Chris Gehrz

Commemorating WWI in Minnesota: The Brickhouse

September 6, 2012

The largest memorial to those Minnesotans who died in World War I no longer exists, except for a preserved fragment and an impressive website that thoroughly documents its nearly ninety-year history. Opened in 1924, the University of Minnesota’s Memorial Stadium hosted six national championship-winning football teams before the Gophers moved off-campus to the Metrodome in … More Commemorating WWI in Minnesota: The Brickhouse

Best of The Pietist Schoolman: On College Rankings

September 5, 2012

U.S. News’ “Best Colleges” rankings aren’t scheduled to be released until a week from today, but since I’m 99% sure that my opinion of them won’t have changed drastically since this time last year, let me preemptively address them with this “best of” post from last September. (I’ve actually got another post in development that … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: On College Rankings

“What’s another word for Pietist?”

September 4, 2012

Is “Pietist” (or “pietistic”) a useful term in the 21st century? Why or why not? What synonym works best as an alternative? All these questions came to mind late last week. A colleague rushing off to class stopped short at my office, stuck his head inside the door, and asked, “What’s another word for Pietist?” … More “What’s another word for Pietist?”

“When You Supervise a Woman”: Management Advice from WWII

September 3, 2012

Now it definitely feels like I’m working more than I should on Labor Day, but one more labor-related nugget comes to us courtesy of the blog Retronaut: a manual published during World War II to help the (male) managers of RCA factories know how to deal with the women flooding into the industrial workplace while … More “When You Supervise a Woman”: Management Advice from WWII

This Week in History

September 3, 2012

As I did last year this time, I’ll focus this installment of my on- and off-again This Week in History series on the history of work and workers, in honor of today being Labor Day. (And I might recycle two or three anniversaries from last year, since the best part of Labor Day is not … More This Week in History

That Was The Week That Was

September 1, 2012

Here • My colleague Christian Collins Winn shared his year-opening chapel talk at Bethel, in which he suggested how Pietism might provide a model for civil discourse. (And be sure to check out Brian Gumm’s response to that post at his blog, Restorative Theology. It was certainly gratifying to read that he thinks Christian and … More That Was The Week That Was

Best of The Pietist Schoolman: “God Made the Country”

August 31, 2012

With some deadlines looming between now and September 10, I’m going to take a day off here and there and rerun some of my favorite posts. First, one from about this time last year… Last month I felt like I was living a John Denver song: country roads taking me to a colleague’s farm near … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: “God Made the Country”

Commemorating WWI in Minnesota: Overshadowed by WWII

August 30, 2012

Even before I set out to look at how the First World War has been commemorated here in Minnesota, I assumed that the vast majority of Twin Citians would be hard-pressed to identify a single WWI memorial in the metro area. Even those who drive, bike, jog, and walk on or along Victory Memorial Drive … More Commemorating WWI in Minnesota: Overshadowed by WWII

Hearing Music for the First Time

August 29, 2012

8/29/12 – Even if I weren’t too busy to write the ‘M’ entry in my recently-neglected Albums A to Z series, I’d still let it languish for a day and instead encourage you to read Austin Chapman’s description of having been deaf his whole life and then, thanks to new hearing aids, having the chance … More Hearing Music for the First Time

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