In this turbulent year, when the most pessimistic corners of my mind conjure scenarios in which schools like my employer go under, I’ve occasionally imagined what it would look like to start a new Christian liberal arts college from scratch. For some reason, my imagination keeps turning to the end of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, a … More Home-Colleging?
That noise you heard Friday morning emanating from somewhere in the Upper Midwest was the sound of me exhaling in relief after sending our InterVarsity Press editor the first draft of The Pietist Vision of Christian Higher Education: Forming Whole and Holy Persons. There’s still a long way to go until the book comes out (December?), … More Table of Contents for Our Forthcoming Book on Pietism and Christian Higher Ed
I said it this morning on my Pietist Schoolman Facebook page, but it bears repeating for the larger audience that reads the blog itself: Within the evangelical world it’s hard to overstate the importance of this critique of David Barton, coming as it does from the president of the Conference on Faith and History and chair of the History … More Tracy McKenzie on David Barton: “What’s Really at Stake”
I’m currently editing the manuscript for our new book, The Pietist Vision of Christian Higher Education: Forming Whole and Holy Persons, due out from InterVarsity Press at the end of the year. Most of the chapters are written by current and former colleagues from Bethel University, but I’m happy to chip in with an introduction and … More The Pietist University in the 21st Century (part 1)
When I write about books on this blog, they’re usually academic or semi-academic works of history or theology. But for the end of the week, I thought I’d share a rather different kind of book that my wife and I are reading — both as parents and as teachers of a 4th grade Sunday School … More Spiritual Disciplines for Children
It was a day into Epiphany — the Christian season of light, when Jesus is revealed in many and various ways as God — when I began my J-term class on World War II. So I started out with a meditation on Isaiah 60:1-2, one of the staple texts of the season. But rather than … More “Thick Darkness”: Further Thoughts on Looking Too Quickly for Light
Two weeks ago, I reported briefly on the panel devoted to A. Greg Roeber’s new book on early modern marriage at the American Society of Church History meeting in DC. During the session, I figured it was only a matter of time until the discussion turned to 18th century Moravians, who fostered an interesting view … More Sects and Sex
This weekend marks the 2014 winter meeting of the American Society of Church History. Annual ASCH meetings are always held in conjunction with the American Historical Association and also include a spotlight session organized by the Pietism Studies Group. Kudos to PSG president (and occasional Pietist Schoolman guest blogger) Christian Collins Winn for connecting with … More Pietism Studies Group in Washington D.C.
“Following Up” is a kind of semi-rerun that I do from time to time: freshening up an older post with just a bit of new content or reflection. This one goes back to late February 2013: If you’re like me, you emerged from the Christmas special that served as the final episode of the third … More Following Up: Downton and Sherlock
I think it was sometime in the fall of 2003, my first semester teaching at Bethel University, when I blurted out to members of my Modern Europe class something like, “You wouldn’t be interested in a course on the history of World War II, would you?” More than ten years and lots of student requests … More Previewing My New WWII Course
The Pietist Schoolman 