“Unlike every other participant in this year-long conversation,” I wrote early in my lead essay this month for Following Jesus, “the Pietist Tradition has no ecclesial shape or institutional structure. And the number of Christians worldwide who identify as Pietist is vanishingly small.” But what Roger Olson calls the Pietist ethos shows up in virtually … More Following Jesus: The Pietist Tradition
This week I shared a Lenten devotional that I created with colleagues on the Bethel faculty — one that made me think of former Bethel president George Brushaber, whose memorial service was last Sunday — and I took my turn to write the lead essay in our Following Jesus conversation, “A Week in the Life of … More That Was The Week That Was
If you’ve been wondering why this blog has been so quiet this far into 2022, it’s partly because I’ve been working hard on a project that came to mind at the end of 2021 and came to fruition yesterday. Last December I enjoyed several entries in The Advent Project, a multi-media devotional from the Center … More Centered on Jesus: A Lenten Devotional from the Faculty of Bethel University
Any reasonable, empathetic person can find any number of reasons to find troubling Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The suffering, dislocation, and grief that any war inflicts on anyone in its path. The odiousness of Vladimir Putin, who had the gall to say that one goal of his “special military operation” was the “denazification” of Ukraine: … More Thoughts on Ukraine
I’ve kept things quiet here all February: in part because I’ve been launching spring courses; in part because I’ve been working on a small Bethel project that I’ll be happy to share soon, hopefully this time next week. But let me awaken The Pietist Schoolman long enough to check in on our Following Jesus conversation, … More Following Jesus: The Baptist Tradition
This week I shared a free discussion guide for my Lindbergh biography and previewed the upcoming meeting of the Conference on Faith and History. Elsewhere: • My Anxious Bench colleague Nadya Williams (whose Jewish grandmother survived the German invasion of the Soviet Union) reflected on the Holocaust for the day set aside for its remembrance. (With … More That Was The Week That Was
At some point last fall, it occurred to me that it might have been a good idea to include some questions at the end of my spiritual biography of Charles Lindbergh, as prompts for individual reflection or group discussion. But then life got busy again and the idea vanished… until I learned recently that the … More A Free Discussion Guide for My Lindbergh Biography
If you had told me twenty, ten, or even five years ago that a Pietist like me would find much common ground with a Reformed Christian, I’d have been skeptical. Yet when I read Wes Granberg-Michaelson’s January essay for the Following Jesus conversation, I found myself nodding along “with a version of following Jesus that … More Following Jesus: The Reformed Tradition
This week I reflected on why I (unlike many my age and younger) still think of myself as a Protestant, and I celebrated the birthday of one of my favorite Protestant theologians by reviewing a new collection of his writings. Elsewhere: • A century after a leading liberal Protestant warned against the triumph of Fundamentalism, Dan … More That Was The Week That Was
According to church historian Carter Lindberg, that’s how German Lutherans in the early 18th century thought of Philipp Jakob Spener: second only to Martin Luther himself. Born this day in 1635, Spener is less remembered nowadays, but played a prominent role in renewing early modern Protestantism, as a popular preacher and writer and the founding … More A New Book about “The Second Greatest Lutheran Theologian”
The Pietist Schoolman 