1/22/14 – The newest channel over at Patheos is Mission:Work, “a place where conversation happens about work and faith.” Guided by senior editor Chris Armstrong, it encompasses multiple blogs offering Christian reflections on work and workplaces, calling, economics, and other topics that evangelicals — in my experience — have tended to neglect. Check it out!
Unsurprisingly, the blogosphere yesterday was replete with reflections on Martin Luther King, Jr. One particular genre of King tributes stood out: those that sought to recover what the authors claimed was a lost, neglected, or “whitewashed” facet of one of the few Americans to whom virtually all partisans appeal. One sub-genre: Christian attempts to remind … More Recovering MLK, the Christian Prophet
On the day this nation honors the birth of Martin Luther King, Jr., let me repost something I wrote last year on the anniversary of his death. You’ll find similar points made this morning by Derek Rishmawy. Martin Luther King, Jr. has been much on my mind of late. And not just because yesterday marked … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: The Letter from a Birmingham Jail
Here… • Little did I realize that adding Jared Burkholder as a regular blogger here would mean more posts on both sects and sex. • Giving a mini-homily on Genesis 35 reminded me that Carl Lundquist once used that text to reflect more deeply on what it means that Bethel is Beth-El, the House of … More That Was The Week That Was
While I’m grateful beyond words for my dedicated readers who follow this blog regularly, the majority of visits to this site come from people who are looking for something specific on Google and land here. Usually the searches are predictable: “Christian colleges”; “Bethel financial challenges”; “how do I buy a copy of The Pietist Impulse … More Fun with Google
The enormous, blogging-unfriendly workload notwithstanding, there’s at least one clear benefit of teaching a course in Bethel’s three-week intensive known as “J-term”: when you spend nearly three hours per afternoon with students, class really does start to feel like a community. I’m not great at community-building, but I do appreciate the insights of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s … More Bethel or Luz? The Christian College as the “House of God”
Here… • Having to teach a new course on the history of WWII for three hours each afternoon during Bethel’s J-term has definitely made it a challenge to find time for blogging. But getting ready for that course also yielded this meditation for Epiphany, on finding light in the “thick darkness” that covered the earth … More That Was The Week That Was
A few days into this centenary year of its beginning, the First World War is already prompting controversy: Yesterday New York Times Europe correspondent Alan Cowell checked in with an update on what remains an open question among historians: Was the outbreak of war primarily due to the reckless, cynical ambitions of German military and … More WWI at 100: Commemoration and “Political Correctness”
My new World War II course — belatedly kicking off this afternoon — fulfills a general education category at Bethel that focuses on the development of Western life and thought in the “modern” era. So as I set up the course today, one theme I need to introduce is the war as a crucible of … More Are Human Rights in Decline?
If it weren’t for the fact that the wind chill is nearing fifty below Fahrenheit here in the Twin Cities and Bethel has joined other colleges and schools in closing for the day, this afternoon I would be kicking off my new course on the history of World War II. Since today is also the … More “Thick Darkness”: An Epiphany Meditation on Teaching WWII
The Pietist Schoolman 