Even for historians as gifted as Thomas Kidd and Barry Hankins, three hundred pages is not nearly enough to do justice to the full diversity of Baptists in America, the title of their new book from Oxford University Press. So I’m not surprised that they pay little attention to the rather pietistic Baptists I know best. Founded as the … More The Forgotten Baptists
Here… • Would you be interested in reading a Pia Desideria for our time? • If you live in the Twin Cities (or are willing to drive a great distance), you can listen to me preview some potential themes of such a book tomorrow morning. • Making a comeback: hagiography. • Another year, another (Christian) college ranking. … More That Was The Week That Was
6/1/15 – Readers in the Twin Cities metro area: you can hear me at Calvary Church in Roseville this coming Sunday, June 7, in their 10am elective hour. I’ll be speaking on the history of Pietism, particularly as it has shaped the Baptist General Conference (and its university) and my own denomination, the Evangelical Covenant Church. Hope to … More Hear Me Speak on Pietism This Coming Sunday
I’ll be at Bethel’s commencement exercises in an hour, so a relatively short set of links this Saturday morning: Here… • What does it mean to be Midwestern? @jwilson1812 @cgehrz few other regional identities (which are all imagined & constructed) come w/ as many caveats & apologies & self-doubt — Paul Putz (@p_emory) May 21, … More That Was The Week That Was
5/4/15 – Readers of this blog would do well to check out the Baptist Pietist Clarion, edited by my friend and occasional guest-blogger G.W. Carlson. In addition to recurring Clarion themes like racial reconciliation, peacemaking, church-state separation, and Baptist identity, the April 2015 issue features reviews of books by Philip Yancey, Christena Cleveland, Frank Lambert, and Roger Olson & Christian Collins Winn.
Here… • My conflicted, tentative embrace of Western Civ. • Why Christian colleges ought to be engaged in interfaith dialogue. • A report on my visit to Messiah College. • More praise for Becoming Grace, the institutional history that Jared helped to edit. …There and Everywhere • In the wake of the week’s events in Baltimore, … More That Was The Week That Was
4/23/15 – On episode #2 of The Pietist Schoolman Podcast, I’m joined by theologian Christian Collins Winn for a conversation about civility, academic freedom, being Baptist, ACC basketball, and why Pietists like Philipp Spener and the Blumhardts have “hope for better times.” Check out Christian’s book with Roger Olson, Reclaiming Pietism, and the collection he edited with John Drury, Karl Barth … More Thursday’s Podcast: Hope for Better Times
Last month I spent spring break visiting my parents in southwestern Virginia. Thanks to bad weather in Roanoke, our plane was diverted to nearby Lynchburg, where I walked out of the terminal and saw a sprawling university campus a stone’s throw away: Liberty University. Liberty’s president — Jerry Falwell, Jr. — has ambitious goals, reports Slate staff writer Betsy Woodruff: “Falwell … More Is Liberty University the “Protestant Notre Dame”?
2/25/15 – I think that the fourth episode of Past & Presence, our department’s new webisode series, is our best yet. Not only do we interview an alum who parlayed his History degree into a corporate VP position, visit the oldest Swedish Baptist church in Minnesota, preview our Modern Middle East course, and hear from a student who spent the fall … More Past and Presence: Primary Sources
Like many American colleges and universities founded in the nineteenth century, the place I work came into being thanks largely to the efforts of a pioneering figure who is as venerated within the school as he is unknown outside of it. For Bethel, that figure is John Alexis Edgren, whose 176th birthday our campus celebrates today. Born in Sweden … More Happy Birthday, John Alexis Edgren!
The Pietist Schoolman 