I haven’t yet read Andy Crouch’s new book, Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power, but it’s been hard to miss. An essay on power from Crouch is the cover story in the October 2013 issue of Christianity Today (where Crouch is now executive editor). Borrowing concepts from anthropologist Geert Hofstede, Crouch observes that American … More Andy Crouch on Power: Implications for Education?
This morning I gave the second in a series of talks at the Bethel University Library that will preview chapters from our forthcoming Whole and Holy Persons: A Pietist Approach to Christian Higher Education. My topic was “Pietism from the High Sierra to the Somme: Holistic Education in the Ecclesiola of Off-Campus Study.” This is … More My Talk on Pietism and Off-Campus Study: In Tweet Form
10/8/13 – This morning my colleagues Marion Larson and Sara Shady kicked off a series of talks previewing chapters in our book-in-progress, Whole and Holy Persons: A Pietist Approach to Christian Higher Education, with a presentation on “Loving My (Religious) Other.” I live-tweeted their talk, highlighting key points and books mentioned, and plan to do … More Follow Our Talks on Pietism and Higher Education on Twitter
This past summer my colleague Sam Mulberry and I taught the first online version of one of Bethel University’s more venerable courses: GES130 Christianity and Western Culture — a team-taught, multidisciplinary, one-semester Western Civ course taken by something like two-thirds of Bethel students as a foundational experience in the Global Perspectives pillar of Bethel’s gen … More A Field Report from the Digital Frontier: My Experience Teaching Online
I’d rather it run a feature on the Bethel physics professors and alumni who have recently received National Science Foundation grants and fellowships, but The New York Times covers Christian higher education rarely enough that I suppose any press is good press. Re: Moody Bible Institute’s decision (reported here earlier) to lift its longstanding alcohol … More On Alcohol Bans at Christian Colleges
There’s been plenty of criticism of massive open online courses (MOOCs) in recent months, a small fraction of it linked in my Saturday wrap-up posts. But I haven’t seen much that consciously takes on the problems of MOOCs from a faith-based perspective. So Jonathan Malesic’s piece a couple of weeks ago in the Chronicle of … More A Christian Case Against MOOCs
It’s probably too early to start shopping for Christmas 2014, but if you like to plan ahead… I’m happy to announce that I’m editing a book tentatively titled Whole and Holy Persons: A Pietist Approach to Christian Higher Education, hopefully coming out next fall from InterVarsity Press. As longtime readers know, this topic has been … More Announcing Our Forthcoming Book on Pietism and Higher Education!
The more I find my interests turning towards institutional and public history, the more I appreciate people like Jim Spickelmier, who passed away last Wednesday following a long battle with cancer. Jim had a rich and varied career serving Bethel College and Seminary (now Bethel University) and the churches of the Baptist General Conference. After … More RIP Jim Spickelmier (1941-2013)
As I wrote this post yesterday, I was being shadowed. It was the first time I’ve had anyone ask about setting up a job shadow, and while I was happy to give it a try, I also worried that it would chiefly consist of the student sitting and watching me type at my laptop (with … More Fruit in Drought
My time at Bethel didn’t prepare me to do any specific job, but it prepared me to be the person that I am. Fun as it is for a college professor like me to explore metaphors for the Christian liberal arts — spiritual retreat, cathedral construction, and a Lord of the Rings-like quest — it’s … More The Value of the Christian Liberal Arts: A Bethel Alum Speaks
The Pietist Schoolman 