This first week of 2022 I previewed some upcoming Lindbergh events and reflected on whether Christians ought to treat biography as hagiography, hamartiography, or something else. Elsewhere: • Yesterday my university decided to shift most classes online for the remainder of our J-term. I’m fine with that in our situation, but there are good reasons to … More That Was The Week That Was
Forgive the quiet start to a new blogging year. I’ve been busy launching the J-term version of our Christianity and Western Culture class: over two millennia covered in three weeks! Which is a bit more ambitious than my upcoming speaking schedule, but I’m still happy to have three opportunities over the next five weeks to … More Three Upcoming Lindbergh Events
As I wrap up my second decade as a college professor, it’s hard to believe that my first decade in that job included almost no writing. In 2021 I not only kept blogging at The Pietist Schoolman and The Anxious Bench, but did more of that writing than usual for the blog of our newly-merged … More 2021: That Was The Year That Was
This week I reflected again on what I’ve learned about history from eulogizing friends and found some common ground between Anglicanism and Pietism. Elsewhere: • “Greeting everyone with ‘Happy Holidays’ at Christmastime,” warned one Hindu writer, “disrespects and dilutes the meaning of Christmas without making religious minorities feel authentically included.” • The early leader for biggest grinch … More That Was The Week That Was
At first blush, it might seem like Anglicanism and Pietism would have little in common. “But in ways expected and not,” I wrote yesterday, “Randall Balmer’s essay resonated more strongly with me than any other preceding it” in the Following Jesus conversation. It’s not just that we’re both historians and Anglophiles with a fondness for … More Following Jesus: The Anglican Tradition
‘Twas a quiet week here at the home office, primarily because I ended up writing obituaries at our department blog for two retired colleagues who died within a few days of each other: political scientist Bill Johnson and historian Kevin Cragg. I added a longer, more personal tribute to Kevin at The Anxious Bench, where … More That Was The Week That Was
A very Christmasy first week of December for me, as I extended a special Christmas offer for my Lindbergh bio — then received the gift of a great review! — and joined with Anxious Bench colleagues to suggest some other gifts for history buffs. Elsewhere: • If you needed any more reason to order a copy of … More That Was The Week That Was
The latest review of Charles Lindbergh: A Religious Biography of America’s Most Infamous Pilot is also one of the most generous: Any Lindbergh biographer faces a challenge: to tell the truth about the past, both the good and the bad, with both empathy and unflinching honesty. Christopher Gehrz, a history professor at Bethel University in … More The Christian Century Reviews My Lindbergh Bio
Yesterday a few of us at The Anxious Bench suggested a few books and trinkets that might make good gifts for the history buffs in our readers’ lives. That list already included a biography about a not-infamous person, so I wasn’t tempted to hawk my own wares. But today is another day, and this is … More How to Have a Very Lindbergh Christmas
This week I reconsidered the foreign policy of America’s first born-again president and suggested how Christians can realize just how big the Christian world is. Elsewhere: • Filed under the nothing-new-under-the-sun category… ongoing conservative attempts to ban critical race theory sounded to one historian of education a lot like the conservative agenda of the 1920s. (Or … More That Was The Week That Was
The Pietist Schoolman 