Over the weekend I continued my Anxious Bench series on the challenges of writing biographies by reflecting on the problem of historical evidence. While the biographer whose book I’m currently reading seems to have enough evidence to narrate his subject’s entire life on a weekly (sometimes daily or even hourly) basis, I know that he actually is deploying … More When There’s Too Much Historical Evidence
One of my favorite aspects of producing our department’s weekly webisodes is that it has afforded our faculty the chance to film conversations about our discipline. All have been interesting, but the one we posted yesterday stood out: my conversation with Americanists Diana Magnuson and AnneMarie Kooistra about historical evidence and research. As usual for these conversations, … More Paper Clips as Relics, or Historical Research as an Encounter with the Sacred
With a packed program, timely topic, and spectactular setting, the 2014 biennial meeting of the Conference on Faith and History — on “Christian Historians & Their Publics” — was bound to be a good one, even better than CFH 2012. If anything, it exceeded expectations. Wenham, MA was nice, but I think this is where God meant … More CFH 2014: Teaching and Public Memory
Congratulations to The History Center: Archives of the Baptist General Conference and Bethel University — named the 2014 recipient of the Davis C. Woolley Award for Outstanding Achievement in Assessing and Preserving Baptist History. This puts our archives in very good company, as last year’s winner was the special collections and archives department of the Z. … More Congratulations to the Archives of the BGC and Bethel University!
The Pietist Schoolman 