I noticed the other day that Donald Trump’s name now appears in the list of this blog’s most popular tags. That’s disappointing on all sorts of levels, one of which is that I’ve tried hard this year to focus on the stated themes of this blog and not write as much about politics as I … More Two Problems with Mike Pence’s Naval Academy Address
If your image of Christian higher education is a Donald Trump commencement address or a scandal-plagued football team, let me share a sample day in my life as a professor at Bethel University. Yesterday was atypical in a sense (no classes, since it was the study day that breaks up our final exam week), but it still provided … More A Day in the Life of a Christian College Professor
If you didn’t notice it over the weekend, do yourself a favor and read John Fea’s heartfelt “Confessions of a Lonely Christian Historian.” It begins: I think all of us who pursue a life of the mind are, to some degree, lonely people. We live in the world of ideas. We spend a lot of … More The Loneliness (and Solitude) of a Christian Historian
Here… • Why historians “need to get in the way of death and practice resurrection.” • Once again, the rumors of the lecture’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. • According to one British historian, German Pietism “[rekindled] the love affair with God that had been Protestantism’s beating heart since Luther.” …There and Everywhere • Oddly, the firing of an FBI … More That Was The Week That Was
Next month I’ll be teaching a four-week adult Sunday School at Elim Church in Minneapolis, on the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. (If you can’t make it in June, I’ll be doing a six-week version of that topic starting late September at Calvary Church in Roseville, MN.) Now, I teach Luther et al. for a couple … More Alec Ryrie on “The Pietist Adventure”
Okay, let’s try this again: the college lecture is neither obsolete nor fool-proof. Like anything, it can be done badly, but rightly understood, it’s still a highly important mode of teaching. Two reasons I’m thinking about a topic I’ve addressed several times before: First, Wired just offered another of its biennial critiques of the lecture. Entitled “The Traditional … More The Lecture Lives. I Would Know — I’m a Professor.
Author and activist Shane Claiborne calls on Christians to “practice resurrection” and get in the way of death. Here’s how Christian historians do just that. … More To Be a Historian Is To Practice Resurrection
Only time for a short set of links, since we’re getting ready to head up to Collegeville, Minnesota, where Bethel is taking on Macalester for a spot in the NCAA Division III baseball tournament. Here… • Perhaps historians like me have given nostalgia short shrift. • What do I do as a Christian blogger? Not teaching, … More That Was The Week That Was
The surprising power of the timeline as a tool for history professors. … More The Timeline as a Historical Tool
Why Christian blogging is less like teaching or preaching than a serious-playful way of “thinking about God in public.” … More Thinking about God in Public: Some Reflections on Being a Christian Blogger
The Pietist Schoolman 