150 years ago today, the courts-martial of over 300 Dakota warriors came to an end with convictions for murder and rape. While Pres. Abraham Lincoln commuted most of the sentences, the day after Christmas 1862, thirty-eight were hanged in Mankato, Minnesota. In commemoration, here’s a post on the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 that I originally … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: “All have sinned”
I know that Godwin’s law pertains to Internet discussions, but perhaps it’s also true that the closer we get to a vote on a contentious issue in the culture wars, “the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.” Take, for example, the state of Minnesota, whose voters will be asked to answer … More For the Last Time, It’s Not a Good Idea to Make Nazi Analogies
In the wake of the 47% fiasco, I very much hope that Republican readers took seriously Michael Gerson’s critique of the “libertarian nonsense” too commonly escaping the lips of GOP politicians these days, and David Brooks‘ conclusion that Romney “has lost any sense of the social compact” and joined other Republicans in shifting “from the … More Rejecting Epistemic Closure: Conservatives for Progressives to Read
U.S. News’ “Best Colleges” rankings aren’t scheduled to be released until a week from today, but since I’m 99% sure that my opinion of them won’t have changed drastically since this time last year, let me preemptively address them with this “best of” post from last September. (I’ve actually got another post in development that … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: On College Rankings
I’m a PhD-holding history professor myself who will likely never write any book with sales approaching even quadruple figures, but I cringe when fellow guild-members like Louisiana State University professors Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg write things like the following, in Salon this past Sunday: Frankly, we in the history business wish we could take out … More Who Owns History?
Last Friday I decided to put syllabus revision on hold and spend an afternoon continuing my tour of World War I commemoration in the Twin Cities by visiting Fort Snelling, the nearly 200-year old former military installation at the convergence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers that trained officers, processed recruits and draftees, and housed … More “All have sinned”: The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862
Today’s report of nineteen more Christians being killed in Nigeria hastened along a post I’ve been meaning to write for a week or so: in which I tweak some advice that Karl Barth may or may not have given and encourage readers to join me in spending some time praying with the Bible in one … More Praying with the International Religious Freedom Report
“Can liberal Christianity be saved?“, asked New York Times columnist Ross Douthat a few days ago. He was virtually certain that the answer was No, based on what he saw as the fifty-year decline of denominations like The Episcopal Church (TEC). The conservative Catholic Douthat’s thesis was echoed by at least two commentators with connections to Episcopalianism: … More “The ones that should go”: One Liberal Protestant Explanation for Mainline Decline
We’re one of those households that gets by without cable or satellite. Most of the time, that’s fine with me: Hulu, NetFlix, and digital broadcasting provide more than enough entertainment/information options. But that does mean that I’m missing out on the first of two terrific sporting events to happen in Europe this summer. The London … More The Cold War Continues… in Sports
6/5/12 – I’m not much of a monarchist, but it was hard not to get caught up in Queen Elizabeth’s jubilee celebration. Hearing the gathered crowd sing “God Save The Queen” made me think that (if they missed it last fall) some readers might be curious how my European history students and I judged that … More God Save The Queen
The Pietist Schoolman 