On the single day of July 1, 1916, over 19,000 British soldiers died along France’s Somme river, slaughtered in largely futile assaults on German defenses that had survived the week-long artillery bombardment preceding the attack. The battle raged on until mid-November, with over 75,000 more British soldiers dying and 300,000+ being wounded. British photographers on … More This Day in History: The First Day of the Somme
Our favorite guest eulogist, G.W. Carlson, is back to pay tribute to another member of his cloud of witnesses: the Baptist minister and civil rights activist Will Campbell, who died earlier this month. In the first of a two-part post, G.W. characterizes Campbell as a “radical Baptist” influenced by Anabaptists. On June 4 I received … More Will D. Campbell: A Radical Baptist Peacemaker (G.W. Carlson) – part 1
When I first started teaching Bethel’s Christianity and Western Culture class, we went all the way from ancient Athens through the 20th century. We’ve since decided that that might be two or three too many centuries for one semester, but I do miss the week where we read through three 19th century Christian responses to … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: The Love of Libraries
I’m not sure they have such celebrations in heaven, but at least down here, there should be some recognition that today marks what would have been the 100th birthday of the late, multi-talented Karl A. Olsson: writer, preacher, teacher, literature scholar, decorated veteran of World War II, former president of what’s now North Park University, … More Happy 100th Birthday, Karl Olsson!
Just two days after announcing via his Twitter feed that he had stage 4 cancer, Dallas Willard died yesterday. At the end of this post, I’ll offer my own small contribution to the collection of tributes that is already proliferating, but first a few words from people who knew him well: • Richard Foster wrote … More RIP Dallas Willard (1935-2013)
Today’s semi-rerun takes me back pretty far in the life of this blog, to December 2011. But then, the debate goes back to the eve of the Civil War… Original Post: “This Day in History: John Brown’s Body” Follow Up: “An Exchange on John Brown” (New York Review of Books, May 9, 2013) “I tend … More Following Up: Debating John Brown
When I first started teaching Bethel’s Christianity and Western Culture class, we went all the way from ancient Athens through the 20th century. We’ve since decided that that might be two or three too many centuries for one semester, but I do miss the week where we read through three 19th century Christian responses to … More The Love of Libraries
Fifty years ago this year a British intelligence agent named David Cornwell published his third novel. As he had with his previous two, Cornwell wrote under the pen name John Le Carré. But unlike his earlier experiences as a published author, Cornwell/Le Carré not only achieved global fame this time, with The Spy Who Came in … More Good War, Cold War, Soldier, Spy
Thanks to Ken Stewart of Covenant College for taking the time to review our 2011 book, The Pietist Impulse in Christianity, in the new issue of Haddington House Journal! You’ll need to buy the issue to read the full review, since it’s not online. But in short, Stewart applauds the book on four counts: (I’ll … More New Review of The Pietist Impulse in Christianity
4/3/2013 – It’s here: the finals of the Best Christian Book of All Time tournament, being held by InterVarsity’s Emerging Scholars blog. Though Dietrich Bonhoeffer looked unstoppable in early rounds, his Cost of Discipleship lost out to C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. In the other half of the bracket, Augustine’s Confessions edged the representative from the … More And the Best Christian Book of All Time Is…
The Pietist Schoolman 