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Rejecting Epistemic Closure: Conservatives for Progressives to Read

September 24, 2012

In the wake of the 47% fiasco, I very much hope that Republican readers took seriously Michael Gerson’s critique of the “libertarian nonsense” too commonly escaping the lips of GOP politicians these days, and David Brooks‘ conclusion that Romney “has lost any sense of the social compact” and joined other Republicans in shifting “from the … More Rejecting Epistemic Closure: Conservatives for Progressives to Read

Dakota Internees at Fort Snelling

The Big Ten

September 21, 2012

The ten most popular posts in the last month here at The Pietist Schoolman: “All have sinned”: The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 Pietism and Civil Discourse (Christian Collins Winn) Tolkien, Lewis, and the Memory of War “I could use some help with Leviticus” Veep-Stakes “What’s another word for Pietist?” A College Student Reflects on Pietism … More The Big Ten

Olympe de Gouges

Women, Virtue, and Politics: From 1793 to Today

September 20, 2012

On October 30, 1793, the French National Convention — having repeatedly declined to recognize women’s right to vote — abolished women’s debating clubs and other political societies. It may be tempting to dismiss this as a little-remembered moment of misogyny by revolutionaries five weeks into their Reign of Terror. Except that the Jacobins and other … More Women, Virtue, and Politics: From 1793 to Today

Religion’s “Return” to Higher Education

September 17, 2012

Few books have been as significant in my professional life as Scholarship and Christian Faith: Enlarging the Conversation, edited (and about half-written) by the husband and wife team of Douglas Jacobsen and Rhonda Hustedt Jacobsen, of Messiah College. I first encountered it in 2006, during a summer workshop at Bethel University led by the Jacobsens. … More Religion’s “Return” to Higher Education

1797 War Department Letter

Crowdsourcing and the Practice of History

September 14, 2012

This semester I’m directing an independent study on the theory and practice of public history by a student who’s interested in pursuing graduate study in that increasingly popular field. In our weekly conversation on Wednesday, we talked about his initial impressions of how public historians have tried to define what it is that they do. … More Crowdsourcing and the Practice of History

Miller Tower at Union University

Ranking Christian Colleges (part 1)

September 13, 2012

Yesterday U.S. News released its annual college rankings, and I summarized an alternative model utilized by the magazine Washington Monthly. While U.S. News continues to rely on factors like reputation, entrance exam scores, and alumni giving (and, as its growing chorus of critics complains, on data supplied by the colleges themselves — data already manipulated … More Ranking Christian Colleges (part 1)