If I could do it all over again, I might be a sports historian. Growing up, I was an indifferent athlete but an inveterate fan: able to play just about every sport, but none of them well (though I did manage to letter twice in baseball, which tells you a lot about my alma mater‘s … More Beyond Muscular Christianity
That collective exhaling you heard this morning came from the chancellors, presidents, provosts, and other leaders of the 1378 colleges and universities that participate in the U.S. News Best Colleges ranking process, results of which were released today. As someone who indirectly participates in this process (by teaching at one of those institutions and so … More On College Rankings
I just started reading Carolyn Weber‘s Surprised by Oxford. Subtitled simply “A Memoir,” it’s more specifically a spiritual autobiography, one more in that long line descended from Augustine’s Confessions that has included C.S. Lewis’ Surprised by Joy (its title clearly evoked by Weber’s) and Lauren Winner’s Girl Meets God. Like those two, Surprised by Oxford … More Surprised by Oxford
September 12, 1977 – My brother is born While this indirectly leads (through a combination of rough-housing and my lack of coordination) to my visiting the emergency room at least half a dozen times in our shared childhood, it’s still worth celebrating. Happy Birthday, Jon! September 13, 1916 – Mary the elephant is executed See, … More This Week in History
Here The beginning of a new series working through Mark Noll and Carolyn Nystrom’s new book, Clouds of Witnesses: Christian Voices from Africa and Asia. The introduction noted the inherent tension between doing history and doing historiography. The first set of stories came from two African Christians responding differently to the “new” imperialism of the … More That Was the Week That Was
9/9/11 – Coming up next week at The Pietist Schoolman… More on the “unusable” past and Pietist colleges, 20th century revivals led by African Christians, one of my favorite beginnings to a memoir, and Christianity and sports history.
In the second (full) post in this briefly interrupted series, I went through the rather lengthy list of American denominations founded by Pietists, and the colleges and universities those churches went on to establish. Having said nothing in two weeks to develop that history (except to provide a few quick facts about those schools in … More The Unusable Past: Pietism and Christian Colleges (part 1)
9/8/11 – On this week’s episode of CWC: The Radio Show… Sam, Sara, Amy, and I discuss the Minnesota State Fair, disrespect for crop and seed art, the opening week of the NFL season, electric lawnmowers, and why ancient Athens looms so large over Western philosophy. Get episodes here, or click on the logo on … More This Week on CWC: The Radio Show
In my introduction to this new series blogging through Mark Noll and Carolyn Nystrom’s Clouds of Witnesses: Christian Voices from Africa and Asia (InterVarsity Press), I noted that the authors had made a point of selecting men and women not yet widely known by Christians in the West, and that they faced the challenge of … More Clouds of Witnesses: Africans and Empire
A couple of years ago I was asked to give three talks as part of our church’s mid-spring “family camp,” at Covenant Pines in northern Minnesota. There weren’t many stipulations, not even a suggested topic, but I was encouraged to be “inspiring.” Now, as a trained scholar who studies some pretty awful episodes in human … More Clouds of Witnesses: Introduction
The Pietist Schoolman 