If you had told me twenty, ten, or even five years ago that a Pietist like me would find much common ground with a Reformed Christian, I’d have been skeptical. Yet when I read Wes Granberg-Michaelson’s January essay for the Following Jesus conversation, I found myself nodding along “with a version of following Jesus that … More Following Jesus: The Reformed Tradition
According to church historian Carter Lindberg, that’s how German Lutherans in the early 18th century thought of Philipp Jakob Spener: second only to Martin Luther himself. Born this day in 1635, Spener is less remembered nowadays, but played a prominent role in renewing early modern Protestantism, as a popular preacher and writer and the founding … More A New Book about “The Second Greatest Lutheran Theologian”
At first blush, it might seem like Anglicanism and Pietism would have little in common. “But in ways expected and not,” I wrote yesterday, “Randall Balmer’s essay resonated more strongly with me than any other preceding it” in the Following Jesus conversation. It’s not just that we’re both historians and Anglophiles with a fondness for … More Following Jesus: The Anglican Tradition
The latest review of Charles Lindbergh: A Religious Biography of America’s Most Infamous Pilot is also one of the most generous: Any Lindbergh biographer faces a challenge: to tell the truth about the past, both the good and the bad, with both empathy and unflinching honesty. Christopher Gehrz, a history professor at Bethel University in … More The Christian Century Reviews My Lindbergh Bio
Yesterday a few of us at The Anxious Bench suggested a few books and trinkets that might make good gifts for the history buffs in our readers’ lives. That list already included a biography about a not-infamous person, so I wasn’t tempted to hawk my own wares. But today is another day, and this is … More How to Have a Very Lindbergh Christmas
Reading my friend Beth Allison Barr’s response to 9Marks editor Jonathan Leeman this morning at The Anxious Bench, I found it hard to avoid her conclusion: Complementarianism is a small world. But Christianity is a big world, far more diverse, complicated, and interesting than what you’ll find in the center of the Venn diagram where … More It’s a Big, Big Christian World
“I’ve never quite been persuaded that the Anabaptist way of following Jesus is the right one,” I wrote in my response to this month’s lead essay in the Following Jesus conversation, “but it always leaves me feeling like my own way is to follow the path of compromise and safety.” So I’m grateful to Michael … More Following Jesus: The Anabaptist Tradition
As a Pietist who now worships within a Lutheran congregation, I’ve been eagerly awaiting this month’s installment of our year-long, ecumenical conversation about Following Jesus. Church historian Mark Ellingsen didn’t disappoint, offering a reflection on what he called Lutheranism’s “Evangelical Catholic” way of following Jesus. At least, that’s how he saw his more “confessional” branch … More Following Jesus: The Lutheran Tradition
Our sports podcast, The 252, returned to today with a new episode that looked back, at what’s happened since our Tokyo Olympics preview, and ahead, to the coming NBA season. In segment one, Chris, Sam, and I reviewed some favorite Olympic events and talked about what to expect in Beijing 2022 and Paris 2024. We … More Tuesday’s Podcast: The Ministry of an NBA Chaplain
One benefit of participating in the Following Jesus conversation this year is that I’ve been prompted to dig back into a variety of sources from what we’re calling “The Pietist Tradition.” One that recently arrived in my mailbox is From Head to Heart: A Compendium of the Theology of Philipp Jakob Spener. Edited by K. … More “Antipathy to authoritarian forms”: An Interpretation of Pietism from Mid-1950s Bethel
The Pietist Schoolman 