Category: Christianity

Worship service at WWI aerodrome

My New Adult Sunday School Class: “The Church and the Wars of the 20th Century”

January 25, 2017

All next month I’ll be teaching an adult Sunday School class at Salem Covenant Church (New Brighton, MN) on a favorite topic of mine: “The Church and the Wars of the 20th Century.” It’ll be offered twice each Sunday, at 9:45am and 11:00am in Salem’s Fellowship Hall. Here’s the summary blurb: This spring will mark … More My New Adult Sunday School Class: “The Church and the Wars of the 20th Century”

Munich's White Rose Memorial

Thinking about the American Present via the European Past

January 24, 2017

It’s been about three weeks since last I blogged here at The Pietist Schoolman. Anything been happening? If you didn’t know, I spent most of January in Britain, Belgium, France, and Germany, where my friend Sam Mulberry and I were leading a travel course on the history of World War I. I’m sure I’ll have more to share … More Thinking about the American Present via the European Past

Red and pink poinsettias

Poinsettias: A Christmas Meditation

December 24, 2016

Last month I wrote three short meditations for my parents’ church’s Hanging of the Greens service. I’ve already shared an Advent-themed piece on candle light. This Christmas Eve I’ll publish the two focused on symbols of Jesus’ birth itself. First up, the flowers that are omnipresent this time of year. One of the complicated joys of Christianity is … More Poinsettias: A Christmas Meditation

Larson & Shady, From Bubble to Bridge

The First Must-Read Christian Book of 2017

December 22, 2016

Coming from IVP Academic on January 16th, it’s the first must-read Christian book of 2017: Marion Larson and Sara Shady’s From Bubble to Bridge: Educating Christians for a Multifaith World! I’ll need to wait until February to read it myself — since I’ll be somewhere in Europe teaching the history of World War I — but trust me, you’re … More The First Must-Read Christian Book of 2017

Tim Johnson

Reflections on a Pietist Identity (Tim Johnson)

December 22, 2016

Today’s guest post comes from Tim Johnson, who attended last week’s Bethel Colloquium on Pietism. (To watch video of all sessions, click here, select the On Demand tab, and look under December 13, 2016.) Tim is Curator of Special Collections & Rare Books and the E. W. McDiarmid Curator of the Sherlock Holmes Collections for the University … More Reflections on a Pietist Identity (Tim Johnson)

"Blue Christmas" cross at Nazareth Lutheran Church

Blue Christmas: Comfort, Hope, and Healing

December 21, 2016

I’m not entirely sure what took me out this night, the longest of the year, to attend “A Service of Comfort, Hope, and Healing” at my father-in-law’s church in Cedar Falls, Iowa. By way of explanation, I mumbled something to my wife about Stacey and GW. It’s been months now since the deaths of those close friends, … More Blue Christmas: Comfort, Hope, and Healing

Swartz, Moral Minority

White Evangelicalism Has Been Politically Conservative… But Must It Remain So?

December 21, 2016

I’d love to disagree with the thesis of historian Neil Young’s piece in Religion Dispatches, but he’s probably right that …the bulk of white evangelicals’ political efforts have always veered to the right, often to the extreme. From Civil Rights to Vietnam to abortion to gay rights, from national defense to tax policy to climate change … More White Evangelicalism Has Been Politically Conservative… But Must It Remain So?