On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in the year 1918, the guns of the Western Front finally fell silent. And Susan Owen of the English town of Shrewsbury received a telegram informing her that her son Wilfred had died one week before, while leading his men in battle in … More Remembrance Day
Some quick thoughts about what’s happened at Penn State in recent days, including the student rioting last night… First, I feel for people like sportswriter Michael Weinreb, who experienced an idyllic upbringing in State College — his father was on the Penn State faculty — and had a good experience at PSU himself. Despite that … More Unhappy Valley
11/10/11 – On this week’s episode of CWC: The Radio Show… Amy, Sam, and I discuss Glee, Harry Potter, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, British English, Reformation Day, and how to explain to our children what we do. Get episodes here, or click on the logo on the right side of the home page.
I wish I had something much more impressive to offer for this, my 200th post at The Pietist Schoolman, but the week being as busy as it’s become, I’m going to punt a bit and devote a post to asking a question: What’s your favorite World War II film (or TV series, or episode of … More WWII in Film
11/8/11 – Last month I moderated a discussion about the role of Pietism in the history of Bethel University, asking questions of my Pietist Impulse in Christianity co-editors G.W. Carlson and Christian Collins Winn and sharing a few of my own observations. You can now watch a video recording of that conversation at this link.
November 8, 1923 – The Beer Hall Putsch in Munich November 8, 1937 – The “Eternal Jew” exhibition opens (also in Munich) It’s an important week for Nazi-related anniversaries. I’ve blogged earlier about the Putsch (on the 16th anniversary of which — November 8, 1939 — Georg Elser failed in his attempt to assassinate Hitler). … More This Day in History: The Worst of Sinners
Last week I mentioned that I was preparing to preach a sermon for the first time, at Salem Covenant Church of New Brighton, MN on All Saints’ Sunday. Despite my fears, it seemed to go well yesterday, and I thought I’d post my text in case anyone who wasn’t there was interested in reading it. … More A Stretched People
Here Twenty-five hours and counting until I preach my first sermon, on Revelation 7:9-17. I piggybacked on the arguments of two much more gifted scholars: first, Roger Olson’s lament that some Christian colleges borrow liberally from a business model led me again to revisit the history of Bethel University and the educational philosophy of its … More That Was The Week That Was
Here at Bethel we’re going through the early stages of a master campus plan, and one of the first things our lead consultant told us Wednesday was that we need to get past the self-effacing reserve that comes with our Swedish, Midwestern, “pietistic” (he thought to add, to my joy and irritation) heritage and engage … More Some Blatant Self-Promotion
This hasn’t been the kind of blog where posts often consist of extended quotations from other blogs framed by some brief comments of my own. But today I’ll break with that pattern, since (a) sermon prep (still can’t believe I’m writing those words) is proving a welcome but time-consuming distraction from blogging, and (b) John … More History and Civic Virtue
The Pietist Schoolman 