This week I checked in on responses to my essay about how Pietists follow Jesus and considered some history of how Americans have used the imprecatory psalms. Elsewhere: • The latest story of workplace sexual harassment is set in the offices of evangelicalism’s flagship publication: Christianity Today (as reported in CT itself). • Religion journalist Jack Jenkins … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I shared a Lenten devotional that I created with colleagues on the Bethel faculty — one that made me think of former Bethel president George Brushaber, whose memorial service was last Sunday — and I took my turn to write the lead essay in our Following Jesus conversation, “A Week in the Life of … More That Was The Week That Was
As I mentioned earlier this summer, one of my projects for the next year is to represent the Pietist tradition in an online, ecumenical conversation about how different Christians understand what it means to “follow Jesus.” Each month starts with a lead essay from one conversation partner, then each of the other eleven contributors writes … More Following Jesus: The Orthodox Tradition
There’s a lot to like about the Netflix series The Crown, but I’m particularly struck that it’s that rarest of TV shows: one that takes religion seriously. In season 1, that theme showed up as the family of Queen Elizabeth II educate her about her role. Her dying grandmother insists that “Monarchy is God’s sacred mission … More Religion in Season 3 of The Crown
This week I started a small business and compared my Charles Lindbergh biography to a sitcom. Meanwhile, here’s what some other people were writing: • I was happy to take a week off from Anxious Bench in order to let Elesha Coffman wonder if historians make too much of empathy and too little of disgust and lament. … More That Was The Week That Was
Our Holy Saturday post comes from Jason Barnhart (Ashland, OH), director of Brethren research and resourcing for The Brethren Church. You can read more from him at his blog, Tethered Freedom. For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to human … More Harrowing
Here… • My first post at The Anxious Bench surveyed British Christian responses to next week’s “Brexit” referendum. • I knew that would be the topic this time last week. But I certainly didn’t know that my second Bench post would be the same day, that it would respond to a mass shooting, or that it would focus on … More That Was The Week That Was
I’ve been reading Andy Crouch’s Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power for about four months now and I’m barely a third of the way through it. Not because it’s bad! Quite the contrary: it’s one of those books that I have to set down every page or two because I need to think about the point being … More What We Mean When We Say We Want Christian Unity
Here… • First things first: the results of the great beard vote are in and… Thanks for voting, everyone! • In other news… January 30th happened to mark the birthday of one world leader tied to World War II, the rise of another, the assassination of another, and the funeral of another. Hmm. • WWII … More That Was The Week That Was
Didn’t know that this blog had a foreign correspondent, did you? Yes, today we’re happy to share an update on what’s been happening at the 10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches, courtesy of our “man in Busan,” my colleague Christian Collins Winn. As always, I’ll disclaim that opinions of guest-posters are their own, … More A Report from the 10th Assembly of the WCC (Christian Collins Winn)
The Pietist Schoolman 