Here • Timothy Garton Ash’s comments on the new French genocide denial law got me wondering what you all think about the limits of free speech and historical inquiry. (Thanks to Seth Rima — one of my former students, coincidentally interviewed this week at our department blog! — for sharing his thoughts.) • My January … More That Was The Week That Was
It’s been a busy first week of class here at Bethel, so I’m going to postpone my two posts on museums until next week. But before we wrap up the week, let me pass along a few more details about the Pietism colloquium (Friday, April 20) that I’m coordinating with my colleague Christian Collins Winn. … More Update: Jon Sensbach’s Talk at Our Pietism Colloquium
2/2/12 – Readers with ties to the Baptist General Conference or Bethel University (or those with a more general interest in Pietism in American denominations) should be sure to check out The Baptist Pietist Clarion, an annual newsletter edited by my colleague G.W. Carlson (profiled here at the end of 2011). All of its back … More The Baptist Pietist Clarion
Before the beginning of the semester last fall, I wrote a post on the challenges (or, as I called them in the post title, “blessings”) of teaching the same course (Modern Europe) year in and year out. Today, the start of our spring semester at Bethel, brings a different kind of problem: teaching a course … More Human Rights in International History
Museums are the cemeteries of the arts. (Alphonse de Lamartine) Even their fans must admit that museums can feel like places where the past (or, for the poet Lamartine, art) gets embalmed and entombed. According to historian Jay Winter — already quoted multiple times in this series on exploring the history of World War I … More “Cathedrals of the Modern World”: Introduction
For those readers living in the Twin Cities metro area, I encourage you to join us at Salem Covenant Church in New Brighton, MN on February 17-19, as we present the 2012 installment of the Hagman Lecture Series, entitled Across the Divides: Across Cultures, Across Generations. Our speaker for the weekend will be Dr. Soong-Chan … More Soong-Chan Rah: “Across the Divides”
A week ago today the French Senate voted 127-86 to make it illegal to deny or “outrageously minimize” mass killings that the French have officially deemed to be “genocides,” with violators facing a year in prison and a fine of up to 45,000 €. The vote brought immediate condemnation from the government of Turkey (already … More Denial vs. Free Speech
Here • Two more posts on how World War I has been commemorated in western Europe, the first focused on German military cemeteries in Belgium and France and the second on memorials in two large German cities. • And for good measure, a link to an op-ed piece in the New York Times about why … More That Was The Week That Was
1/27/12 – As always, almost everything in the current issue of Books & Culture makes for compelling reading. Particularly if you’re interested in the state of higher education in this country, be sure to check out Jerry Pattengale’s essay, contrasting three critiques focused on public universities (by Naomi Schaefer Riley, Benjamin Ginsberg, and Richard A. … More Whither Higher Education?
Earlier this month the popular British historian Simon Schama took to the pages of Newsweek to write a withering attack on the British TV series Downton Abbey — and even more, on Americans’ obsession with it — as its second series began to air on PBS. SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN’T BEEN WATCHING I … More Downton Crabby
The Pietist Schoolman 