Until he died last night, I had no idea that horror film director Wes Craven had graduated from Wheaton College. (He discussed his fundamentalist Baptist upbringing and his decision to flee from it in a 2011 interview with the New York Times Magazine.) Of course, this got me wondering: who else would I be surprised to learn … More Who Are the Most Surprising Christian College Alumni?
The few times I’ve daydreamed about having another career, I’ve almost always imagined myself a journalist. It’s maybe not much of a stretch for a historian. Journalists, after all, are writing the “first draft of history.” But if I’m being perfectly honest, I’m really only interested in a particular sort of journalism, one that may seem less than serious and … More History as “An Aggressive Act”
5/22/15 – Good grief – two weeks in a row of posting a Pietist Schoolman Podcast a day late! But don’t let that discourage you from listening to episode 6 on iTunes and the Christian Humanist website. This time we dive deeper into the meaning of “whole-person education,” talking athletics and academics with Gretchen Hunt and everything from biokinetics to spiritual disciplines with Seth Paradis.
Maybe it’s just that the Twins are off to a terrible start, but I was especially tickled to come across this in Alan Ball’s new Liberty’s Tears: Soviet Portraits of the “American Way of Life” During the Cold War: Permeated with the spirit of venality, slavery, and gangsterism, contemporary American baseball maims hundreds of young lives and serves … More “Venality, slavery, and gangsterism”: Soviet Perceptions of Baseball’s Golden Age
Just what would make Liberty University — or Baylor University or any other claimant to the title — “the Protestant Notre Dame“? Among other fine responses to my post on this topic yesterday, Aaron Morrison suggested that Liberty president Jerry Falwell, Jr. “needed to clarify what he meant by ‘Notre Dame’” before deeming his school … More Further Thoughts on the “Protestant Notre Dame”
Like many Americans, I’ve temporarily turned into a fervent soccerfootball fan this month, suddenly capable of savoring the thrills of a 0-0 draw like the one played yesterday between underdog Mexico and host Brazil. (And yawning at the relative artlessness of the 1-1 draw between Russia and South Korea.) But I can’t entirely suspend my eggheadedness. Even … More What Does the World Cup Reveal about Global Trade?
Ever since I wrote it in the summer of 2012, one of the “greatest hits” of this blog has been a post asking which countries dominate which Olympic sports. (Clearly the current Olympiad has revived interest: that post made the “Big Ten” for the last month and, as I write this, sits atop the “Top … More Which Country Dominates Which Olympic Sport? (Winter Edition)
It’s actually unusually balmy for a February morning here in the Twin Cities (especially in the context of this particularly frigid winter), but I’d still prefer to be in sunny Fort Myers, Florida today — as the pitchers and catchers on the roster of my beloved Minnesota Twins report for the beginning of baseball’s spring … More Pitchers and Catchers Report!
The day the 2012 Summer Olympics opened in London, I wrote a post exploring how Olympic records had changed over time. Over the course of a century (from the 1908 London Olympics to 2008 in Beijing), I found that athletes in track and field and swimming had significantly improved performance. While that’s not surprising, it … More Olympic Records Over Time (Winter Edition)
I’m off to Baltimore, Maryland to attend the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society. It will be only my second trip to Charm City — and I’m not sure that attending a conference hosted at the Hilton while staying in a room with a view (I’m promised) of Camden Yards is quite a representative … More The Streets of Baltimore
The Pietist Schoolman 