Earlier this week I was invited to talk about Bethel’s history at a dinner celebrating the university’s 150th anniversary. For once I spoke without notes, but here’s the best I can do to reconstruct what I said: my attempt to make our history more personal for more people, rather than focusing on the stories of … More What Is Bethel? The Moments That Make Up Our History
We’ve still got some one-on-one meetings left to go, but today was the last full meeting of my Fog of War class. I always struggle to know how to wrap things up, especially after a course as wide-ranging as this one and after a semester as pandemic-shaped as this fall. But it occurred to me … More Education as Thinking about Dying
This week I wrapped up my devotional series on “The With-God Life,” shared some wise words from one of my favorite historians, started a new podcast exploring the importance of the liberal arts in the middle of a pandemic, and considered Christian responses to the polio scares of the 1950s. Elsewhere: • I mentioned C.S. Lewis’ … More That Was The Week That Was
When I wasn’t continuing my series of lectionary devotions, this week I wrote about a small Christian movement that went 350+ years without taking Communion and recorded a podcast about race and sports. Elsewhere: • My supply of yeast is running low, but while I’ve got it, I’ll join others in coping with COVID quarantine … More That Was The Week That Was
The newest episode of The Pietist Schoolman Podcast is now available! It features Sam and me talking about the Christianity that lies on the other side of 1517: the faith of the Middle Ages. We covered everything from grace and penance to Incarnation and sacramentalism, plus medievals’ relationship to the past. Our featured book this week is … More Thursday’s Podcast: Medieval Wisdom for Modern Christians
Last night marked the conclusion of The Great War, the three-part episode of PBS’ venerable American Experience documentary series focused on World War I. I live-tweeted each night of the miniseries, highlighting interesting facts and quotations from the episodes, but also trying to enrich it by sharing photos from our WWI travel course, suggesting further readings, and linking to newspapers, memoirs, … More How I Live-Tweeted The Great War on PBS
It’s been about three weeks since last I blogged here at The Pietist Schoolman. Anything been happening? If you didn’t know, I spent most of January in Britain, Belgium, France, and Germany, where my friend Sam Mulberry and I were leading a travel course on the history of World War I. I’m sure I’ll have more to share … More Thinking about the American Present via the European Past
Here… • We finished season 2 of The Pietist Schoolman Podcast with a listener feedback session that revisited the theme of Christian unity and asked after the political inclinations of Pietists. • Meanwhile, it was four posts in four days on Christian higher education: quantifying the state of the humanities in evangelical colleges; what that says about evangelicalism; rethinking … More That Was The Week That Was
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. (John 10:10) Visiting another church yesterday morning, I was pleasantly surprised to hear a sermon on the theme of abundance. (Part of a series, actually.) It’s territory too often ceded to the worst of the … More Life, and Abundantly: Gratitude in the New Year
Here… • Rest in peace, Stacey Hunter Hecht (1968-2015). • It’s because of colleagues like Stacey that I know that Christian higher ed can do much, much better than Jerry Falwell, Jr. • And Loren Swartzdruber’s response to Falwell made me wish that his university had not parted ways with the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. • Speaking … More That Was The Week That Was
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