Even for historians as gifted as Thomas Kidd and Barry Hankins, three hundred pages is not nearly enough to do justice to the full diversity of Baptists in America, the title of their new book from Oxford University Press. So I’m not surprised that they pay little attention to the rather pietistic Baptists I know best. Founded as the … More The Forgotten Baptists
5/4/15 – Readers of this blog would do well to check out the Baptist Pietist Clarion, edited by my friend and occasional guest-blogger G.W. Carlson. In addition to recurring Clarion themes like racial reconciliation, peacemaking, church-state separation, and Baptist identity, the April 2015 issue features reviews of books by Philip Yancey, Christena Cleveland, Frank Lambert, and Roger Olson & Christian Collins Winn.
V. Elving Anderson died on March 9, 2014 after serving a distinguished career as educator and researcher. (See his obituary here.) He was born in 1921 in Stromsburg, Nebraska, into a family deeply rooted in the Swedish Baptist heritage. He attended Bethel Junior College (A.A. degree), studied at the Seminary, and then completed his B.A. … More RIP V. Elving Anderson, 1921-2014 (G.W. Carlson)
Today G.W. Carlson concludes his tribute to Baptist scholar Wally Peterson, who helped found the political science program at Bethel during his time there (1950-1965). In part two G.W. turns to Peterson’s time with the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs (now, Religious Liberty) and his productive tenure on the faculty of Washington State University. … More Walfred Peterson: Champion of Religious Liberty (G.W. Carlson) – part 2
Having previously written tributes to Clarence Jordan, Virgil Olson, and Will D. Campbell, our own favorite Baptist, G.W. Carlson, returns to celebrate another noteworthy Baptist: political scientist Walfred “Wally” Peterson, who served at the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty in between teaching stints at Bethel College and Washington State University. (G.W. previously wrote about … More Walfred Peterson: Champion of Religious Liberty (G.W. Carlson) – part 1
One of my favorite recent books is The Activist Impulse: Essays on the Intersection of Evangelicalism and Anabaptism, eds. Jared Burkholder and David Cramer. It helps me better understand my own interest, as a rather pietistic evangelical, in the Anabaptist tradition, and my reservations about it. While the contributors don’t shy away from the tensions … More The Church at the Intersection of Anabaptism and Evangelicalism
Because this country’s Independence Day falls on a Thursday this year, I’m sure there will be churches that celebrate it on the Sunday before July 4 and the Sunday after it. Past the celebration of Communion, I’m not sure what we have in mind for the 7th at Salem Covenant, but aside from the American … More Christians, Patriotism, and Nationalism
Our favorite guest eulogist, G.W. Carlson, is back to pay tribute to another member of his cloud of witnesses: the Baptist minister and civil rights activist Will Campbell, who died earlier this month. In the first of a two-part post, G.W. characterizes Campbell as a “radical Baptist” influenced by Anabaptists. On June 4 I received … More Will D. Campbell: A Radical Baptist Peacemaker (G.W. Carlson) – part 1
Asking that God’s kingdom come and His will be done is a supremely political act, a revolutionary declaration of independence from the powers of this world. But for that reason (among others), the Lord’s Prayer is not a weapon to be wielded in the culture wars. To wit, the case of high school student Roy … More The Lord’s Prayer and the Culture Wars
This past Monday I was privileged to give a talk to the chaplains corps of the Minnesota Army National Guard. Not only did it give me a chance to reach an audience well beyond the university (increasingly a goal of mine), but the suggested topic — military chaplains in World War I — let me … More Military Chaplains in World War I
The Pietist Schoolman 