It’s hard to believe that it was just three days ago. I was in the car when I got a text from my pastor: “Did you see the news? There’s been an explosion and collapse of a building at Minnehaha.” Kyrie eleison, I wrote back once I saw the images. Christ, have mercy. By the … More How You Can Help Minnehaha Academy
This’ll be my last post for a while, as we enjoy a family reunion and wedding. Meanwhile, enjoy these posts you might have missed during the past week: Here… • There’s a spiritual side to The Spirit of St. Louis (the Lindbergh memoir that is… and the Billy Wilder film adaptation of it). • I’m still working … More That Was The Week That Was
While I’ve skimmed through Charles Lindbergh’s most famous memoir, I’m actually intimidated to read The Spirit of St. Louis. A popular and critical hit, SoSL won the 1954 Pulitzer Prize for its inventive, gripping narrative. Any would-be biographer needs to live up to the high standard set by Lindbergh himself (with considerable editing assistance from his wife, Anne). … More The Spiritual Spirit of St. Louis
So I stumbled across this T-shirt on Amazon last month and quickly snatched it up: I’ve worn it in public a couple of times. At some level, I think I even convinced myself that it could provide subtle (subtle?!?) publicity: that people would see a word they didn’t recognize, Google it, and be led to … More The Pietist Option Is Not a Quick Fix
Here… • I missed TWTWTW last Saturday because we were visiting Charles Lindbergh’s childhood home. • Bethel made the news for its high alumni marriage rate. • Much as he talks about loyalty, our current president doesn’t exactly exemplify that virtue. • What Christians can learn about Jesus from a non-Christian Nobel Peace Prize laureate who died earlier … More That Was The Week That Was
According to research by higher education scholar Robert Kelchen, former students of religious private colleges were much more likely to be married — and earlier — than those at other types of institutions. For example, Dordt College (a Christian Reformed school in Iowa) and two campuses of Brigham Young University topped the field in having … More Marriage, Friendship, and the Mission of Christian Colleges
I like to think of myself as a pretty loyal person. I’m wary of loyalty to imagined communities like nations, but when it comes to family members and close friends, I’d even say that I’m fiercely loyal. But one of the many consequences of the Trump presidency is that I’ve been reconsidering the moral status … More Is Loyalty a Virtue?
One of my favorite things about blogging is that it gives me excuses to go far outside my fields of supposed expertise, to read widely about other disciplines and other fields within history. For example, his recent death from liver cancer made me realize how little I’d read from Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese dissident who … More “The Miraculous Triumph of Jesus Over Caesar”
About a year ago, we drove an hour northwest of the Twin Cities to take my wife to a workshop in St. Cloud, Minnesota. To kill some time that afternoon, I took our then-six year old twins another half-hour north, to the Charles A. Lindbergh Historic Site. While young Lindbergh also spent time in Washington, … More The Lindberghs of Little Falls
Thanks to everyone who commented (here, on Facebook, by email) on yesterday’s post! I quoted from recent posts by historians Neil J. Young and Thomas Kidd, both of whom drew on research and personal experience with evangelical churches to argue that evangelicals are far less concerned with partisan politics than media coverage (and a recent … More Counterpoint: How Evangelicals Are Politicized
The Pietist Schoolman 