I was struck at the end of last week by a pair of quite different articles that shared two themes: church growth and decline, and conclusions relating those trends to how political or apolitical a church is. First, historian Thomas Kidd’s Patheos column on “The Rise and Fall of American Methodism.” Kidd begins by recapping … More Apolitical Churches
Here • “Presidents’” Day links, including one to a post by religious historian Thomas S. Kidd on the faith of Washington and Lincoln and whether a president’s personal religious beliefs are significant. (For another perspective on that question, in light of recent comments about Barack Obama by Rick Santorum, see Roger Olson’s piece on the … More That Was The Week That Was
2/24/12 – From Roger Olson, back from giving a talk at Regent University’s Center for Renewal Studies, a reflection on “Renewalism.” Of particular interest for readers of this blog: What Renewalism means for Pietism. Roger proposes that Pietism is a cousin of Pentecostalism, that at least some Pietists fit the “Renewalist” category (even if they … More Is Pietism “Renewalism”?
Today marks the official premiere of the second season of The Policast, a political affairs podcast I help co-host. Episodes are available from iTunes U, where you can download individual episodes or subscribe to get new installments as they’re produced. (If you don’t have the iTunes software, you can download it for free.) We first … More The Return of The Policast!
It’s amazing sometimes that anyone can learn English. Look up the word “imposition” in Webster’s, for example, and you’ll find four listings: something imposed: as (a) a levy, tax, or (b) an excessive or uncalled-for requirement or burden the act of imposing deception the order or arrangement of imposed pages What then to make of … More An Imposition
I happen to agree almost entirely with John’s column, but that’s irrelevant. Even if I didn’t share some of his disappointment in Obama the president vs. Obama the candidate, or if I didn’t think that Obama was unusually explicit about his faith by contrast with most of his predecessors in the White House, I’d still … More We Take Care of Our Own: Standing with John Fea
I don’t normally post anything in the evening (WordPress wasn’t letting me edit anything until now), but this has already been an abnormal day in other respects. My mother-in-law is up for a visit, so while our kids stayed home with grandma I put in a rare Tuesday at work. As a result, I got … More Scholarship, Contemplation, and Holiness
Or, technically, Happy Washington’s Birthday, since as Thomas S. Kidd points out (more from him in a few lines), “Presidents’ Day” is a marketing invention, not a Federal holiday. I’ll admit to being an infrequent celebrant of this particular holiday, mostly because it’s been nearly twenty years since I was part of an educational institution … More Happy Presidents’ Day!
The ten most popular posts in the last month here at The Pietist Schoolman: Tolkien, Lewis, and the Memory of War Fun with Googling What If? Downton Crabby The Best National Anthems: Honorable Mentions This Day in History: John Brown’s Body In Celebration of Students The Best National Anthems: Also-Rans This Day in History: “The … More The Big Ten
Here I still think I might want to visit a Charles Dickens amusement park, chemical smell-pots and the Pizza Hut notwithstanding. I put the cart before the horse slightly and speculated from where a “Pietist vision” would come — without actually describing said “Pietist vision.” The last part in my series on World War I … More That Was The Week That Was
The Pietist Schoolman 