Here • 2012 has been busy, and 2013 is shaping up to be even more hectic, but I was happy to add this speaking engagement on the Pietist impulse in the 21st century. • And I’ll always make time for a mock trial that, year in and year out, is probably the best, most challenging … More That Was The Week That Was
As I’ve noted here before, many Protestants spent the better part of four centuries viewing the bishop of Rome as Antichrist. Reading Exsurge Domina, the papal bull excommunicating him from the Church in 1520, Martin Luther professed to want to believe that the author was actually his debating rival Johannes Eck, but in any case… … More Evangelicals’ New Favorite Pope?
Wondering how to celebrate the 495th anniversary of Martin Luther posting his 95 theses? Well, if you happen to study or work at Bethel University (or live in the area), you could stop by my office for our department’s “Reformation ‘PUN’ Day” (10:00-12:00) and enjoy a diet of (gummy) worms. Otherwise… Remember that the original … More Reformation Day Reflections from Around the Web
On Sunday night this blog received its 50,000th visit. Which both got me feeling profoundly grateful to all of those who take the time to read my digital scribbling, and in a mood to reflect on the blog’s founding. The choice of name, for example. As I wrote in an early post, “The Pietist Schoolman” … More The Pietist as a “Catholic Evangelical”
In the space of four days I’ve blogged about two events marking their 50th anniversaries this year: the Second Vatican Council (which started October 12, 1962) and the Cuban Missile Crisis (Oct. 16 of the same year). In different ways, they were among the most important events of the 20th century, but I’d never thought … More Peace on Earth: Connecting the Cuban Missile Crisis and Vatican II
Three posts in one day… Can you tell that it’s Fall Break at Bethel University? After a couple of earlier posts centered on Protestantism, I’ll close my blogging for the day (?) with one focused on a seminal event in the history of Roman Catholicism: today marks the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the … More Reactions to the 50th Anniversary of Vatican II
I’m afraid that fundamentalism didn’t come off so well at our “Pietism and Christian Colleges” session this past Saturday at the Conference on Faith and History. Both in Jared Burkholder’s paper on Pietism and scholarly virtues and Kurt Peterson’s on the Evangelical Covenant Church in the 1950s, fundamentalism showed its least attractive face: suspicious, uncharitable, … More You Can’t Spell Fundamentalism without Fun
Here • I love questions that assume the possibility of time travel existing… Which baseball game do you wish you could go back in time to watch? • One of the games I suggested featured a shellshocked World War I veteran… In related sports/WWI news, I continued my series on Minnesotan commemoration of that war … More That Was The Week That Was
On Wednesday I noted that the new Newsweek/Daily Beast college rankings included a dozen members of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities on their list of the Top 25 Most [Politically] Conservative schools (referring to the student bodies and not to faculty, staff, administrators, curriculum, assigned readings, guest speakers, etc., though all that might … More Student Politics at Church-Related Colleges and Universities
Today I’ll come back to my series on Confessing History: Explorations in Christian Faith and the Historian’s Vocation, eds. John Fea, Jay Green, and Eric Miller (University of Notre Dame Press). I should reiterate that I read the book alongside my students in HIS499 Senior Seminar, the capstone course for History majors at Bethel University. … More Confessing History: Theory and Method
The Pietist Schoolman 