This week I considered how my writing mirrors my teaching and reflected on a year-long conversation about how Christians follow Jesus. Elsewhere: • I’m not sure the temperature got above 80°F (27°C) when I was in Germany last month. But July has been a different story, with scorching heat waves across Europe. • John Hawthorne concluded his series on polarization with some potential … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I made a cautious case for what’s called “early college” and a more enthusiastic argument for the relevance of Pietism to what I do as a scholar. And I reported on the last of our twelve conversations about Following Jesus. (Look for some closing reflections from me Tuesday in my Substack newsletter.) Elsewhere: • Beth Allison … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I launched a Substack newsletter, devoting my first two issues to Frederick Douglass and Holocaust commemoration. Then I added a sequel here to the latter, reporting on several spots on Berlin. Elsewhere: • Singing hymns is probably my favorite spiritual discipline, but I had never thought about that practice originating in early Christian expectations of the Apocalypse. • Nor I … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I revisited a familiar challenge facing Christian colleges, reflected on a visit to one of the “most cynical examples of Holocaust commemoration I’ve ever seen,” and shared one of the most satisfying reviews of my Lindbergh biography I’ve read yet. Elsewhere: • Fewer than 40% of Americans told Gallup they were “extremely” proud to … More That Was The Week That Was
This week: as I ended my six-year stint at The Anxious Bench, I rebooted this blog with posts on WWI commemoration in the German cities of Berlin and Wittenberg. Elsewhere: • Many conservative Christians celebrated two landmark rulings from the Supreme Court: though Friday’s, on abortion, may have already obscured the earlier one, on state funding … More That Was The Week That Was
This week: I learned how Latter-day Saints follow Jesus and checked in on the most popular posts so far this year at The Anxious Bench. (I also flew home after a week in Germany — more on that next week…) Elsewhere: • For my money, the most important moment from this week’s hearings on the January … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I spoke as part of a panel on the war in Ukraine, recorded a podcast about the blurring line between high school and college, and let churches, colleges, etc. know how they could book me for a talk or class in 2022-2023. Elsewhere: • For Mother’s Day, Elizabeth Bruenig lamented that “when it comes … More That Was The Week That Was
This week Bethel wrapped up its 150th anniversary celebration, so I shared both the talk I gave at the celebratory dinner (on the individual moments that make up our collective story) and an analysis of the religious and educational continuities that define Bethel in the midst of so much change. Also, we recorded a podcast … More That Was The Week That Was
This week: a Bethel colleague and I launched a new podcast meant to help Christians thinking about college, and I recorded an hour-long conversation about Ukraine with two other Bethel colleagues. Elsewhere: • Here’s a historical analogy I didn’t muse about in our Ukraine podcast: is Volodymyr Zelensky the 21st century version of Lajos Kossuth? • I … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I checked in on responses to my essay about how Pietists follow Jesus and considered some history of how Americans have used the imprecatory psalms. Elsewhere: • The latest story of workplace sexual harassment is set in the offices of evangelicalism’s flagship publication: Christianity Today (as reported in CT itself). • Religion journalist Jack Jenkins … More That Was The Week That Was
The Pietist Schoolman 