Here… • From our workshop on innovative teaching at Bethel, I shared some thoughts on how I plan to go about teaching our department’s first offering of Introduction to History. • Jonathan Merritt’s observations about three worrisome trends in “New Calvinism” reminded me what I’ve come to appreciate about older varieties of that theological tradition. • If you … More That Was The Week That Was
Here… • Rest in peace, Nelson Mandela. • Would Pietists have embraced C.S. Lewis as much as evangelicals, Catholics, Mormons, and others have? • Can Christian churches (and colleges) tackle the challenge of becoming multi-ethnic if they haven’t learned to bridge differences within racially similar communities (e.g., class and gender)? (See also Ed Stetzer’s reflection … More That Was The Week That Was
If we haven’t learned how to be a healing station for the people who are racially similar, then we’re never going to learn how to be a healing station for the people who are racially dissimilar. (Christena Cleveland) Even if it means that I don’t catch up on the reading in European and diplomatic history that I should … More “Beyond Multiethnic” Church – and Christian Colleges?
Here… • It’s easy to make fun of French military history. (I’ve done it.) But the “strange defeat” of his nation in May-June 1940 was no joke to historian Marc Bloch… • How a Twin Cities megachurch may be a case study for evangelicals and Anabaptists learning from each other how to do church. • … More That Was The Week That Was
Yesterday Elesha Coffman proposed a fun historical exercise over at the Religion in American History blog: develop an American equivalent to Mark Noll’s list of fourteen Turning Points in church history. It’s not as easy as it might seem. For example, she argued that American church history is both too big and too small to … More What Are the “Turning Points” in American Church History?
Here… • Pride and Prejudice, going strong after 200 years. • Re: my post on the music of Monty Python… Did I mention that I was such a devoted fan in high school that I convinced a group of friends to come over to the house for a marathon viewing party that took us through … More That Was The Week That Was
While I read it regularly on Feedly, The Atlantic is not exactly my go-to source for reporting on Christianity in America or elsewhere. And yet this morning it featured a hugely interesting, informative post with the surprising headline, “Is Immigration Reform Dead? Not If Evangelicals Can Do Anything About It.” FYI – I don’t normally … More Evangelical Leadership on Immigration Reform
Here… • Military chaplains in World War I, Holocaust Remembrance Day, and Brad Paisley crooning with LL Cool J. What you’re seeing here is either the fruit of a well-rounded liberal arts education, or a blogger who’s abandoned any goal of thematic unity and is just writing about whatever flits across his mind… • Oh, … More That Was The Week That Was
Earlier this year the New York Times ran a story about an English professor at Duke University named Cathy Davidson, who decided to replace more traditional term papers with a course blog for which students would regularly contribute 500-1500 word posts. While much of the Times article focused on the arguments for and against what … More Student Blogging: A Report from a Modern European History Course
This weekend my mom’s side of the family is gathering in Ellsworth, Wisconsin (“Cheese Curd Capital of the World”!) to celebrate my Grandpa Peterson’s 90th birthday. In honor of the occasion, let me reprise the first of my three-part series exploring some family history (and themes of immigration, urbanization, education, social mobility, and assimilation) via … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: The Petersons of Pierce County
The Pietist Schoolman 