This morning my colleague Phyllis Alsdurf presented the sixth in a series of eight talks in the Bethel University Library previewing chapters from our forthcoming book, Whole and Holy Persons: A Pietist Approach to Christian Higher Education. The director of Bethel’s Journalism program and an expert on the history of Christianity Today, Phyllis is the … More Two Carls, Two Visions of an Evangelical University
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)
Here • We’re on Facebook! It’s a fun format — a chance to share links even before Saturdays, plus books I’m reading or teaching. I might do a bit of microblogging there on items that don’t seem to require 500-1500 words of commentary here. And we get spontaneous conversations like the one yesterday afternoon about … More That Was The Week That Was
Today I’m happy to introduce readers to Devin Manzullo-Thomas, the new director of the Sider Institute for Anabaptist, Pietist, and Wesleyan Studies at Messiah College. Actually, frequent readers may already recognize Devin’s name, as I’ve mentioned his work from time to time — including his contribution to the Covenant Quarterly issue on Pietism that I … More An Interview with Sider Institute Director Devin Manzullo-Thomas
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
I’d rather it run a feature on the Bethel physics professors and alumni who have recently received National Science Foundation grants and fellowships, but The New York Times covers Christian higher education rarely enough that I suppose any press is good press. Re: Moody Bible Institute’s decision (reported here earlier) to lift its longstanding alcohol … More On Alcohol Bans at Christian Colleges
There’s been plenty of criticism of massive open online courses (MOOCs) in recent months, a small fraction of it linked in my Saturday wrap-up posts. But I haven’t seen much that consciously takes on the problems of MOOCs from a faith-based perspective. So Jonathan Malesic’s piece a couple of weeks ago in the Chronicle of … More A Christian Case Against MOOCs
To what degree do Protestant denominations continue to support the colleges and universities they founded? Even setting aside schools whose historic Christian identities are now nominal, what of institutions in a consortium like the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU)? While some of its best-known members are nondenominational (e.g., Wheaton, Westmont, Gordon, Taylor), most … More Declining Denominational Support for Evangelical Colleges?
Just two days after I again lauded Books & Culture as my favorite periodical, this dismaying announcement came over the Twitter from B&C editor John Wilson: The Nov/Dec issue of @booksandculture will be the last unless we raise $110,000 in the next 3 days: http://t.co/VKv0Uy3C3l — John Wilson (@jwilson1812) September 4, 2013 Further details were … More Help Save “Books and Culture”!
Over at The Anxious Bench, Miles Mullin concluded a post on the history of progressive evangelicalism with an announcement that involves yours truly: …fellow Anxious Bench blogger, David Swartz, has penned Moral Minority: The Evangelical Left in an Age in Conservatism (2012), the best work on the topic to date. If you find yourself interested … More The Pietist Schoolman Goes to Baltimore
The Pietist Schoolman 