Five weeks having passed since I last posted an entry in it, perhaps it’s time to admit that my Albums A to Z series — while a triumph of both music criticism and alphabetizing — ran out of steam at “L” and is on hiatus. We’ll pick it up next summer with my favorite Monty … More My Favorite Bob Dylan Lyrics
Few books have been as significant in my professional life as Scholarship and Christian Faith: Enlarging the Conversation, edited (and about half-written) by the husband and wife team of Douglas Jacobsen and Rhonda Hustedt Jacobsen, of Messiah College. I first encountered it in 2006, during a summer workshop at Bethel University led by the Jacobsens. … More Religion’s “Return” to Higher Education
Here • If I had realized that it was going to be my 500th post at The Pietist Schoolman, I would have come up with a better title than “Crowdsourcing and the Practice of History.” • Two posts on college rankings: one comparing the systems used by Washington Monthly and U.S. News magazine; the second … More That Was The Week That Was
This semester I’m directing an independent study on the theory and practice of public history by a student who’s interested in pursuing graduate study in that increasingly popular field. In our weekly conversation on Wednesday, we talked about his initial impressions of how public historians have tried to define what it is that they do. … More Crowdsourcing and the Practice of History
Yesterday U.S. News released its annual college rankings, and I summarized an alternative model utilized by the magazine Washington Monthly. While U.S. News continues to rely on factors like reputation, entrance exam scores, and alumni giving (and, as its growing chorus of critics complains, on data supplied by the colleges themselves — data already manipulated … More Ranking Christian Colleges (part 1)
Today is the day that the annual U.S. News rankings of America’s best colleges are published. (Here’s the summary — note that the rankings I’ll discuss below are from last year’s report.) I already reposted my September 2011 take on the U.S. News survey, assuming that my response probably wouldn’t change much from 2011 to 2012 … More Research, Service, and Social Mobility: “A Different Kind of College Ranking”
Eleven years ago this morning I was in Hamden, Connecticut, waking up after a late night of dissertation writing to turn on CNN in time to watch the collapse of the World Trade Center’s twin towers. Those structures stood less than two hours’ drive away from my apartment, and I knew people who lived in … More This Day in History: 9/11
While you hear much about Pietism here at Bethel University, most of what’s said comes from faculty and administrators. So it’s been interesting to encounter students exploring that tradition as well. Last spring I had the pleasure of talking about Pietism with Jesse Phenow (’14), a Communications Studies major, while he was taking a course … More A College Student Reflects on Pietism (Jesse Phenow)
Here • I love questions that assume the possibility of time travel existing… Which baseball game do you wish you could go back in time to watch? • One of the games I suggested featured a shellshocked World War I veteran… In related sports/WWI news, I continued my series on Minnesotan commemoration of that war … More That Was The Week That Was
That was the terrific question posed yesterday on ESPN.com and answered by a host of current players and broadcasters. (Click here for the photo gallery showing popular choices.) There’s Lou Gehrig’s farewell, or Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series. Or for those of us who hate the Yankees… Bill Mazeroski’s and Joe … More Which One Game in Baseball History Would You Go Back in Time to See?
The Pietist Schoolman 