I don’t normally write blog posts in the wee hours of a Sunday morning, but I made the mistake of checking Twitter before bed and couldn’t sleep after reading this from John Mark Reynolds, the former provost of Houston Baptist University: Christian Higher Ed: years of drift, grifters, and failure to change bringing a crisis. … More A Hopeful Vision for Christian Higher Education
World magazine reports that several other members of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) have threatened to quit the organization if, at the end of August, its membership still includes Goshen College and Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) — the two Mennonite schools that announced last month that they would hire faculty and staff in same-sex marriages. Only … More Standing with the CCCU
So, to complete the thought that ended yesterday’s post, is Union University president “Dub” Oliver right that “marriage is at the heart of the Gospel?” I don’t think so, and neither does theologian Kyle Roberts: The conservative Christian rhetoric about “biblical marriage” has, for quite a while now, struck me as close to idolatrous if … More If Not Marriage, What Is “At the Heart of the Gospel?”
When I asked Devin Manzullo-Thomas to write a post providing some historical context for two Mennonite schools becoming the first members of the largely evangelical Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) to allow for the hiring of employees in same-sex marriages, I pointed him towards a World magazine story featuring this ominous paragraph: Dub Oliver, president of Union University … More Quick Thoughts on Union University Withdrawing from the CCCU
Today we welcome back to the blog Devin Manzullo-Thomas, director of the Sider Institute for Anabaptist, Pietist, and Wesleyan Studies at Messiah College. I’ve asked Devin — whose research often takes him to the intersection between Anabaptist and Evangelical Christianity — to provide some perspective on the decision by two Mennonite members of the Council for Christian … More Mennonites, Evangelicals, and the Sexuality Debate in Christian Higher Ed (Devin Manzullo-Thomas)
Last Friday North Korea announced that it would soon be adopting its own time zone — putting the country half an hour behind South Korea and Japan and half an hour ahead of China. Now, this isn’t actually unprecedented; Foreign Policy pointed out that there’s a “long history of what might be described as time zone manipulation … More North Korea and a Christian View of Time
The first season of The Pietist Schoolman Podcast was meant to extend and expand the conversation that started with our book The Pietist Vision of Christian Higher Education, so it’s fitting that the season finale features the same woman who wrote the book’s preface: Janel Curry, provost of Gordon College. For today’s episode, Janel and I talked about … More Thursday’s Podcast: The Future of Christian Higher Education
What do these people have in common: Korie and Sadie Robertson of Duck Dynasty, Christian music star David Crowder, Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson, conservative pundit William Bennett, and presidential candidates Ben Carson and Bernie Sanders? Yes, all will speaking this fall at Liberty University’s thrice-weekly convocations, “the world’s largest weekly gathering of Christian young people.” One … More Coming to Liberty University This Fall: Bernie Sanders
Our penultimate episode in season 1 of The Pietist Schoolman Podcast features Dan Hanson offering a Lutheran (and a student’s) perspective on higher education. About to start his final year at Luther Seminary, Dan reflects on the difference between a “college of the church” and a Christian college, explains why vocation and “faithful criticism” are central to Lutheran higher education, and … More Thursday’s Podcast: A Lutheran Perspective
Consider these quotations, coming from two Baptist preachers speaking at either end of the 1960s: 1. …although communism can never be accepted by a Christian, it emphasizes many essential truths that must forever challenge us as Christians. Indeed, it may be that communism is a necessary corrective for a Christianity that has been all too passive and … More Can Culture Call Christians Back to Christ?
The Pietist Schoolman 