Unsurprisingly, the blogosphere yesterday was replete with reflections on Martin Luther King, Jr. One particular genre of King tributes stood out: those that sought to recover what the authors claimed was a lost, neglected, or “whitewashed” facet of one of the few Americans to whom virtually all partisans appeal. One sub-genre: Christian attempts to remind … More Recovering MLK, the Christian Prophet
On the day this nation honors the birth of Martin Luther King, Jr., let me repost something I wrote last year on the anniversary of his death. You’ll find similar points made this morning by Derek Rishmawy. Martin Luther King, Jr. has been much on my mind of late. And not just because yesterday marked … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: The Letter from a Birmingham Jail
Is two years too soon to call something an “annual holiday tradition”? For our readers who like to give such gifts for Christmas, here’s a list of some of the history books to have appeared on the “Best of 2013” lists that I first examined in a recent post on academic historians achieving success with … More The Best History Books of 2013?
Sixty-five years ago yesterday, the United Nations General Assembly gathered in Paris’ Palais de Chaillot to approve the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Australia’s Herbert Evatt, presiding over the General Assembly, called the moment “an epoch-making event in the development of international law” and enthused that the UN was … More This Day in History: The Birth of Human Rights Law
Few recent movies have received the acclaim accorded to 12 Years A Slave, currently owner of a 95% “fresh” rating at the critic aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. But then few recent movies attempt to immerse audiences in the antebellum experience of a free black man taken into bondage from 1841 to 1853 — working from the … More 12 Years a Slave: Film as History
I’m honored to announce the publication of a theme issue of The Covenant Quarterly, guest edited by my colleague Christian Collins Winn and myself, that features articles on the historical and contemporary significance of Pietism. If you’re not familiar with it, The Covenant Quarterly is published by the Evangelical Covenant Church through its seminary, North … More Announcing a New Issue of The Covenant Quarterly on Pietism
Presenting: the 100th edition of TW3! Here… • I feel like we’re to the point of needing metaphors to communicate the importance of the Christian liberal arts. I started with spiritual retreat; two more to come next week. • I’ll be spending part of November in Charm City, a historian among theologians. • My series … More That Was The Week That Was
What do war and veterans memorials mean? What should we think or feel when we visit them? And who decides the answers to those questions? Not long after leaving Highway 61 (the famous road that follows the Mississippi River) and entering the southeastern Minnesota town of Wabasha, you’ll arrive at its small Veteran’s Memorial Park. … More Commemorating WWII: Meaning, Power, and Worship
Here… If you like reading about Swedish-American Pietist educators who left their denominations’ colleges in the 1970s to do other things… Well, this past week at The Pietist Schoolman was pretty much your best week ever. • Karl Olsson, the Evangelical Covenant historian and former president of North Park College and Seminary, would have turned … More That Was The Week That Was
So, Brad Paisley’s new album includes a duet with LL Cool J entitled “Accidental Racist.” Perhaps you hadn’t heard… For (to paraphrase Sideshow Cecil) you spent yesterday on Mars, in a cave, with your eyes shut and your fingers in your ears. (And your iPhone off, to update a 16-year old pop culture reference a … More “Accidental Racist” and the Uses of History
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