Yesterday’s picture of a plum pudding is easily the best image that’s ever been on the cover of this blog, so I’ll just leave it up while I offer a second straight Christmas-y post… Fun seasonal facts about myself: I’m horrible at coming up with creative Christmas gift ideas But if I do have an … More Some E-Stocking Stuffers for My Readers
12/18/12 – The Winter 2012 issue of Pietisten is now available! In addition to my own piece on experiencing Christian unity in sacrament, song, and service, be sure to check out Bob Bach’s reflection on Christmas and light, Carolyn Poterek’s homily on Pietism as an Ephesians 4 movement, Michelle Urberg’s visit to a late medieval … More New Pietisten!
Perhaps the only benefit of having spent this past weekend laid up sick in bed was that I had plenty of time in which to finally finish David Swartz’s outstanding Moral Minority, the definitive history of the vast array of individual, communities, organizations, and publications that constituted the “evangelical left” in the late 1960s and … More Prayer and Social Concern: Paul Rees and the Chicago Declaration
Reading this morning that American colleges and universities have accumulated over $200 billion in outstanding debt thanks to a “decade-long spending binge to build academic buildings, dormitories and recreational facilities — some of them inordinately lavish to attract students” reminded me of this post from last November… I’ve mentioned once or twice before that my … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: College Architecture and Christian Simplicity
Are evangelical colleges and universities becoming more cautious about identifying themselves with political (not theological) conservatism? This month’s issue of Christianity Today features a brief story following up on the recent resignation of conservative pundit Dinesh D’Souza from the presidency of The King’s College (TKC), a conservative Christian school in New York City. Reporter Melissa … More The Depoliticization of Conservative Christian Colleges?
I’m happy to pass along this announcement about “A Celebration of the Covenant Pilgrimage,” a four-week adult Sunday School class that will be presented at Salem Covenant Church next month (January 6, 13, 20, 27), kicking off a year-long celebration of our congregation’s 125th anniversary. Alas, I’ll be in Europe for most of the course, … More A Celebration of the Covenant Pilgrimage
Yesterday I made a big deal out of a small grant that I received for a workshop at Bethel University. Today let me make a much bigger deal out of a much bigger grant that my colleague Chris Armstrong received for an initiative at Bethel Seminary called “Work with Purpose.” You can read more details … More Work with Purpose
I’m very happy (and humbled) to announce that the Lilly Fellows Program has awarded Bethel a small grant in support of a workshop I’ll be directing next summer — The Pietist Idea of a Christian College: Bethel University. In many ways, this is the culmination of a strange journey that started during a similar kind … More The Pietist Idea of a Christian College
You and I believe that slavery is wrong, but neither of us came to this conclusion on our own. So starts perhaps my favorite blog post of the year, published last weekend by historian Jay Case (professor at Malone University; author of An Unpredictable Gospel) and entitled, “An Ethical Conviction That You Hold, For Which … More Abolition as Grace
A few stray observations that I couldn’t quite fit in to my earlier posts on social class at Christian colleges: Top 10 Lists Which evangelical colleges and universities in the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) do best and worst according to Washington Monthly‘s social mobility index, discussed in yesterday’s post? Here are the … More Final Thoughts on Social Class and Christian Colleges
The Pietist Schoolman 