Today’s guest post comes from Tim Johnson, who attended last week’s Bethel Colloquium on Pietism. (To watch video of all sessions, click here, select the On Demand tab, and look under December 13, 2016.) Tim is Curator of Special Collections & Rare Books and the E. W. McDiarmid Curator of the Sherlock Holmes Collections for the University … More Reflections on a Pietist Identity (Tim Johnson)
I’m not entirely sure what took me out this night, the longest of the year, to attend “A Service of Comfort, Hope, and Healing” at my father-in-law’s church in Cedar Falls, Iowa. By way of explanation, I mumbled something to my wife about Stacey and GW. It’s been months now since the deaths of those close friends, … More Blue Christmas: Comfort, Hope, and Healing
Last week I reflected on my concerns about social media like Twitter and Facebook, and explained why I ultimately agreed with historian Tommy Kidd that scholars can make good use of them. But as a counterpoint, let me share a bit of what Tyler Wigg-Stevenson wrote (the same day as my post) in explaining his … More A Second Opinion on Quitting Social Media
I’d love to disagree with the thesis of historian Neil Young’s piece in Religion Dispatches, but he’s probably right that …the bulk of white evangelicals’ political efforts have always veered to the right, often to the extreme. From Civil Rights to Vietnam to abortion to gay rights, from national defense to tax policy to climate change … More White Evangelicalism Has Been Politically Conservative… But Must It Remain So?
Before supper tonight, we prayed words that I’ve probably said more than 40,000 times now: Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest And let these gifts to us be blessed. Amen Whether the gifts in question were this evening’s tacos and rice, some grander meal, or any of the other blessings that were on my mind at … More Come, Lord Jesus (really)
One of the most venerable historians in the blogosphere is Ann Little, whose Historiann blog has been around since the George W. Bush administration. As you might have noticed from her quotations in my Anxious Bench series on biography, Little is not only a gifted historian but an insightful, provocative observer of our discipline. See, for example, her post this past … More History: Jerks Studying Jerks
Here… • Bethel hosted another colloquium on Pietism (if you missed it, you can watch everything here), which made me think again about the notion of a “usable past.” • What happens when historians have too much evidence? • The War on Christmas is over. • I’ve decided to stick with Twitter and Facebook, but only for certain purposes. … More That Was The Week That Was
Onward, Christian soldiers: the war on Christmas is over, and the good guys won. Just ask Fox News host Bill O’Reilly: You may remember about 10 years ago, “The O’Reilly Factor” began spotlighting companies that refused to say the words “Merry Christmas.” In fact, some of those businesses actually ordered their employees not to say that. … More Happy Holidays (The War on Christmas Is Over)
More than at any time in the last five years, I’ve been thinking of quitting social media. A lot of this is driven by the unpleasant experience of the presidential campaign, and the immediate aftermath of the election. Far from creating a more robust kind of democratic discourse, in which a broader array of citizens … More Quit Social Media?
I’ve been busy this morning packing up for our gradual trip back home, so I’ll have to catch up later and watch video of the 2016 Bethel Colloquium on Pietism. But I did manage to catch the opening remarks by Bethel provost Deb Harless and theology professor Christian Collins Winn, my friend and co-coordinator. Both spoke … More The Promise (and Problems) of “Usable Pasts”
The Pietist Schoolman 