If Protestants know that today is the feast of St. Stephen, it’s probably because of a rather odd carol, a Christmas song that makes no mention of Christ. As John Mason Neale’s “Good King Wenceslas” begins, it is December 26th, “the Feast of Stephen.” That night the medieval Czech monarch looks out and spots a … More Twelve Days: On the Feast of Stephen
Welcome to the start of another in my occasional attempts to blog through part of the daily lectionary. I’ll start this run of twelve Christmastide meditations on Christmas Eve, then resume on the 26th. My favorite moment in my current favorite TV series involves my favorite words from one of my favorite Christmas carols. In … More Twelve Days: Amid Bleak Winters
This week I introduced Anxious Bench readers to 1918’s version of pandemic Christmas. I failed to write anything at this blog, but in my defense, I did need some time to come up with this: And elsewhere… • Baseball doesn’t often make national news in December, but this decision certainly warranted attention. • Thomas Kidd considered the … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I remembered the death of a friend and colleague and celebrated the release of a COVID vaccine by revisiting the story of the polio vaccine. Elsewhere: • With unemployment still high and new stimulus still being negotiated, more Americans are stealing food and other necessities. • Add Dave Ramsey to the list of prominent evangelicals … More That Was The Week That Was
We’ve still got some one-on-one meetings left to go, but today was the last full meeting of my Fog of War class. I always struggle to know how to wrap things up, especially after a course as wide-ranging as this one and after a semester as pandemic-shaped as this fall. But it occurred to me … More Education as Thinking about Dying
This week I reflected on what I learned from Esau McCaulley’s book, Reading While Black and celebrated the publication of our own book, Faith and History: A Devotional. Elsewhere: • We have one more week of fall classes remaining, which makes this a good time to think about the importance of how we end a semester. … More That Was The Week That Was
It’s finally here! Faith and History, the devotional I edited with Beth Allison Barr is officially available from Baylor University Press, and it’s pretty amazing. Don’t believe me? Just ask some of our 40-some contributors: I’ve already written a long post about the origins and purpose of this book, and shared a couple more excerpts … More Publication Day for Our Devotional
Aside from recommending some Christmas shopping for history buffs (have you heard that I have a book coming out on Monday?), I took the week off from blogging to do some more work on the Lindbergh manuscript and enjoy a rare chance to cook the entire Thanksgiving meal myself. Here’s some of what I was … More That Was The Week That Was
If you’re the kind of person who likes to do their book shopping months in advance, I have very good news for you: my spiritual biography of Charles Lindbergh is now available for pre-order, far ahead of its scheduled publication in August 2021! Time will tell if the writing holds up, but the cover makes … More Now Available for Preorder: My Charles Lindbergh Biography
In two weeks, Baylor University Press will officially release Faith and History, a devotional I edited with Beth Allison Barr that features contributions from forty-some Christian historians. Some of you (hi, Mom!) are even expecting to get pre-ordered copies before Thanksgiving. So before anyone actually reads their copy of Faith and History, today seems like … More Faith and History: The Story Behind the Book
The Pietist Schoolman 