Among the many people to whom I recommended Ed Gilbreath’s new book this summer were colleagues and students in Bethel University’s Christianity and Western Culture (CWC) course. While that course effectively ends its narrative around 1800 (I go as far as the British parliament abolishing the slave trade in 1807) and we barely touch on U.S. history, the … More Birmingham Revolution: Not Everyone’s a Prophet
From this past June: my three-part attempt to explain my little-known, fast-growing denomination, and why it’s so distinctive. This past June I flew from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Chicago, where I represented my congregation at Gather ’14, the annual meeting of our denomination, the Evangelical Covenant Church. “What’s the Evangelical Covenant Church?” at least one person just asked. … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: What’s the Evangelical Covenant Church?
Coming into this centenary year for World War I, there’s been a predictable resurgence of books written about that conflict. Which got me wondering how the war has ebbed and flowed over time as a subject for historians and other writers. I came up with two highly imperfect ways to satisfy this curiosity: I was challenged earlier this summer … More Tracking the Popularity of WWI in Books and Dissertations
Over lunch a couple weeks ago, a friend filled a pause in conversation this way: “So, World War I… What should I know?” We had been talking about the centenary of the war, and how it might be commemorated here in Minnesota. I think he had a growing sense of the war’s importance — but also of … More Learning about World War I: How to Get Started
It is a date that marks the start of events that would go on to change the course of millions of lives – tomorrow is the 100th anniversary of the day Britain declared war on Germany and the First World War began. So said Britain’s The Independent, yesterday, of today. But is August 4, 1914 — with its … More When Did World War I Begin?
We’ll conclude this week of reruns with the first of two May 2014 posts inspired by a convocation talk at Bethel University by journalist Krista Tippett, host of the acclaimed public radio program On Being and recent winner of the National Humanities Medal. …Tippett’s talk drew on her recent book, Einstein’s God: Conversations about Science and the Human Spirit, and … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: The Two (or Three) Why’s of History
“We live in a time of exile,” writes Carl Trueman in the August 2014 issue of First Things. “At least those of us do who hold to traditional Christian beliefs. The strident rhetoric of scientism has made belief in the supernatural look ridiculous. The Pill, no-fault divorce, and now gay marriage have made traditional sexual ethics look outmoded at … More Some Advice for Christians Who Think They’re Living in a “Time of Exile”
It’s often been said that the greatest compliment a teacher can receive is for a student to disagree well with him. Take, for example, this 1947 paper written for a Church History course at Goshen College. Wait – did I mention that the student was a nineteen year old John Howard Yoder? Or that his … More A Young J.H. Yoder on German Pietism
My wife is deeply suspicious of my claims that I “work” in the summer. While the lengthening and warming of Minnesota’s days has no effect on her schedule, I suddenly enter a three-month period when my usual routine evaporates, to be replaced by an ever-shifting mix of quasi-academic activities: blogging on topics far afield from whatever it is that … More The King of All Media
For years after King’s death, many white Christians continued to eye him with suspicion, even as families like mine proudly displayed his portrait on our walls. Today, in an era when all fifty U.S. states now observe the King holiday and a resplendent monument to the man stands in our nation’s capital, it’s difficult to … More Birmingham Revolution: How to Silence a Prophetic Voice
The Pietist Schoolman 