It’s late November, which means that newspapers and periodicals are starting to put out their “Best of 2012” lists. Here are the works of scholarly and popular history (and some historical fiction) that have shown up on “Best Books” lists produced by Publishers Weekly (PW), The Washington Post (WP), and Britain’s The Guardian. For each, … More The Best History (and Religion) Books of 2012?
Does socioeconomic class, with vastly less fanfare than gender or race, present equally significant problems for learning communities centered on a Savior in whom there is no difference of class, gender, or race? As I wrote at the end of yesterday’s post, I was spurred to reflect on this by a Chronicle of Higher Education … More Social Class at Christian Colleges (part 2)
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28) Since I arrived at Bethel in 2003, the phrases “anti-racism” and “racial reconciliation” have been prominent in campus discourse. Bethel leaders had identified a “ministry of reconciliation” (in the … More Social Class at Christian Colleges (part 1)
11/23/12 – I’m happy to announce that I’ll be the featured speaker at the annual Winter Seminar offered by Bethlehem Covenant Church in Minneapolis, MN. I’ll be speaking February 8-10, 2013 on the theme of “Pious Wishes and Better Times: The Pietist Impulse in the 21st Century.” We’ll start Friday night with a historical overview … More Winter Seminar on Pietism
11/16/12 – I’m afraid I’ll be Europe-bound while this is happening, but readers interested in Pietism who happen to live in New Orleans or will be attending the annual meeting of the American Historical Association (AHA) in January might want to stop by the sensational-sounding session entitled “When Religious Leaders Die.” Organized by the Pietism … More Pietism Studies at AHA
How important is St. Augustine, bishop of Hippo? Let’s put it this way… I don’t write and perform parody rap videos for just any theologian-philosopher: Six years later, that lyric and video don’t seem quite as awesome as they did in the moment. But I stand by this couplet as containing some of my finest … More Happy Birthday, Augustine of Hippo!
As I’ve noted here before, many Protestants spent the better part of four centuries viewing the bishop of Rome as Antichrist. Reading Exsurge Domina, the papal bull excommunicating him from the Church in 1520, Martin Luther professed to want to believe that the author was actually his debating rival Johannes Eck, but in any case… … More Evangelicals’ New Favorite Pope?
In our Christianity and Western Culture program at Bethel, we refer frequently to the biblical image of being surrounded by “so great a cloud of witnesses.” In my experience, few witnesses have been greater than the Dutch-born writer known as Erasmus (1466?-1536). In class yesterday I mostly presented Erasmus as exemplifying how the “Catholic Reformation” … More The Education of a Christian President
“Mission Friends.” That’s what my ancestors in what’s now the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) originally called themselves, and it’s a winsome phrase I’ve always enjoyed. It reflects our foundational understanding that Christians are called “to reach out with the good news of Jesus Christ – evangelizing the lost, ministering to those in need, and seeking … More Covenant Kids Congo
Some more Reformation Day fun… A few of my favorite — and not-so-favorite, but significant or revealing — quotations from Martin Luther: On Faith Faith is God’s work in us, which transforms us and by which we are reborn from God. By faith the old Adam is crucified. Faith makes us entirely different in heart, … More The Quotable Luther
The Pietist Schoolman 