Last week at Anxious Bench, I had a chance to interview historian Paul Putz, who just launched Sportianity, a blog on “the unique cultural world that stands at the intersection of sports and (mostly evangelical Protestant) Christianity.” When I asked Paul to share significant changes in “Sportianity” since sportswriter Frank Deford coined the term in 1976, … More Sportianity Goes Global
The rest of this summer our pastors are going preach on what David’s life teaches us about leadership. Jonna got things started this past Sunday with a fine meditation on how God, when he chose David to be anointed as king, looks beyond the superficial to see the heart. (A good fit with the Tom … More The Violence of God
“What’s Pietism?” It’s one of the most common questions I’m asked, and I still don’t have a concise answer cued up and ready to go. I’ll try to do better on that count before our book comes out this fall. But at least in some respects, I just want to sing yesterday’s pulpit hymn at … More Pietism in a (Musical) Nutshell
A couple years ago our family went to southern Iowa for a reunion. Noticing that the nearest town was called Moravia, I decided to take a morning to drive around… and discovered several examples of Moravian, Brethren, and other Pietist groups that had settled in that part of America. That tour of “Pietist Iowa” ended … More Pietist “Communism”: The Amana Colonies
Last week I finished indexing The Pietist Option. I know that many authors regard that task as a chore to be outsourced. But can I be honest with you all? I love doing that kind of thing. (Doubt it? I once helped my kids reorganize their books… according to the Dewey Decimal System.) In fact, I … More Does Christian Theology Neglect the Old Testament?
Invited to Rochester, New York to speak in July 1852, the abolitionist Frederick Douglass asked if his listeners meant ” to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day?” After all, he said, “This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.” Being asked to celebrate a slaveholding country as a former slave brought to his … More “By the Rivers of Babylon”: Thoughts on Exile for the 4th of July
The (early) reviews are in, and I’m encouraged to see that The Pietist Option has been well received by a distinguished roster of endorsers. You can read the current set of endorsements at the InterVarsity Press page for the book and I’ve already mentioned the blurbs by Dave Kersten and Brian McLaren in earlier posts. But here’s a … More “Timely… Practical… Immensely Winsome” (Early Reviews of The Pietist Option)
In 2013 I parsed some data from The Chronicle of Higher Education to see how well evangelical college and university presidents were paid. Since the Chronicle just released an updated version of the study, today thought I’d revisit that question. Four years ago about a third of the presidents in the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) were … More Update: How Well Paid Are Christian College Presidents?
Among the endorsements that The Pietist Option has already received, one of my favorites comes from Brian McLaren, author of Generous Orthodoxy and The Great Spiritual Migration: One of my mentors used to describe himself as ‘a Pietist with a PhD.’ After reading The Pietist Option, I know more deeply what he meant, and I realize more clearly why … More “A Pietist with a Ph.D.”
Mark and I received the typeset proofs of The Pietist Option yesterday. While it’s exciting to see the book laid out for the first time, it also means we’ve reached the stage where we can’t make any but cosmetic changes to the text. What we’ve written, we’ve written. So it’s a shame that I only just … More Christian Mission as the “Befriending of Others”
The Pietist Schoolman 