In the first preview of chapters from our new book, The Pietist Impulse in Christianity, I made much of our volume’s affinity for expansive definitions of the “Pietist impulse,” by implication rejecting the “strict constructionist” take that Pietism properly construed was a certain segment of German Lutheranism in the early modern period. So it’s only … More The Pietist Impulse: Germans
A series of posts taking you day-by-day through a proposed travel version of my course HIS230L World War I. Read the introduction to the series here, or the previous post here. Friday, January 25, 2013 – to Minneapolis-St. Paul This is it: the last day of term; the day we fly home from Munich. I’ve … More Loving War, Seeking Peace
When I associate with Pietists, I am convicted of our Anabaptist roots. When I am in a strong Anabaptist milieu, I want to espouse Brethren Pietism. (Dale Brown, 1994) For the fifth post in this series on Anabaptist critiques of Pietism, we hear from Dale Brown and other scholars associated with the Church of the … More Anabaptist AND Pietist
A series of posts taking you day-by-day through a proposed travel version of my course HIS230L World War I. Read the introduction to the series here, or the previous post here. Thursday, January 24, 2013 – Dachau Tomorrow we’ll hop a plane back to the States, but as a last experience of post-WWI Europe, we’re … More Pretending
This week I’m launching a new series previewing the chapters in our newly released book, The Pietist Impulse in Christianity. Where better to start than with the deceptively simple question, “What is Pietism?” As we point out rather obviously in our editors’ introduction, that question “is not easily answered” (xxi). Some scholars prefer a “strict … More The Pietist Impulse: Definitions
A series of posts taking you day-by-day through a proposed travel version of my course HIS230L World War I. Read the introduction to the series here, or the previous post here. Wednesday, January 23, 2013 – Munich One must know Munich if one would know Germany… That certainly is true of the post-1918 era of … More “The Capital of the Movement”
A series of posts taking you day-by-day through a proposed travel version of my course HIS230L World War I. Read the introduction to the series here, or the previous post here. Tuesday, January 22, 2013 – Munich I’m less certain of this course’s ending than of its beginning or middle. Where does our journey finish? … More Now Where?
I’m very reluctant to comment on last Friday’s tragic events in Norway. (1) The story is still evolving. (2) I’m not an expert on Norway, or on right-wing extremism in Europe. And (3) as a historian, I’d always prefer to analyze events from a temporal distance. But… I do teach modern European history regularly, and … More Norway: “A Very Old War”
A series of posts taking you day-by-day through a proposed travel version of my course HIS230L World War I. Read the introduction to the series here, or the previous post here. Monday, January 21, 2013 – to Munich In a mere six hours, a TGV high-speed train traveling upwards of 200 miles per hour will … More A War of Words
I never would have guessed that posting something on my two favorite historical novelists would have generated the kind of response that it did, but let me push my luck by adding representatives of a different kind of historical fiction to my summer reading list. Still jazzed about Tuesday morning’s discussion of World War I … More More Beach Reads
The Pietist Schoolman 