I’ve kept things quiet here all February: in part because I’ve been launching spring courses; in part because I’ve been working on a small Bethel project that I’ll be happy to share soon, hopefully this time next week. But let me awaken The Pietist Schoolman long enough to check in on our Following Jesus conversation, … More Following Jesus: The Baptist Tradition
This week I reflected on why I (unlike many my age and younger) still think of myself as a Protestant, and I celebrated the birthday of one of my favorite Protestant theologians by reviewing a new collection of his writings. Elsewhere: • A century after a leading liberal Protestant warned against the triumph of Fundamentalism, Dan … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I reconsidered the foreign policy of America’s first born-again president and suggested how Christians can realize just how big the Christian world is. Elsewhere: • Filed under the nothing-new-under-the-sun category… ongoing conservative attempts to ban critical race theory sounded to one historian of education a lot like the conservative agenda of the 1920s. (Or … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I considered the problem of evangelical catechesis, reflected on the length of biographies, and reported on the Anabaptist round of the Following Jesus conversation. Elsewhere: • The history of the American Civil War led Dan Williams to wonder “why, despite abundant historical and contemporary evidence that biblical interpretations vary widely, does the Bible continue … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I looked at the religious biography of a Minnesotan who was known for technological innovation and died on Hawaii. Not Charles Lindbergh, but Medtronic founder Earl Bakken. Elsewhere: • For Reformation Day, a Lutheran meditation on the importance of singing in church. • Two years after Rachel Held Evans died, her last book is coming … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I reported on my adult Sunday School class about evangelicalism and checked in on how Lutherans follow Jesus, while a couple of student journalists at Bethel wrote about me and my new book… which was reviewed in Front Porch Republic and the Portland (ME) Press Herald. Elsewhere: • If you’re not already reading … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I questioned my own skepticism about miraculous healing. Elsewhere: • Half of the country’s Christian congregations have 65 or fewer attenders — half what the attendance level was at the start of the century. • Meanwhile, not quite half of Americans have watched church online during the COVID pandemic — and one-third of them don’t normally … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I revisited a mid-1950s Bethel talk about Pietism and considered whether a university like ours can truly satisfy all of its external constituents. Elsewhere: • My favorite post this week at The Anxious Bench found David Swartz visiting thriving churches in a northeastern city that white evangelicals tend to view as highly secular. • I’ve … More That Was The Week That Was
If only because it means that I can do more than talk about Charles Lindbergh, I’m happy to announce that I’ll be teaching a four-week adult class on an even more contentious topic: the meaning of the word “evangelical.” Even better, it’s being taught at the church I attended for fifteen years: Salem Covenant in … More My Upcoming Adult Class on Evangelicalism
This week I explained the dedication to my new book, introduced a new seminar I’m teaching in the fall, and explored a religious consequence of America entering WWI. Elsewhere: • Either to read right now, or to save for the 20th anniversary of 9/11: this wonderfully reported long-form piece on that tragedy’s effects on one family … More That Was The Week That Was
The Pietist Schoolman 