Category: Books

Cover of The Pietist Vision of Christian Higher Education

Now Available for Preorder: The Pietist Vision of Christian Higher Education!

August 18, 2014

On Friday morning I sent back the index and corrected proofs for The Pietist Vision of Christian Higher Education: Forming Whole and Holy Persons; Friday afternoon I opened our mail to find said book gracing the pages of InterVarsity Press’ new titles announcement for Winter 2015. And then here it is at the IVP website. I’m … More Now Available for Preorder: The Pietist Vision of Christian Higher Education!

MLK's April 1963 mugshot

Birmingham Revolution: Not Everyone’s a Prophet

August 15, 2014

Among the many people to whom I recommended Ed Gilbreath’s new book this summer were colleagues and students in Bethel University’s Christianity and Western Culture (CWC) course. While that course effectively ends its narrative around 1800 (I go as far as the British parliament abolishing the slave trade in 1807) and we barely touch on U.S. history, the … More Birmingham Revolution: Not Everyone’s a Prophet

The gate of Dachau

Best of The Pietist Schoolman: The Two (or Three) Why’s of History

August 1, 2014

We’ll conclude this week of reruns with the first of two May 2014 posts inspired by a convocation talk at Bethel University by journalist Krista Tippett,  host of the acclaimed public radio program On Being and recent winner of the National Humanities Medal. …Tippett’s talk drew on her recent book, Einstein’s God: Conversations about Science and the Human Spirit, and … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: The Two (or Three) Why’s of History

Clarion story about December 1960 visit to Bethel by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Birmingham Revolution: How to Silence a Prophetic Voice

July 15, 2014

For years after King’s death, many white Christians continued to eye him with suspicion, even as families like mine proudly displayed his portrait on our walls. Today, in an era when all fifty U.S. states now observe the King holiday and a resplendent monument to the man stands in our nation’s capital, it’s difficult to … More Birmingham Revolution: How to Silence a Prophetic Voice

Gilbreath, Birmingham Revolution

Birmingham Revolution: MLK’s “Great Epistle to the Church”

July 10, 2014

It feels a bit eery to carry a book about Martin Luther King, Jr. around the city where he died, but during a trip to Memphis last weekend, I had the pleasure of reading Edward Gilbreath’s Birmingham Revolution: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Epic Challenge to the Church. It’s given me plenty to think about, enough that I want … More Birmingham Revolution: MLK’s “Great Epistle to the Church”

Pietisten cover

Now Available: The Spring/Summer 2014 Issue of Pietisten

July 3, 2014

Yesterday afternoon I had the pleasure of visiting a new member of our church. At one point in the conversation, I looked over and noticed that she had a copy of Pietisten sitting open next to her couch. And that reminded me that I’ve failed to do my bit to publicize the release of that estimable journal’s Spring/Summer 2014 … More Now Available: The Spring/Summer 2014 Issue of Pietisten

Walton & Sandy, The Lost World of Scripture

Inerrancy and the “Lost World of Scripture”: An Interview with D. Brent Sandy

May 16, 2014

For fundamentalist-leaning evangelicals, biblical inerrancy carries a ton of freight. It remains something of a shibboleth that 1) Provides a litmus test of orthodoxy, 2) verifies that one actually takes the Bible at face value, and 3) leads one to appropriate positions on issues ranging from origins to eschatology. With so much riding on this one … More Inerrancy and the “Lost World of Scripture”: An Interview with D. Brent Sandy

WWII poster: "Listen! The enemy may be talking"

History as a “Ministry of Listening”

May 6, 2014

As I mentioned yesterday, public radio journalist Krista Tippett recently appeared at Bethel University to speak about her book Einstein’s God: Conversations about Science and the Human Spirit. One of those conversations inspired yesterday’s post on what historians mean when they ask the question “Why?” of the past. Today I want to reflect on Tippett’s larger purpose, as the … More History as a “Ministry of Listening”