In between podcasting about gender and sports and preparing a chapel talk on Pietism, I enjoyed the following articles and posts this week: • By far the most-discussed Anxious Bench post this week was David Swartz’s reflection on the difference between “cosmopolitan” and “populist” evangelicals. • I’ll be sorry to see David Heim (r.) no longer at … More That Was The Week That Was
This morning we recorded our first live episode of The 252: an interview with Steve Johnson, for 31 years the head football coach at his alma mater, Bethel University. Steve took time out of preparing for Saturday’s game at Concordia College in order to tell us about his childhood as a Cubs fan and pastor’s kid … More Thursday’s Podcast: The Ministry of a Football Coach
I wrote about Ethiopian Pentecostals like the new Nobel Peace Prize winner and debates in this country over religious liberty for Christian colleges. Elsewhere: • For a more serious case of a religious group being persecuted by the state, read this firsthand account of life for Uyghur Muslims imprisoned in Chinese “reeducation” camps. • According … More That Was The Week That Was
There’s been more than a little Christian debate swirling around this year’s installment of Mothers’ Day. In part, it has to do with a certain enormously popular Southern Baptist layperson preaching — more on that later. But I’ve also seen a fair number of Christians on social media complain that Mothers’ Day is simply not … More The Mothers of My Faith
This week I paid tribute to my boss, reflected on Charles Lindbergh’s interest in primitive societies, and talked about college basketball and athletic labor. Elsewhere: • David Brooks offered one of the rarest spectacles in 21st century American political discourse: a pundit who was convinced by others’ arguments to change his mind on a controversial … More That Was The Week That Was
While I was arguing with a John Mulaney joke and recording a podcast about the history of sports journalism — and promoting four other podcasts about the past, other people were using the Internet for other, generally more constructive purposes: • Best of all… While I’m sure Nadia Bolz-Weber likes to think of herself as … More That Was The Week That Was
In spare moments between grading, I passed along the story of Bethel’s soon-to-be first Digital Humanities graduate and took note of a proposed culture war compromise involving evangelical colleges. Then over at The Anxious Bench, I suggested that no historian writes about the past “as it actually happened” without imagining the past as they think … More That Was The Week That Was
Yesterday Mennonite World Review reported that Fresno Pacific University (FPU) in California had removed the president of its seminary, Terry Brensinger, and announced that pastors Greg Boyd, Brian Zahnd, and Bruxy Cavey would no longer teach in the seminary’s M.A. program in ministry, leadership, and culture. According to MWR reporter Tim Huber, several students have complained to … More Open Theism, Evangelicalism, and Anabaptism (and Pietism)
If you’re a member of Central Baptist Church in St. Paul, MN but were traveling part of August… if you were a former student or colleague of G.W. Carlson and want to see me try to channel him a bit… or if your church isn’t able to bring in guest speakers but you’re interested in … More Watch a Pietist Option Class on YouTube
This Sunday I’m starting a four-part adult series on The Pietist Option at a church with special meaning for me: Central Baptist, in the Midway neighborhood of St. Paul, Minnesota. See, Central was the church home of my late friend and mentor, G.W. Carlson, who was the first and most important source of my interest in … More The Pietist Option for Baptists
