I doubt he’d remember, but I first met G.W. Carlson in March 2002. Neither of us could have guessed that ten years later I’d be helping to make this movie about him: Back to March 2002… I had just turned in my dissertation and was in town for my brother’s wedding. We grew up in … More Commencement: A Tribute to G.W. Carlson
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
Here • The great Frederick Buechner helped me (via a 1969 sermon) talk to my students about the meaning of vocation. • Reflections on a weekend spent in the woods of northern Minnesota and (imaginatively) on the desert road where Philip encountered an Ethiopian eunuch. • Parts one and two of my recent series of … More That Was The Week That Was
It’s a busy time of year, but it was good to get away and spend the weekend at Covenant Pines, two hours north of the Twin Cities, where my church holds an annual “family camp.” I was invited to teach three hour-long sessions with the adults while their kids were off doing Bible study, crafts, … More Covenant Pines and the Desert Road
This semester students in our capstone course, Senior Seminar, are joining me in reading through Confessing History: Explorations in Christian Faith and the Historian’s Vocation (University of Notre Dame Press), edited by John Fea, Jay Green, and Eric Miller. As we work through it, I’ll plan to share a few observations, starting today with Miller’s … More Confessing History: Introduction
In addition to Perry Glanzer’s article on Christian colleges educating for wisdom, the March 2012 issue of Christianity Today also includes Timothy Morgan’s interview with Wheaton College president Philip Ryken and Gordon College president D. Michael Lindsay. Reading it, I couldn’t help but think back to a much older CT piece that I ran across … More Christian College Presidents: 1975 and 2012
For someone who both works in a Christian university and researches the history and theory of Christian higher education, it’s been exciting to see a national publication make that model of formation the cover story of an issue, as Christianity Today has done for March. I already posted a brief mention of the CT article … More Educating for Wisdom
3/5/12 – Nice to see some national attention for Alaska Christian College, a ministry of the Evangelical Covenant Church in that state. It’s the first of five unique schools featured in this month’s issue of Christianity Today, where writer Jocelyn Green observes that “ACC provides its primarily Alaskan student body something they weren’t getting elsewhere: … More Alaska Christian College
Here • Eight of my students took a shot at defining what historians do. • Do political churches risk decline? Are apolitical churches drawing new members? Is there such a thing as an “apolitical” church? (For another critique of political partisanship in churches, see this from Chuck Gutenson.) • Another year, another Oscar ceremony. Perhaps … More That Was The Week That Was
I happen to agree almost entirely with John’s column, but that’s irrelevant. Even if I didn’t share some of his disappointment in Obama the president vs. Obama the candidate, or if I didn’t think that Obama was unusually explicit about his faith by contrast with most of his predecessors in the White House, I’d still … More We Take Care of Our Own: Standing with John Fea
The Pietist Schoolman 