This week I considered how my writing mirrors my teaching and reflected on a year-long conversation about how Christians follow Jesus. Elsewhere: • I’m not sure the temperature got above 80°F (27°C) when I was in Germany last month. But July has been a different story, with scorching heat waves across Europe. • John Hawthorne concluded his series on polarization with some potential … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I wrote a commencement address for the Class of 2020 and recorded the final episode of our Pandemics and the Liberal Arts podcast. Elsewhere: • There’s been a lot of attention paid to the success Asian countries like Taiwan and South Korea have had in responding to COVID-19. But what about two African countries … More That Was The Week That Was
I’ve only been on the campus of Gordon College once — and given what that school announced yesterday, I’m not sure I’ll have much reason to come back. I visited the suburban Boston Christian college in 2012, when it hosted the biennial meeting of the Conference on Faith and History, the leading society of Christian … More The “Next Chapter” in Christian Liberal Arts Education
Of the all chapters that I’m primarily writing for our book on Pietism and the future of Christianity, none has been harder to write than the one that will lead things off. Here’s how it currently starts: We’re going to have a lot to say about “hope for better times” in this book, just as Pietist … More Sneak Peeks of Our Pietism Book: What’s Wrong with Christianity?
I’m pretty sure the world has heard enough from me for now on the subject of the “crisis of the humanities” in Christian colleges. At the risk of overreaching, let me just add a few closing thoughts: First, that I appreciate the enormous response to the first two posts this week. They provoked some truly enlightening … More Final Thoughts on Evangelicalism and the Humanities: Rethinking How Christian Colleges Serve the Church
On the eve of the decision of Goshen College and Eastern Mennonite University to withdraw from the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU), historian William Ringenberg told WORLD Magazine that the debate over those schools’ decision to hire LGBT faculty was “traumatic” for Christian higher ed. In his judgment, only one other crisis had been more significant: … More The Secularization(s) of Christian Higher Education
Here… • Tomorrow is the 25th anniversary of the still-remarkable fall of the Berlin Wall. • Further thoughts on Christian colleges and racial-ethnic diversity: do CCCU schools mirror the populations of the metro areas they inhabit? • A funeral inspired me to rethink how history provides a kind of Christian testimony to those who study it. • … More That Was The Week That Was
The Pietist Schoolman 