4/1/15 – This week’s eighth episode of Past & Presence starts a two-part conversation about Christian approaches to the discipline of history — starting with George Marsden’s Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship. (I’ll have a post next week on that conversation after the second half airs.) Plus I get to indulge my interest in commemoration by visiting war (and … More Past and Presence: Christian History, Part I
Recently, I had the opportunity to travel to Bridgewater College, which is located in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, just outside Harrisonburg, Virginia. The occasion, spearheaded by Steve Longenecker, was a symposium on the history of the (Schwarzenau) Brethren tradition’s relationship with evangelicalism. The intersection of evangelicalism with Pietist and Anabaptist groups is a topic that has … More Recent Conversations on Evangelicalism and Pietist-Anabaptist Identity
Today I’m happy to share a guest post by George Demetrion: a review essay on Philipp Jakob Spener’s 1675 work, Pia Desideria, originally written while George was auditing my colleague Glen Scorgie’s Pietism course at Bethel Seminary San Diego. The author of In Quest of a Vital Protestant Center: An Ecumenical Evangelical Perspective, George found much to appreciate in Pia … More The Enduring Influence of Pia Desideria (George Demetrion)
3/16/15 – If all goes according to plan, The Pietist Schoolman Podcast will formally debut one month from today, with an episode featuring theologian Roger Olson. In the meantime, I’ve set up a PSP page on Facebook, where I’ll share some goodies in advance of the debut. Eventually, it’ll be one place you can both keep up with new episodes … More Our Podcast Page on Facebook
We’ll have some new guest posts at the end of the week, but little from me while I spend Bethel’s spring break in Virginia with my parents. But it’s been a while since I’ve reposted any “best of” material, so I’ll share one from each year this blog has been published — in part to … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: Emmaus Education
I mentioned a few weeks ago that I have been co-editing a book on the history of Grace College and Theological Seminary and now I am happy to announce that Becoming Grace: Seventy-Five Years on the landscape of Christian Higher Education in America is available for preorder! I’ll be writing more about what you’ll find in … More Becoming Grace… Now Available for Preorder!
Okay, let’s go back to Wesleyan University president Michael Roth’s claim that while he wants his students (even fellow secularists) to engage with religious ideas and feelings, he certainly isn’t “trying to make a religious believer out of anybody.” But as a Christian historian — and as a professor at a Christian college — aren’t … More Am I “Making Religious Believers” Out of My Students? (part 2)
Coming next month to iTunes: The Pietist Schoolman Podcast! I’m not sure if “triumphant” is the right word here, but who am I to disagree with the people who are going to host the first podcast series I’ll have attempted in about four years? (Yes, I have a past life as a serial podcaster, having produced Radio Modern Europe from 2007-2008 … More My “Triumphant Return to Podcasting”
One of the ablest defenders of the liberal arts, in a time when many question their value, is Wesleyan University president Michael Roth. Indeed, before becoming an administrator, Roth was trained as an intellectual historian, and he still finds time to teach in that field. Last month he wrote an essay for the Wall Street Journal probing his students’ hesitation whenever he … More Am I “Making Religious Believers” Out of My Students? (part 1)
I’m happy to announce that five weeks from today I’ll be in Winona Lake, Indiana to speak to the faculty of Grace College about our book on Pietism and Christian higher education. Readers of this blog may know Grace best as the academic home of our regular guest-blogger Jared Burkholder, who played a key role … More Taking Our Book on the Road: Grace College
The Pietist Schoolman 