of Homiletics, “pairing religion with politics in an unusually direct appeal to left-leaning Christians.”

• There’s still no National WWI Memorial in Washington, DC, but this weekend the National Mall will feature a WWI-inspired memorial to fallen soldiers from many wars.

• I look forward to using this piece on the history of Rosie the Riveter when I teach my World War II class again next spring.

• No, said Frank Bruni, “colleges needn’t abandon majors in general or supposedly arcane majors in particular in order to propel graduates into the work force.”

• Can confirm: “…whatever you think it’s like after you publish a book, it’s actually harder than that.”

• Also harder than you’d think: taking a compliment well.