I love magic. That’s what Harry Potter murmurs at one point in The Goblet of Fire, the fourth story in J. K. Rowling’s series. The wizard-in-training walks into what had looked like a tiny, nondescript tent and finds that it is impossibly large and opulent. I love magic. I’m not sure how I can explain this, … More The Magic of History
The fourth season of The Pietist Schoolman Podcast wraps up today with Sam Mulberry and me talking about our favorite memorials, museums, meals, and masterpieces in the southern German city of Munich. In addition, we closed with some broader reflections on the spiritual purposes of travel. (If nothing else, skip ahead to 33:50 for our discussion of … More Thursday’s Podcast: Munich (and Why We Travel)
Last week I shared some quick thoughts on Ben Schmidt’s much-read report on the state of the history major. Using graduation numbers from the IPEDS database, he found that history has suffered a greater proportional decline since the Great Recession than any other major: in 2016-17, there were one-third fewer history grads than there were in 2011-12. … More The History Major at Christian Colleges
Sam and I are back from our Thanksgiving to talk through the next stop on our “World Wars in Western Europe” tour: Paris, France. After trying to decide whether or not Paris is our favorite city in the world — and why American college students rarely recognize it as anything like a contender for that … More Thursday’s Podcast: Paris
By now, I suspect that many of my readers have either read Ben Schmidt’s report for the American Historical Association or glanced at summaries of it in Inside Higher Ed or the Chronicle of Higher Education. Short version: since 2011-12 (“the first years for which students who saw the financial crisis in action could easily change their majors”), … More Quick Thoughts on the History Major Report
Our Pietist Schoolman Podcast travelogue continues today, as Sam Mulberry and I talk about the battlefields at the heart of our January 2019 travel course and June 2019 adults tour on the history of the world wars. While we did mention favorite meals, we skipped museums in order to focus on this season’s other two recurring M’s: … More Monday’s Podcast: The Western Front
Not this weekend, but the next two Sundays in November, I’ll be teaching an adult Kairos class on The Pietist Option at Incarnation Lutheran Church in Shoreview, Minnesota. Here’s the course description: In the history of Lutheranism few renewal movements have been as successful as Pietism. This led to revivals everywhere from 17th century Germany to 18th … More The Pietist Option for Lutherans
A week ago I had the honor of taking part in a panel discussion of World War I hosted by the Minnesota Opera and MinnPost. Alongside performances from the forthcoming opera Silent Night, about the Christmas Truce of 1914, we discussed the experience of soldiers and veterans — then and now. I felt like I’d already … More What Do We Misunderstand about World War I?
Our thanks to Anna Johnson, Reformation church history professor at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, who is leading an online discussion of The Pietist Option on Tuesday, November 13th at noon (Central time). Here’s how Garrett introduces our book at its webinars page: Pietists are Christianity’s historical behind-the-scenes influencers. They were an important inspiration for John Wesley, the Moravians, … More How You Can Participate in an Online Discussion of The Pietist Option
Save my recent guest appearance on Election Shock Therapy as a supposed expert on American constitutional history, I’ve been rather quiet on the podcasting front. So I’m happy to announce that plans are coming together for a short fourth season of The Pietist Schoolman Podcast. Each season of PSP has been its own entity. The first two bridged my two … More Announcing a New Season of The Pietist Schoolman Podcast
The Pietist Schoolman 