Apart from an Anxious Bench post on the new Christians Against Christian Nationalism statement, I took the week off from blogging to finish moving into my new office and to read through several years’ worth of Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s diaries and letters. Elsewhere: • If you can see any shades of gray on the debate over abortion, you’ll want … More That Was The Week That Was
I don’t know if the county fair is still the indispensable element of American democracy that an early 20th century editorial claimed it to be, but I sure do enjoy my annual visit to the Washington County Fair in Lake Elmo, Minnesota. My kids and I love seeing everything from blue ribbon-winning woodwork and photography … More The Future of Farming in America
A tribute to my grandfather, who died Saturday night at age 94, leaving behind a legacy of faith, hope, and love. … More Grandpa Peterson
One more parable, also from Mark 4: Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. … More Parables: Roots
A second parable I’ve been thinking about today: The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full … More Parables: Seeds
Here… • I surveyed the religious history of the modern Olympic Games for my weekly Anxious Bench post… also reflecting briefly on the Olympics as religion (a theme I developed a bit more when invited to rewrite that post for The Gospel Coalition). • After a year of enormous division, could the games help bring Americans together? • And for no … More That Was The Week That Was
While my job is to teach people about history, my vocation as a parent has made me realize that I know next to nothing about how to teach young children about history. But with our five-year old twins entering kindergarten this fall, I decided to spend this summer trying to understand how children might best learn about the past. Please take the … More 5 Things I’ve Learned about Teaching History to 5-Year Olds
Here… • I enjoyed learning more about one Baptist hero (Will D. Campbell) from one of my Baptist heroes (G.W. Carlson). • Are the humanities actually in crisis? Some historical perspective on how many students major in history, philosophy, literature, and languages — and how many students take basic courses in those fields. • Just … More That Was The Week That Was
Here… • I don’t know if Frederick Buechner actually runs his own Twitter account or not, but regardless, it was an honor to have him (or “him”) retweet my post on balancing multiple callings, the first in a series on “The Vocation of a Christian Historian.” (From an essay I wrote over Christmas that drew … More That Was The Week That Was
With some deadlines looming between now and September 10, I’m going to take a day off here and there and rerun some of my favorite posts. First, one from about this time last year… Last month I felt like I was living a John Denver song: country roads taking me to a colleague’s farm near … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: “God Made the Country”
The Pietist Schoolman 