10/18/11 – Kyle Roberts, another of my colleagues up at Bethel Seminary (and one of the contributors to our Pietist Impulse book), will be part of a panel discussion of Sophocles’ Antigone (adapted as Burial at Thebes) after it is performed tonight at Minneapolis’ famous Guthrie Theater. The curtain goes up in just over two … More Sophocles, Baptist Pietist
10/18/11 – My colleague Chris Armstrong (who blogs at Grateful to the dead) has just posted a wonderfully erudite and accessible four-part series on Christian “religion of the heart,” making the case that Pietists stand with a long line of Christians (Peter, Augustine, Bernard of Clairvaux, Catherine of Siena, Martin Luther, Puritans, John Wesley) who … More Religion of the Heart
After a multi-week hiatus, I’ve finally got a chance to return to our series blogging through Mark Noll and Carolyn Nystrom’s Clouds of Witnesses: Christian Voices from Africa and Asia (InterVarsity Press). If you’re just joining the conversation, you can find the beginning of the series here. We’re moving from Africa to India, which will … More Clouds of Witnesses: “Failure” in India
Today I’m returning to my series on Carolyn Weber’s spiritual autobiography, Surprised by Oxford, and finding her at a pivotal point in her story of coming to faith. When last we heard from Weber, she was back home in Canada for a difficult Christmas: breaking things off with her would-be fiancé, who wished that he … More Surprised by Oxford: Hilary Term
My institution, Bethel University, is currently in the early stages of drafting its next master plan, a document meant to guide the development of new facilities and the renovation of old ones (among other things). As part of the planning process, an outside consultant was on campus to meet with different constituent groups and get … More What’s Distinctive about Christian Colleges?
10/10/11 – For some reason, the top post here the last few days has been one that I did nearly a month ago critiquing “muscular Christianity.” In light of the apparent mini-surge of interest in that topic, let me also recommend today’s New York Times article on Nathan Whitaker, the Duke- and Harvard-educated author who … More More on Muscular Christianity
Hank Williams, Jr. stirred up a fracas this past week by likening Barack Obama playing golf with Speaker of the House John Boehner to Adolf Hitler playing golf with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Not following the analogy? From the Bocephus SAT Prep Guide answer section… Obama:Hitler::Boehner:Netanyahu.) (On overly facile Nazi analogies, check out the … More The Worst Person Before Hitler
There haven’t been a lot of reader comments in the last couple of weeks, probably because I’ve been bloviating so much about disparate topics. So this afternoon I’ll (mostly) keep my opinions to myself and invite responses to questions relating to this big one: Does your church value church history? This question occurs to me … More Does Your Church Value Church History?
Over the last two weeks I’ve probably tried many readers’ patience by dedicating a few thousand words to extolling the virtues of two of my favorite bands: The Jayhawks (who released an underwhelming new album on Sept. 20th) and Wilco (whose outstanding new album arrived one week later). “What does this have to do with … More Radio Kings: “The Echo of a Voice”
As it happened, I read the third part of Carolyn Weber’s Surprised by Oxford (“Christmastide,” which finds her returning home to Canada during a break in Oxford’s schedule) the same week that my friend Sam taught our Christianity and Western Culture class about Augustine of Hippo, the North African theologian and bishop whose Confessions is … More Surprised by Oxford: Christmastide
The Pietist Schoolman 