I originally delivered this address (which pulls together several ideas I’ve chewed on at this blog) last spring and published it at The Anxious Bench. But it struck me last night that it’s actually better-suited to this time of year, when many of us are welcoming new students who may not understand or value the liberal … More The Three Journeys of the Christian Liberal Arts
We’re still several weeks away from our October 3rd publication date, but I’m happy to report that The Pietist Option: Hope for the Renewal of Christianity is now available for pre-order from several major retailers: Amazon Barnes & Noble Christianbook.com And you can still pre-order directly from the publisher, InterVarsity Press. As an appetizer, here’s a two-and-a-half-minute … More Now Available from Major Retailers: The Pietist Option
“This is not my country.” That’s what I wanted to believe yesterday, as I stumbled back from a week-long vacation in the Rocky Mountains into the ugly events transpiring in Charlottesville, Virginia. Having intentionally tried to avoid the news in order to savor time with my family, it was bewildering to check social media in … More On Charlottesville: “This Is Not My Country”
It’s hard to believe that it was just three days ago. I was in the car when I got a text from my pastor: “Did you see the news? There’s been an explosion and collapse of a building at Minnehaha.” Kyrie eleison, I wrote back once I saw the images. Christ, have mercy. By the … More How You Can Help Minnehaha Academy
So I stumbled across this T-shirt on Amazon last month and quickly snatched it up: I’ve worn it in public a couple of times. At some level, I think I even convinced myself that it could provide subtle (subtle?!?) publicity: that people would see a word they didn’t recognize, Google it, and be led to … More The Pietist Option Is Not a Quick Fix
According to research by higher education scholar Robert Kelchen, former students of religious private colleges were much more likely to be married — and earlier — than those at other types of institutions. For example, Dordt College (a Christian Reformed school in Iowa) and two campuses of Brigham Young University topped the field in having … More Marriage, Friendship, and the Mission of Christian Colleges
One of my favorite things about blogging is that it gives me excuses to go far outside my fields of supposed expertise, to read widely about other disciplines and other fields within history. For example, his recent death from liver cancer made me realize how little I’d read from Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese dissident who … More “The Miraculous Triumph of Jesus Over Caesar”
Thanks to everyone who commented (here, on Facebook, by email) on yesterday’s post! I quoted from recent posts by historians Neil J. Young and Thomas Kidd, both of whom drew on research and personal experience with evangelical churches to argue that evangelicals are far less concerned with partisan politics than media coverage (and a recent … More Counterpoint: How Evangelicals Are Politicized
This will push into next week my long-gestating post on whether it’s possible to write persuasively for an evangelical audience, but I wanted to think aloud about one question that’s probably bigger than that post: Just how much do politics matter to evangelicals? That first came to mind last month, while I was reading Alec Ryrie’s Protestants: … More How Much Do Politics Matter to Evangelicals?
Fake news. Alternative facts. Post-truth. When those are the catch phrases of the moment, this portion of my employer’s statement of core values can seem both quaint and urgently needed: As learners, we are critical thinkers and problem-solvers committed to academic excellence and intellectual rigor. At the same time, we are truth-seekers, recognizing that all truth-scientific, artistic, philosophical, … More How Christian Scholars Seek Truth in a “Post-Truth” World
The Pietist Schoolman 