Perhaps no book has done more to make me think anew about my vocation as a Christian historian than Confessing History (Univ. of Notre Dame Press). So as I sought points of entry for discussing that topic in my promotion essay, I took some inspiration from a piece in the January/February 2012 issue of Books … More The Vocation of a Christian Historian: Seeking and Telling Truth
What place, if any, do Pietists give to doctrine? Do they place any boundaries on what constitutes right belief (orthodoxy)? Those questions come to my mind at least two or three times a year, generally whenever I’m getting too excited about the prospects for a “Pietist impulse” to again revive Christianity (as it’s done at … More Pietism, Doctrine, and the Boundaries of Belief
After taking a day off from social media yesterday as part of the END IT movement’s attempt to draw some attention to the continued enslavement of at least 27 million people around the world, it seems right to return to blogging/Facebooking/Tweeting with something on slavery. But while I think yesterday’s “disappearance” was a well-intended, perhaps … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: Abolition as Grace
As part of a larger controversy boiling over at Cedarville University, its board of trustees last month voted to cut the school’s philosophy major, approving a recommendation made by the Academic Council earlier in January. Reporters and commentators tended to associate the elimination of philosophy (along with the resignation of the school’s president and vice … More Philosophy at Evangelical Colleges
How do historians define what it is that they do? Is it a profession? A vocation? Both? As I mentioned last week, as part of Bethel’s faculty promotion process I recently wrote a lengthy essay on the meaning of vocation for a Christian historian like myself. In my first post stemming from that essay, I … More The Vocation of a Christian Historian: Profession vs. Calling
I’m up for promotion this year, and so had to write a lengthy faith-learning integration essay describing how I “[bring] the perspective of a Christian worldview to bear on scholarship and teaching” and reflecting an “increasing maturity in one’s discipline and faith….” I don’t intend to publish the entire (thirty-page) thing here, but I did … More The Vocation of a Christian Historian: Calling and Callings
2/13/13 – Move over, Justin Bieber, Rihanna, and, um, Mr. President… A new contender’s ready to make a meteoric rise into the top five of Twitter accounts: the Pietism Studies Group!
I wrote this last year after our church’s Ash Wednesday service, which concludes with the “imposition” of ashes. My daughter is three now, otherwise I think most everything here applies in 2013 as much as it did in 2012… It’s amazing sometimes that anyone can learn English. Look up the word “imposition” in Webster’s, for … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: An Imposition
Yesterday’s surprising announcement that Pope Benedict XVI would resign at the end of this month inspired all sorts of commentary. Rather than try to make room for it all in my standard “That Was The Week That Was” links post on Saturday, we’ll give some of those links their own post: • Washington Post foreign … More That Was The Day That Was: Pope Benedict’s Resignation
The sermon I preached yesterday (Feb. 10, 2013) as the conclusion of the Winter Seminar on Pietism at Bethlehem Covenant Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Our text was Luke 9:28-45. (You can listen to the sermon at Bethlehem’s website.) “Better to keep silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.” (We’re … More “Listen to Him!”: A Sermon for Transfiguration Sunday
The Pietist Schoolman 