The weeks before I first took students to Europe for a travel course, I often woke up in the middle of the night, unable to stop thinking about our plans — and what would happen when the plans went awry. The same thing has been happening in recent days, as we get closer and closer … More How I’m Planning to Teach This Fall
This week I’m co-leading a faculty development workshop meant to help Bethel colleagues write a tenure application essay on how they relate faith to learning. As that workshop concludes this afternoon, I’ll try to explain our topic in the context of Bethel’s religious heritage. I don’t expect that all of our faculty be Baptist (I’m … More A Pietist (and Baptist) Vision for Academic Freedom
Today Amy Poppinga and I wrapped up our podcast series on Pandemics and the Liberal Arts with an episode on art. Thanks to our Bethel colleagues Amanda Hamilton and Wayne Roosa for a really rich conversation about the importance of art within the larger curriculum of the liberal arts, how art has provided catharsis and … More Wednesday’s Podcast: Art and Pandemics
As we reach the last week of spring classes at Bethel, Chris and I devoted part of this week’s episode of The 252 to talking our students through their final exam. But the rest of you will want to listen in for what follows: a conversation about e-sports with our Bethel colleague Adrian Smithee, who has … More Thursday’s Podcast: E-Sports
On this week’s episode of Pandemics and the Liberal Arts, I enjoying chatting with my colleague Nathan Gossett, chair of Bethel’s Department of Math and Computer Science. It’s hard to think of another time when math has been so prominent in American public discourse, so it seemed like a good moment to talk with Nathan about … More Wednesday’s Podcast: Mathematics and Pandemics
Last night word spread that one of the nation’s two largest Christian universities had eliminated its entire Philosophy department, giving those seven professors just a few weeks’ notice for a June 30 end to their employment. Sad as that news is, neither the decision nor the means of announcing and implementing it can be all … More Hope for Better Times for the Humanities
Apart from debating the wisdom and likelihood of baseball returning by July, this week on The 252 we primarily talked about the two topics that students in History and Politics of Sports encountered in this second-to-last week of spring classes. 1. Chris talked about the history and (complicated!) politics of sports gambling, and how it’s being affected … More Thursday’s Podcast: The Future of Sports Media
Having spent the first two episodes of our new Pandemics and the Liberal Arts podcast on history and philosophy, Amy Poppinga and I wanted to get beyond the humanities and into the sciences. (Which, I’ve lamented before, are not always treated as full participants in the liberal arts.) So this week we talked to our Bethel colleague … More Wednesday’s Podcast: Pandemics and Psychology
By the time this week is done, something like thirty members of the Bethel University faculty will learn that their positions are being eliminated after 2020-21. And even if I don’t lose my job, it’s likely that I’ll still be affected indirectly by restructuring and streamlining of departments and programs. For months, I’ve been dreading … More “Nothing for your journey”: The Future of the Christian Liberal Arts
Perhaps because we’re taking next week off, this week’s episode of The 252 is bursting at the seams with interesting conversation. • Chris Moore and I started by reporting on the results of a public policy simulation we just finished in our History and Politics of Sports class at Bethel: students played different roles in a fictional … More Thursday’s Podcast: Stadium Funding, the NCAA, and More
The Pietist Schoolman 