If it weren’t for the fact that the wind chill is nearing fifty below Fahrenheit here in the Twin Cities and Bethel has joined other colleges and schools in closing for the day, this afternoon I would be kicking off my new course on the history of World War II. Since today is also the … More “Thick Darkness”: An Epiphany Meditation on Teaching WWII
Here… • Is New Year’s Day a “Christian holiday“? Ecclesiastes, Christian Piatt, and others helped me on this one… • I know I’m living in the past, but hey, I’m a historian: the blogging year in review for 2013. • Looking to the rapidly nearing future: a preview of some themes from the new World … More That Was The Week That Was
This weekend marks the 2014 winter meeting of the American Society of Church History. Annual ASCH meetings are always held in conjunction with the American Historical Association and also include a spotlight session organized by the Pietism Studies Group. Kudos to PSG president (and occasional Pietist Schoolman guest blogger) Christian Collins Winn for connecting with … More Pietism Studies Group in Washington D.C.
“Following Up” is a kind of semi-rerun that I do from time to time: freshening up an older post with just a bit of new content or reflection. This one goes back to late February 2013: If you’re like me, you emerged from the Christmas special that served as the final episode of the third … More Following Up: Downton and Sherlock
It’s hard for me to get too excited about January 1st. I mean, it’s as good an arbitrary point as any to change calendars. So long as we bracket off the fact that — beyond the West — it’s a kind of vestige of colonialism to use that calendar in the first place. So long … More Is New Year’s Day a “Christian Holiday”?
Thanks to everyone who read, commented, and shared this year at The Pietist Schoolman! By most any reckoning, it was a good year at this blog: readership was up over 40% this year, we started a Facebook page, and Jared Burkholder came on board as our regular guest-blogger. Before we enter 2014, a look back … More 2013: That Was The Year That Was
I think it was sometime in the fall of 2003, my first semester teaching at Bethel University, when I blurted out to members of my Modern Europe class something like, “You wouldn’t be interested in a course on the history of World War II, would you?” More than ten years and lots of student requests … More Previewing My New WWII Course
Aside from some Tweeting and Facebook microblogging, I took Christmas week off. But others kept the blogosphere humming… • On Christmas Eve I sang carols about angels and wrote a brief reflection on Twitter and Facebook that concluded with St. Augustine’s famous prayer asking God to “give your angels charge over those who sleep.” But … More That Was The Week That Was
12/26/13 – Over at the Religion in American History blog, Brantley Gasaway was kind enough to draw readers’ attention to my Evangelical Theological Society paper that encouraged an international/transnational turn in the history of evangelicalism. (My paper was a response to David Swartz’s chapter on Latin American evangelicals in Moral Minority; Gasaway interviewed Swartz last … More Brantley Gasaway on My ETS Paper
Looking back over my first two Decembers blogging, I’m surprised how many posts I wrote in the week around Christmas. While I won’t entirely rule out a post here or there (Christmas Eve worship inevitably inspires some reflection, continuing a tradition started by the mother who “treasured all these words and pondered them in her … More Christmas Vacation
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