I’m busy this morning helping our department host the 2016 Minnesota Undergraduate History Symposium, but let me toss off a relatively short TWTWTW… Here… • My post on the “indefensible hope” of baseball’s Opening Day cursed two of the teams I mentioned. The Cubs lost one of their bright young stars for the season, and my own home team has yet to … More That Was The Week That Was
Like earlier Pietists, Mark and I tend to feel like what we have to suggest isn’t all that new. This episode — like the one before it — we revisited an idea from the Protestant Reformation. Last time, it was sola Scriptura; this week, the common priesthood. (And yes, we talked about why we’re using that version of the ideal, … More Thursday’s Podcast: The Common Priesthood for the Common Good
For my Twins and most other major league teams, today is Opening Day: the time each year when I’m reminded again that I love baseball far above every other sport — and that it’s hard to explain that love to non-fans. For example, the fact that baseball could inspire a writer as acclaimed as John Updike to do some of his best work speaks volumes about … More Opening Day: “An Indefensible Hope”
I’m not sure they’re any more likely to be reading this blog today than to have been watching my Twitter account yesterday, but just in case Roy Williams or Jay Wright is looking for an edge before their North Carolina Tarheels and Villanova Wildcats face off tomorrow night for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship… I had a little fun … More Championship Basketball: Some Advice from Coach Rupp
Here… • Fortunately, blog readership plummets during Easter weekend, but in case you want to revisit them, I did post reflections on the vigil of Holy Saturday and the “resurrection sunset” of Easter evening. • Lesson learned: any supposed list of “indispensable Christian academic Twitter users” is itself quite dispensable. (Though you could do worse than to follow these seven.) … More That Was The Week That Was
Presenting the top ten posts of March at The Pietist Schoolman: Done with “Evangelical”? Maybe You Should Try “Pietist” The Spread of Technology since 1900 Introducing My New Colleague in Ancient History and Digital Humanities Which Country (and Continent) Dominates Each Olympic Sport? There’s Nothing New about the Moral Dilemmas Raised by Violence… Just ask 18th Century … More The Big Ten
A week ago I asked, and many of you answered: “What are some indispensable Christian academic Twitter accounts?” Not just Christian scholars — like me — who mostly use Twitter to point to other platforms but those “who are using Twitter to engage each other and the public, or to curate ideas for their followers. Regular, thoughtful retweeters are as … More 7 Indispensable Christian Academic Twitter Accounts
As things have turned out, this spring both Bethel University and its fellow evangelical university two miles down the road, the University of Northwestern-St. Paul, have been in the process of hiring ancient history professors. So since my friend and fellow department chair, Jonathan Den Hartog, used his blog to announce Northwestern’s hire of Prof. Jonathan … More Introducing My New Colleague in Ancient History and Digital Humanities
The texts, tunes, and traditions of Easter Sunday are so powerful that I sit in the pew and wonder how anyone could not at least take a chance on believing in the Resurrection. But this Easter, like every other, it took hardly any time at all to be confronted with the reality that our risen King … More The Resurrection Sunset
Holy Saturday is the moment when darkness has descended and there is nothing to make you think, “It will be all right.” It won’t. It can’t be. The worst has occurred and nothing will ever be the same. That’s how it feels. If you have known, this last week or this last year, a moment … More Keeping Vigil: A Holy Saturday Reflection
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