This week I got to be a bit more of a Pietist schoolman again on our podcast, as we considered how a Pietist ethos would shape education at several levels. Things started with Sam and me talking about Bethel and revisiting some of the key themes of last year’s book on The Pietist Vision for Christian Higher Education: … More Thursday’s Podcast: Education as Whole-Life Formation
It’s one of the four instincts that we think defines the Pietist ethos: to trust that Christians are better together than apart. Around Bethel, it shows up as an “irenic [or peaceable] spirit” that leads us to avoid needless controversy and try to reach decisions by consensus; in the Evangelical Covenant Church, it results in our affirmation of having the … More Thursday’s Podcast: A Peaceable Spirit
If any one of Philipp Spener’s six “pious wishes” is most central, or does the most to set Pietism apart from other Christian traditions that place a high value on Scripture and a “common priesthood,” it’s probably this one: …the people must have it impressed upon them and must accustom themselves to believing that it is by no … More Thursday’s Podcast: Christianity as Life
Like earlier Pietists, Mark and I tend to feel like what we have to suggest isn’t all that new. This episode — like the one before it — we revisited an idea from the Protestant Reformation. Last time, it was sola Scriptura; this week, the common priesthood. (And yes, we talked about why we’re using that version of the ideal, … More Thursday’s Podcast: The Common Priesthood for the Common Good
Today Mark, Sam, and I return from our spring break with the first of six proposals for how a revival of the Pietist ethos can benefit Christianity early in the 21st century. Continuing to parallel the structure of Pia Desideria (1675), we joined Philipp Jakob Spener in urging greater attentiveness to Scripture: Thought should be given to a more … More Thursday’s Podcast: A Greater Attentiveness to Scripture
I’m taking a week off from blogging, but our podcast is back today with a new episode. If we consult the Holy Scriptures we can have no doubt that God promised his church here on earth a better state than this. Philipp Jakob Spener (1675) Given all the problems we discussed in our previous episode, why … More Thursday’s Podcast: Why So Hopeful?
“What’s wrong with Christianity in 2016?” Yikes. As I wrote here last week, I’ve been dreading this question since we decided that our book on “Pietism and the Future of Christianity” would mirror the structure of Philipp Spener’s Pia Desideria, whose first major section is a “Conspectus of Corrupt Conditions in the Church.” As I mused … More Thursday’s Podcast: What’s Wrong?
After a midwinter break, Mark Pattie and I are preparing to record the next podcast in our series thinking aloud through the book we’re writing for InterVarsity Press, tentatively called Hope for Better Times: Pietism and the Future of Christianity. The structure of our book will mirror that of Pia Desideria, the 1675 booklet published by the Lutheran pastor … More What’s Wrong with Chris(tianity) in 2016?
So if Pietism is an ethos or spirit, where can you see it today in Christianity? Who or what exemplifies the instincts we talked about last time? On today’s episode, Mark, Sam, and I share some of our experiences with Pietism in the Evangelical Covenant Church and at Bethel University (two Christian institutions that explicitly claim … More Thursday’s Podcast: Pietists Today
This morning’s new episode of The Pietist Schoolman Podcast finds Mark Pattie and me talking about a question that’s foundational to the book we’re going to be writing this year: What is Pietism? And, almost as importantly, what is it not? Anti-intellectualism, legalism, quietism… though the seeds of such pathologies are present in the Pietist “instincts” that we … More Thursday’s Podcast: What’s Pietism?
The Pietist Schoolman 