The Pietist Schoolman

A Grand Experiment: Why Sports Belong in Higher Education

July 24, 2012

In January 1998 Penn State University head football coach Joe Paterno and his wife Sue gave the school $3.5 million to endow faculty positions, graduate fellowships, and undergraduate scholarships, mostly in the College of Liberal Arts. Gushed Penn State president Graham Spanier, “I’m the luckiest University president in the United States.” When retired historian Michael … More A Grand Experiment: Why Sports Belong in Higher Education

Screen shot from "The Reformation Polka" (animated by Sam Mulberry)

The Big Ten

July 23, 2012

The ten most popular posts in the last month here at The Pietist Schoolman: In Celebration of Students Tolkien, Lewis, and the Memory of War Why Are There No Holidays in August? [I have no idea why an August 2011 post got so much attention in June-July 2012…] Roger Olson on Pietism and Postmodernism The … More The Big Ten

That Was The Week That Was

July 21, 2012

Here • The 70th anniversary of a dark day in French history, when French police helped their German occupiers to round up 13,000 Jewish women, men, and children, cram them into a bicycling arena without sanitation, and eventually send them to their deaths in Auschwitz. • The summer’s half over, but there’s still time for … More That Was The Week That Was

“The ones that should go”: One Liberal Protestant Explanation for Mainline Decline

July 20, 2012

“Can liberal Christianity be saved?“, asked New York Times columnist Ross Douthat a few days ago. He was virtually certain that the answer was No, based on what he saw as the fifty-year decline of denominations like The Episcopal Church (TEC). The conservative Catholic Douthat’s thesis was echoed by at least two commentators with connections to Episcopalianism: … More “The ones that should go”: One Liberal Protestant Explanation for Mainline Decline

Robinson, When I Was a Child I Read Books

Some (Mid)Summer Reading Suggestions

July 19, 2012

Courtesy of three of my colleagues at Bethel University’s Department of History… We’ve been taking turns posting our summer reading lists at the department blog, AC 2nd. I’ve already posted my list on this blog as well; now here are a few of the titles listed by my more widely-read colleagues G.W. Carlson (GWC), AnneMarie … More Some (Mid)Summer Reading Suggestions

Albums A to Z: I Feel Alright

July 17, 2012

I once told a friend that I didn’t like the newest record from her favorite musician because he had opted to sing more about politics than love. I can’t remember my exact words, but it was something to the effect of it being very hard to write a good love (or loss) song, requiring more … More Albums A to Z: I Feel Alright

This Day in History: The Rafle du Vel d’Hiv

July 16, 2012

July 16-17, 1942 – Over 13,000 Jews are arrested in Paris, including four thousand children More than half were crammed into a Paris velodrome known as the “Vel d’Hiv.” There were no bathrooms; the only food came from too-rare visits by Red Cross and Quaker relief workers; and the only water came from a single … More This Day in History: The Rafle du Vel d’Hiv

That Was The Week That Was

July 14, 2012

Here • The first in a series of brief reflections inspired by Lauren Winner’s Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis focused on her skill as a writer (skill not often found among those of us trained to write academic history). • Why it’s so hard to do institutional histories when you’re part of the institution … More That Was The Week That Was

Happy Bastille Day!

July 14, 2012

We’ll get to a pretty loathsome chapter in French history in about forty-eight hours, but today, in honor of France’s national holiday, here’s a repeat of my 2011 post declaring “La Marseillaise” the best national anthem. At long last (okay, six days) we come to the end of our series counting down the best national … More Happy Bastille Day!

Reflections on Lauren Winner’s Still: Writing

July 13, 2012

Let’s see… More than halfway through my summer vacation and so far I’ve only completed one of the books on my summer reading list. And that the shortest one. But if that’s all the progress I made, it’s okay, since the one book I crossed off the list was Lauren Winner’s Still: Notes on a … More Reflections on Lauren Winner’s Still: Writing

The website of historian Chris Gehrz