Last week was a great-horrible week for those of us who teach fields like history, philosophy, languages, and literature (hereafter, “the humanities”) and wanted to be reminded (a) how essential we are and (b) how much of a crisis we’re in. Among other happenings, the New York Times published a column by David Brooks lamenting … More The Humanities in Crisis, or Not
Our favorite guest eulogist, G.W. Carlson, is back to pay tribute to another member of his cloud of witnesses: the Baptist minister and civil rights activist Will Campbell, who died earlier this month. In the first of a two-part post, G.W. characterizes Campbell as a “radical Baptist” influenced by Anabaptists. On June 4 I received … More Will D. Campbell: A Radical Baptist Peacemaker (G.W. Carlson) – part 1
When I first started teaching Bethel’s Christianity and Western Culture class, we went all the way from ancient Athens through the 20th century. We’ve since decided that that might be two or three too many centuries for one semester, but I do miss the week where we read through three 19th century Christian responses to … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: The Love of Libraries
Here… • The most popular posts in the second year of The Pietist Schoolman more about the Olympics than you’d expect from a blog on Pietism, higher education, and other non-Olympian topics. • Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird… It’s a plane… It’s a Christ-type with his own Hollywood marketing campaign!! • Last … More That Was The Week That Was
I have almost no interest in superheroes. Never owned a comic book; didn’t get remotely excited about The Avengers coming together; and think that the only really great superhero movie was the one where Heath Ledger’s Joker embodied evil — I honestly can’t remember anything Batman said or did in The Dark Knight. But I … More Superman and Salvation
When we walk out of a class, how do we know it was a good one? That question opened my friend David Williams’ talk at our “Pietist Idea of a Christian College” workshop last week. In the end, he concluded that it had little to do with content and everything to do with passion: there’s … More What Is Good Teaching?
Today marks the end of a second year of blogging here at The Pietist Schoolman. On the whole, it’s been a good year of blogging, and I hope, for you all, a good year of reading. (Seems like something is working: readership is up over 77% vs. 2011-2012.) Some of the best teaching advice I … More Year Two of The Pietist Schoolman
As much as any periodical, I look forward to receiving a new issue of Pietisten, the “Herald of Awakening and Spiritual Upbuilding” whose contributors “draw heavy inspiration from the collective heritage of Lutheran Pietism.” (Its name honors the 19th century Swedish publication edited by C.O. Rosenius and P.P. Waldenström that was at the center of … More Summer 2013 Pietisten
As I mentioned in passing here, I spent last Wednesday and Thursday facilitating a workshop at Bethel University: “The Pietist Idea of a Christian College.” Twelve current Bethel colleagues, two former faculty back as guest speakers — theologian Roger Olson (Baylor University’s Truett Seminary) and philosopher David Williams (Azusa Pacific University’s High Sierra Program) — … More Thoughts on The Pietist Idea of a Christian College
Here… If you like reading about Swedish-American Pietist educators who left their denominations’ colleges in the 1970s to do other things… Well, this past week at The Pietist Schoolman was pretty much your best week ever. • Karl Olsson, the Evangelical Covenant historian and former president of North Park College and Seminary, would have turned … More That Was The Week That Was
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