This week I encouraged fellow scholars to “think in public,” reflected on why trust is so important to Christian higher education, and recorded a new podcast on the experience of student-athletes. Elsewhere… • I happened to be flying through Charlotte, North Carolina last week, and saw a big ad for the Billy Graham Library in … More That Was The Week That Was
Aside from sharing part of my Pietist Option for Baptists class (on reading the Bible) and being interviewed for a new podcast by a Covenant pastor, I spent most of the week preparing for the start of the academic year. Here’s some of what was happening elsewhere in the realms of Christianity, history, and education: • Rest … More That Was The Week That Was
Here… • We concluded the #Reformation500-themed third season of The Pietist Schoolman Podcast. • My friend Jason Barnhart burst onto the blogging scene. • And I started the week with an Advent devotional on grief and tenderness. (If you’ve missed this series, I’m posting one every Sunday this season.) …There and Everywhere • Thanks to the … More That Was The Week That Was
It’s been a few weeks now since a Washington Post profile of Second Lady Karen Pence reminded everyone of comments made by her husband back when he was still an Indiana congressman: that Mike Pence “never eats alone with a woman other than his wife and that he won’t attend events featuring alcohol without her by his side, … More The Graham Rule and Barriers to Women in Leadership at Christian Colleges
I’m eager to crack open Turning Points in the History of American Evangelicalism, edited by Heath Carter and Laura Rominger Porter and featuring a who’s who of American religious historians. Dedicated to Mark Noll, the book “seeks to both honor and build upon his contributions” via Noll’s own concept of “turning points.” I summarized it last year in a … More Was 2016 a Turning Point in the History of Evangelicalism?
Here… • I’m mostly past worrying about pageviews, but if you missed my observations about the past and politics in southwestern Virginia… I do think it deserves more attention than it got. • But more importantly, Andy Crouch’s Trump editorial in Christianity Today got a huge readership. • Reader Sean O’Neil suggested that Christian intellectuals are actually planting some important seeds during … More That Was The Week That Was
Here… • My big blogging announcement: I’ll be taking Tommy Kidd’s place as a weekly contributor to The Anxious Bench, the history blog at the Patheos Evangelical channel. Look for my first AB post in three days… • But that won’t stop me from blogging here… For example, about three of my favorite hymns that run counter to … More That Was The Week That Was
Here… • This is normally not a blog about politics. But there was nothing normal about Donald Trump becoming the presumptive nominee of a major political party. • Trump famously promises to “Make America Great Again.” Which got me wondering if “Make the Church Great Again” is a valid aspiration for Christians — and if so, when was the Church … More That Was The Week That Was
One of the blessings of getting caught up in the ongoing debate over the future of Christian higher education is that I’ve been prompted to learn more about Myron Augsburger, the former president of both Eastern Mennonite University and the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU). With the latter a week away from deciding whether the … More A Prophetic Impulse: Myron Augsburger and the Mennonite History of the CCCU (Devin Manzullo-Thomas)
Hagiography is not a term that most Western academics dream of seeing in reviews of their work, but historian Rick Kennedy meant it as a plaudit when he dedicated his recent Christian Scholar’s Review essay to an “emerging genre” he termed the “new academic hagiography”: In this New Hagiography the author must try to analyze methodically while believing. Unthinking piety has … More Is (Responsible, Thoughtful) Hagiography Coming Back?
