“Honor the Emperor”: One Year Later, A Plea to the 81 Percent

It promises to be a quiet Election Day for me. The two cities on either side of Roseville are having contentious mayoral races, but Roseville residents have nothing on their ballots but an uncontested school board race and what strikes me as the obvious choice to approve a bond that will allow our aging public … More “Honor the Emperor”: One Year Later, A Plea to the 81 Percent

Including Evangelical Students in Interfaith Work

A couple times in the past twelve months I’ve praised From Bubble to Bridge: Educating Christians for a Multifaith World, by my Bethel University colleagues Marion Larson and Sara Shady. Before it came out in January, I called it “the first must-read Christian book of 2017,” and quoted the foreword by interfaith activist Eboo Patel: From … More Including Evangelical Students in Interfaith Work

That Was The Week That Was

Here… • Whether in the flagship magazine of American evangelicalism, a leadership magazine for Pentecostals, or among our readers on Amazon, the reviews of The Pietist Option have continued to be encouraging. • About 60% of my readers say that their church is doing something special to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. • As our … More That Was The Week That Was

The Pietist Option Gets a Four-Star Review in Christianity Today

I’ve been awaiting this week with bated breath: the first magazine reviews of The Pietist Option have come in… And they’re pretty terrific! This morning in Christianity Today, Hannah Anderson gives our book four stars. The review is behind the CT paywall (and I think will be in the November print issue), but here’s a taste of … More The Pietist Option Gets a Four-Star Review in Christianity Today

Thursday’s Podcast: Medieval Wisdom for Modern Christians

The newest episode of The Pietist Schoolman Podcast is now available! It features Sam and me talking about the Christianity that lies on the other side of 1517: the faith of the Middle Ages. We covered everything from grace and penance to Incarnation and sacramentalism, plus medievals’ relationship to the past. Our featured book this week is … More Thursday’s Podcast: Medieval Wisdom for Modern Christians

That Was The Week That Was

Other than pondering my potential Lutheran-ness and dropping a #Reformation500 podcast on a world desperately short of both podcasts and #Reformation500 material, I continued to shirk my duties as a blogger committed to giving away multiple posts on multiple topics week in and week out. I’ll try to get back to that next week. Meanwhile, … More That Was The Week That Was

That Was The Week That Was

Here… • With all due respect to the good work my colleagues do at Bethel… I think America probably has enough business majors. (As I addressed the issue of how students choose their major, I should have linked to this recent survey from Gallup.) • “Nothing Rhymes with Gehrz” made its triumphant return to whatever … More That Was The Week That Was

That Was The Week That Was

Here… • One aspect of troubling allegations coming out of Wheaton College reminded me of the importance of interfaith engagement. • Too often, rural ministry is invisible to those of us in the cities and suburbs. (One link I forgot to include: a reflection by a Vineyard church planter in Lancaster, Ohio.) • How you … More That Was The Week That Was

The Assault at Wheaton… and the Importance of Interfaith Engagement

By now, I suspect most of my readers have read about an incident involving students at Wheaton College, perhaps the leading evangelical institution of higher learning. As first reported by the Chicago Tribune, five members of Wheaton’s football team assaulted one of their teammates in March 2016. The victim transferred to another school, while the … More The Assault at Wheaton… and the Importance of Interfaith Engagement