If you’re of a certain age — approximately five to fifty — chances are good that a gentle Pennsylvanian named Fred Rogers played a significant role in your formation. He certainly did in mine. Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood first appeared on American public television (after a precursor ran in Canada on the CBC) in 1968, and … More Mister Rogers: “An Offering of Love”
In the current issue of my denomination’s magazine, The Covenant Companion, Jay Phelan reviews the newest book from historian Diana Butler Bass, Christianity after Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening. (Alas, the review isn’t available for download at the Companion site.) As summarized by Phelan, Bass stresses that … More Is “Christianity after Religion” a Kind of “Neo-Pietism”?
“If you can’t say something nice about someone, don’t say anything at all.” I reencountered this advice earlier this week while reading A.J. Jacobs’ book about trying to spend a year taking the Bible’s commandments as literally as possible. At multiple points during the first half of his Year of Living Biblically, Jacobs is struck … More Albums A to Z: The Last DJ
Today’s report of nineteen more Christians being killed in Nigeria hastened along a post I’ve been meaning to write for a week or so: in which I tweak some advice that Karl Barth may or may not have given and encourage readers to join me in spending some time praying with the Bible in one … More Praying with the International Religious Freedom Report
Okay, one more Olympic post… Last fall I spent a couple of weeks attempting (with a big assist from my HIS354 Modern Europe students, and with tongue mostly in cheek) to determine the “best national anthem” — pointing out at least once or twice along the way that there’s really no objective way to determine … More The Best National Anthems: Special Olympic Edition
8/5/16: If you came to this post, you might want to see this morning’s update, which folds in the results from 2012 London and corrects a couple of spreadsheet errors. It’s a good thing the Olympics are wrapping up this week. If they continued much longer, I wouldn’t get any pre-semester work done! Not just because I’m watching … More Which Country (and Continent) Dominates Each Olympic Sport?
I don’t know anyone who loves books as much as my colleague G.W. Carlson (previously the subject of a post on Pietism in the Baptist General Conference), whom I had the pleasure of interviewing this May, just a couple of weeks before he retired from full-time teaching after having been at Bethel since 1968. (Here’s my … More The Joy of Reading
Here • How technological innovation spread over the course of the twentieth century. I still can’t believe a majority of Americans before the mid-1990s didn’t own a dishwasher! • RIP John Keegan. • More Albums A to Z: Elvis Costello’s King of America. • Did you ever think that Mrs. Doubtfire looked a little bit … More That Was The Week That Was
There aren’t many historians whose deaths would occasion a lengthy obituary linked at the top of that section on the New York Times website. But there haven’t been many historians like John Keegan, widely regarded as the greatest military historian of his time (1934-2012). As it happened, when I saw the news of Keegan’s death … More John Keegan: “I have not been in a battle…”
However many years into iTunes’ existence, I still prefer to get my albums in physical form. I’m no audiophile (I don’t own any vinyl), but I am a bibliophile, and there’s something irreplaceable for me about reading liner notes. Occasionally, I regret this impulse: printed lyrics sometimes reveal that I should be ready to be … More Albums A to Z: King of America
The Pietist Schoolman 