In addition to Perry Glanzer’s article on Christian colleges educating for wisdom, the March 2012 issue of Christianity Today also includes Timothy Morgan’s interview with Wheaton College president Philip Ryken and Gordon College president D. Michael Lindsay. Reading it, I couldn’t help but think back to a much older CT piece that I ran across … More Christian College Presidents: 1975 and 2012
In yesterday’s links post, I mentioned the “Kony 2012” film recently released by the group Invisible Children, and the strong criticisms it received. I linked to a couple of particularly thoughtful posts by one of my former students, a development worker now living in Uganda, where Kony first came to infamy. Brief overview: Joseph Kony … More The Kony Kerfuffle
Here • I didn’t write as much here as I would have liked because I was grading a set of midterm exams. (More of that to come next week.) But I did pause/procrastinate long enough to complain about grading, so that’s something… • Plus… Why our mission in the Bethel History Department seems in keeping … More That Was The Week That Was
In a couple of places recently, I’ve come across this question: “Where did you come of age spiritually?” Not exactly, “When did you become a Christian?” or “What church did you grow up in?” But “Where did you come of age?” I’ve struggled mightily to answer it. My own faith journey has been so gradual … More My Churches: A Spiritual Travelogue (part 1)
For someone who both works in a Christian university and researches the history and theory of Christian higher education, it’s been exciting to see a national publication make that model of formation the cover story of an issue, as Christianity Today has done for March. I already posted a brief mention of the CT article … More Educating for Wisdom
I wish it were William Farish’s fault. Grading that is. Google “history of grading” and you’ll find this Cambridge University tutor blamed for having invented grades ca. 1792 as a way to evaluate more students more quickly and thereby collect more fees. But according to Mary Lovett Smallwood’s 1935 monograph, Examinations and Grading Systems in … More Grading
3/5/12 – Nice to see some national attention for Alaska Christian College, a ministry of the Evangelical Covenant Church in that state. It’s the first of five unique schools featured in this month’s issue of Christianity Today, where writer Jocelyn Green observes that “ACC provides its primarily Alaskan student body something they weren’t getting elsewhere: … More Alaska Christian College
At the end of last week, I had students in my Human Rights in International History course read and respond to an article by Joel A. Nichols, “Evangelicals and Human Rights: The Continuing Ambivalence of Evangelical Christians’ Support for Human Rights” (published in the Journal of Law & Religion in 2009). Nichols teaches law at … More Are Evangelicals Ambivalent about Human Rights?
Here • Eight of my students took a shot at defining what historians do. • Do political churches risk decline? Are apolitical churches drawing new members? Is there such a thing as an “apolitical” church? (For another critique of political partisanship in churches, see this from Chuck Gutenson.) • Another year, another Oscar ceremony. Perhaps … More That Was The Week That Was
In part because I’ve got a bunch of grading to do (likely to inspire a bitter, self-loathing post early next week…) and in larger part because late last week I wrote my 300th post in just over eight months and suddenly felt massively tired, I’m not going to post anything today other than this: I’d … More Your Turn
The Pietist Schoolman 