Today I’m very happy to announce my next major writing project, what I think is the next logical step in a progression of books on my favorite Christian tradition: My co-author Mark Pattie and I are due to deliver the manuscript for Hope for Better Times: Pietism and the Future of Christianity to InterVarsity Press by the end of … More Announcing… Our Book on Pietism and the Future of Christianity
I’ve spent a lot of time this year trying to convince Christians to live “not as a people of fear, but as a people of hope.” Just last Thursday, in the midst of my grief at losing a dear friend, I concluded that “Contemplating the possibility of Stacey’s death had deepened my conviction that the Apostle Paul was right, that those … More Truthful, Hopeful: A Christian Reflection on History
Here… • Rest in peace, Stacey Hunter Hecht (1968-2015). • It’s because of colleagues like Stacey that I know that Christian higher ed can do much, much better than Jerry Falwell, Jr. • And Loren Swartzdruber’s response to Falwell made me wish that his university had not parted ways with the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. • Speaking … More That Was The Week That Was
In the first four months of this year, three of my closest kith and kin were diagnosed with breast cancer. As we near the end of 2015, I’m happy to report that two of them are doing very well. But yesterday afternoon, my friend Stacey Hunter Hecht lost her battle. I’m still in enough shock that I’m not … More On Friendship (For Stacey)
If I’d just been a bit more patient, I could have saved myself the time and trouble of writing my own response to Liberty University president Jerry Falwell, Jr. and just let Eastern Mennonite University president Loren Swartzendruber talk. (H/T Scot McKnight) Mine ended by reflecting on the season of Advent; that’s where Loren’s starts: … More From One Christian College President in Virginia to Another…
Inside Higher Ed reports that Bluffton University has become the latest Christian college to allow for the hiring of gay and lesbian employees, after it added sexual orientation to its anti-bias policy. At the same time, Bluffton announced that it was leaving the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU), which currently has a task force reviewing its membership categories after Goshen … More Another Mennonite School Leaves the CCCU Over Sexuality
Calling out Christian college presidents isn’t really how I wanted to spend Advent, but then I didn’t expect one such leader to devote part of a chapel talk to encouraging his students to carry concealed weapons. But that’s just what Liberty University president Jerry Falwell, Jr. did on Friday, two days after the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California. In a … More The Shadow of Death: A Response to Jerry Falwell, Jr.
First, if you haven’t yet had a chance to vote for The Pietist Vision of Christian Higher Education in the InterVarsity Press Readers’ Choice Awards, you can still cast your ballot today and tomorrow. Okay, back to the week that was… Here… • I responded to Oklahoma Wesleyan president Everett Piper’s widely circulated post on why the university is not … More That Was The Week That Was
My thoughts and prayers are with the shooting victims and their families in San Bernardino. — Dr. Ben Carson (@RealBenCarson) December 2, 2015 In the wake of the mass shootings on Wednesday, social media was predictably filled with politicians and others saying that their “thoughts and prayers” were with the victims’ families. But that prompted a fierce … More “Thoughts and Prayers”
When it was first posted last month, I had little desire to respond to a blog post in which Oklahoma Wesleyan University president Everett Piper railed against “victimization” culture on American college campuses. To an anonymous OKWU student who was apparently upset that a recent chapel talk about love (1 Cor 13) “made him feel bad for not … More This is Not Leadership: A Response to Everett Piper’s “Day Care” Post
The Pietist Schoolman 