Chris Gehrz

First page of the March 2014 issue of the Baptist Pietist Clarion

In the New Baptist Pietist Clarion: Pietism, Baptists, and Walter Rauschenbusch

March 13, 2014

The newest issue of The Baptist Pietist Clarion, an annual newsletter edited by my friend and occasional co-blogger G.W. Carlson, is now available in print and online. (For the former, I can put you in touch with GW. For the latter, click here.) Some highlights in a typically strong, wide-ranging issue: • Joel Lawrence reflects on … More In the New Baptist Pietist Clarion: Pietism, Baptists, and Walter Rauschenbusch

Best Picture Oscar Winners as Histories

March 12, 2014

You can tell I’ve resolved several big projects and am mentally entering Spring Break because I actually took half an hour Monday to answer a question that’s been nagging since the Academy Awards last weekend: Do the Oscars tend to favor movies set in the past? Of course, the antebellum historical drama 12 Years a Slave won … More Best Picture Oscar Winners as Histories

John Fea's virtual office hours screenshot

John Fea on Historians as Public Scholars

March 11, 2014

Probably no one has done more to encourage me to think about my vocation to serve those beyond the academy than John Fea of Messiah College. Not just on his blog, but in his frequent speaking engagements and a continuing series of “Virtual Office Hours” posted on YouTube, John models how historians can balance public … More John Fea on Historians as Public Scholars

1942 recruiting poster for the U.S. Army

Best of The Pietist Schoolman: The Purpose of the Liberal Arts is Purpose

March 10, 2014

From January… Another metaphor for education, this one occurring to me in the midst of teaching my course on the international history of World War II. In its final episode, “A World Without War,” Ken Burns’ The War arrives at the Allied liberation of concentration camps in the Third Reich. This chapter is introduced by an … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: The Purpose of the Liberal Arts is Purpose

That Was The Week That Was

March 8, 2014

Here… • We took a big step closer to the publication of The Pietist Vision of Christian Higher Education, so I celebrated by passing along the table of contents (with sample quotations from each piece). • I shared a Lenten meditation on the scriptural reminder that “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.” • About … More That Was The Week That Was

Dust and Beauty: A Lenten Meditation

March 7, 2014

“…you are dust and to dust you shall return.” (Gen 3:19b, NRSV) I heard this sobering verse twice this week within the space of eighteen hours, in two different churches and as part of two different types of worship services. First, at our church’s Ash Wednesday service, from our senior pastor as he imposed ashes … More Dust and Beauty: A Lenten Meditation

Home-Colleging?

March 6, 2014

In this turbulent year, when the most pessimistic corners of my mind conjure scenarios in which schools like my employer go under, I’ve occasionally imagined what it would look like to start a new Christian liberal arts college from scratch. For some reason, my imagination keeps turning to the end of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, a … More Home-Colleging?

Nancy as photographed for an April 1982 Clarion article

RIP Nancy Lundquist (1919-2014)

March 4, 2014

I was sorry to learn this morning that Nancy Lundquist died yesterday at the age of 94, having outlived her husband, long-serving (1954-1982) Bethel president Carl Lundquist, by twenty-three years. The two were partners in many respects, particularly in their shared commitment to spiritual disciplines, formation, and retreats. In the coming days, look for some lengthier comments … More RIP Nancy Lundquist (1919-2014)

What Do Movies Get Right and Wrong about Teaching?

March 4, 2014

It was the fall of 1993, and I was a freshman at the College of William and Mary. One night I answered a knock at our dorm room door to find a group of three very attractive women, looking through their facebook (note to readers younger than 30: I mean that they were holding a booklet … More What Do Movies Get Right and Wrong about Teaching?

Table of Contents for Our Forthcoming Book on Pietism and Christian Higher Ed

March 3, 2014

That noise you heard Friday morning emanating from somewhere in the Upper Midwest was the sound of me exhaling in relief after sending our InterVarsity Press editor the first draft of The Pietist Vision of Christian Higher Education: Forming Whole and Holy Persons. There’s still a long way to go until the book comes out (December?), … More Table of Contents for Our Forthcoming Book on Pietism and Christian Higher Ed

The Pietist Schoolman

The website of historian Chris Gehrz

Author: Chris Gehrz