Another quiet week at The Pietist Schoolman, but I wrote about a mostly-forgotten American Bible and (tangentially) the 35th anniversary of the Challenger explosion for The Anxious Bench and offered some college-to-careers advice to Zippia users. Elsewhere: • It’s probably not a good sign that a leading historian on violence in American politics is feeling … More That Was The Week That Was
After a busy start to the New Year, I gave The Pietist Schoolman a week off and worked on syllabi for the spring semester. But elsewhere, I reviewed a new Winston Churchill biography for Christianity Today and convened a group of Anxious Bench contributors to suggest books that serve as important artifacts and analyses of … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I interviewed a political scientist colleague about the Jan. 6 insurrection, endorsed a statement on that event by a group of Christian historians, considered the historical context for political appeals to Ecclesiastes 3, and mentioned a few of the other Minnesotans who play roles in my Charles Lindbergh biography. Elsewhere: • I’m not sure … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I reflected on what I learned from Esau McCaulley’s book, Reading While Black and celebrated the publication of our own book, Faith and History: A Devotional. Elsewhere: • We have one more week of fall classes remaining, which makes this a good time to think about the importance of how we end a semester. … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I celebrated my birthday by looking at pandemic-inspired gospel-blues songs, and my October devotional series ranged from a song of Moses to a psalm of David to the Apocalypse of John. Elsewhere: • I don’t share all of the theological presuppositions that undergird John Piper’s barely veiled critique of Donald Trump, but you have … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I wrote devotionals about everything from celebration to suffering, plus a Graham Greene novel, and I invited four Anxious Bench colleagues to share their experience of teaching under COVID. Elsewhere: • While undergraduate enrollments have declined less than expected, the pandemic does seem to be depopulating another kind of educational institution: public schools. • Conservative … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I reflected on the state of American democracy under Donald Trump and considered the importance of history and memory to Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Elsewhere: • I don’t think it’s appropriate for the GOP to rush through Ginsburg’s successor mere weeks before Election Day, four years after refusing to vote on Barack Obama’s nominee … More That Was The Week That Was
This week: • Michael Gerson’s argument for not voting on the basis of abortion alone was compelling when he wrote it on Thursday… but all the more so after the Supreme Court abruptly reentered the presidential campaign on Friday night. • I’ll write more about the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a couple of days, … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I summarized a new group’s statement of Pietist values, reported on a baseball simulation I’ve been running with my son, and announced the most popular posts of the half-year at The Anxious Bench. Elsewhere: • Like millions of others, we spent the 4th of July weekend watching the filmed version of Hamilton, which … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I finished another chapter in my Lindbergh biography and recorded podcasts about the Olympics and the importance of philosophy in a time of pandemic. Elsewhere: • I was doubly grateful to Elesha Coffman: not just for giving me a week off at The Anxious Bench, but articulating something about teaching online that I’d struggled … More That Was The Week That Was
The Pietist Schoolman 