Tomorrow I’ll be taking an early morning flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Chicago, where I’ll represent my congregation at Gather ’14, the annual meeting of our denomination, the Evangelical Covenant Church. “What’s the Evangelical Covenant Church?” at least one person just asked. (“Why would anyone attend a denominational annual meeting?” asked someone else — or maybe the … More What’s the Evangelical Covenant Church?
My series sketching the contours of a Pietist model of Christian scholarship concludes. In part one I critiqued the prevailing model of “faith-learning integration.” Then part two considered how scholarship transforms the scholar. In the conclusion, I’ll suggest how scholarship — particularly when understood not just as the production of knowledge but its transmission — benefits … More A Pietist Model of Christian Scholarship: Loving Neighbors
I thoroughly enjoyed the first two biennial meetings of the Conference on Faith and History (CFH) that I attended, at Bluffton University in 2008 and Gordon College in 2012. But I’m even more excited to take part in the 2014 meeting this September at Pepperdine University. And not just because Malibu is a bit more attractive … More CFH 2014: Christian Historians, Social Media, and Institutional Change
In the first part of this post, I offered a Pietist critique of “the integration of faith and learning.” Today, as I continue to rework my recent presentation to Bethel’s annual faith-learning faculty workshop, I’ll tentatively suggest how Pietism might offer an alternative to the “integrationist” model of Christian scholarship. (I had intended this to be a … More A Pietist Model of Christian Scholarship: Transformation and Character
What would Christian scholarship look like if rooted in the Pietist tradition? Would Pietists affirm something like “the integration of faith and learning”? Yesterday I had the chance to talk about these questions as part of Bethel’s annual faith-learning workshop for faculty on the cusp of applying for tenure. Thanks to workshop facilitator Kathy Nevins for the invitation! (Kathy … More A Pietist Model of Christian Scholarship: Against Faith-Learning Integration
In many Christian circles, secular colleges and universities can sometimes get a bad rap. Parents are warned that their children will “lose their faith” in these environments and that professors will intentionally undermine their beliefs. Politically conservative Christians routinely express their belief that American colleges and universities are out to brainwash their kids with leftist … More Should Christian Higher Education Be “Safe”?
Over at Slate writer Ben Schreckinger argues that the seven-day week has outlived its usefulness: The pattern of living on a seven-day cycle—with one or two of those days set aside for rest—is a relative novelty. Only in the past few centuries, with Western colonization of most of the world, have the majority of human societies adopted it. … More The Week Is Dead, Long Live the Week!
“This brand of Calvinists are a force with which to reckon,” writes Jonathan Merritt of the so-called “young, restless, and Reformed” (or “neo-Calvinists”) and their elder mentors. “But,” he continues: as with any movement, America’s Calvinist revival is a mixed bag. None can deny that many have come to faith as a result of these … More Calvinisms, New and Old
Readers interested in Pietism, Baptists, social justice, Christian spirituality, religious liberty, or Bethel University should head over to the brand new website for The Baptist Pietist Clarion, edited by my friend G.W. Carlson. Clarion issues have been available for download for several years now, but they were hosted by a page at a now-outdated version of our department’s website. … More The New Online Home of The Baptist Pietist Clarion
For fundamentalist-leaning evangelicals, biblical inerrancy carries a ton of freight. It remains something of a shibboleth that 1) Provides a litmus test of orthodoxy, 2) verifies that one actually takes the Bible at face value, and 3) leads one to appropriate positions on issues ranging from origins to eschatology. With so much riding on this one … More Inerrancy and the “Lost World of Scripture”: An Interview with D. Brent Sandy
The Pietist Schoolman 