Maybe some of you appear in the news media all the time. I don’t. So in a week that’s already seen me quoted in Christianity Today‘s story about the troubling situation at North Greenville University, it’s a bit overwhelming also to see an interview with me appear on the website of my denomination’s magazine, The Covenant Companion. Reporter Stan … More New Interview on Pietism and Higher Education
If you offered me fifteen minutes to share what’s at the heart of my belief as a Christian and how that shapes my understanding of education, I think this is the best answer I could give. It’s the text of the convocation address I delivered yesterday in the opening chapel of the 2015-2016 academic year at Bethel University. Thanks to … More The Body of Christ
Until he died last night, I had no idea that horror film director Wes Craven had graduated from Wheaton College. (He discussed his fundamentalist Baptist upbringing and his decision to flee from it in a 2011 interview with the New York Times Magazine.) Of course, this got me wondering: who else would I be surprised to learn … More Who Are the Most Surprising Christian College Alumni?
It was quite an August — twice as many of you came here as in a typical month. Here were the ten most popular posts: Standing with the CCCU Mennonites, Evangelicals, and the Sexuality Debate in Christian Higher Ed (Devin Manzullo-Thomas) Quick Thoughts on Union University Withdrawing from the CCCU A Hopeful Vision for Christian … More The Big Ten
Here… • I realized the nerdiest dream any Christian scholar could dream: being published in Books and Culture. • Is Lamentations one of the Bible’s “most neglected” books? What other texts are in that category? • As I inched closer to the beginning of the semester, I had much less to say about Christian higher ed per se… … More That Was The Week That Was
I couldn’t quite maintain the standards of academic decorum when I saw that the newest issue of Books & Culture included my first piece for the best Christian cultural review around. The sports expression “Act like you’ve been there before” comes to mind… But hey, it’s the 20th anniversary issue! And my name is even on the cover! And they … More Look Who’s in Books and Culture!
I’ve been reading Andy Crouch’s Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power for about four months now and I’m barely a third of the way through it. Not because it’s bad! Quite the contrary: it’s one of those books that I have to set down every page or two because I need to think about the point being … More What We Mean When We Say We Want Christian Unity
Yesterday Everett Piper, the president of Oklahoma Wesleyan University, presented a position paper to his faculty and staff, elaborating on why he feels justified in threatening to pull OKWU out of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities if the CCCU does not expel Goshen and Eastern Mennonite by August 31st. Why would he not want that consortium even to … More What We Mean When We Say We’re Holding to Our Convictions
The current issue of Christianity Today features an interesting interview with Christopher Wright, international ministries director for Langham Partnership International and author of the newest entry in IVP Academic’s “The Bible Speaks Today” series: The Message of Lamentations: Honest to God. Twice in the magazine’s introduction Lamentations is described as one of the Bible’s “most neglected” books, a theme that … More What Are the Most Neglected Books in the Bible?
Here… • A parable of fear, thanks to my son and Paddington Bear. • Is Christian higher ed suffering a crisis of vision? • Only if the fundamentalists win and the only two Anabaptist schools in the CCCU are kicked out entirely. • But my denominational experience made me hope that the CCCU would actually become more, … More That Was The Week That Was
The Pietist Schoolman 