I’ve only half-followed the recent Twitter dust-up between historians Thomas Kidd and John Fea and journalist Jonathan Merritt. You can get caught up to speed with this morning’s Anxious Bench post from John Turner. Throw in editor John Wilson (who rose to the historians’ defense), and you’ve got several of my favorite Johns/Jonathans sparring over what it meant … More I’m a Historian, Not an Expert
Here… • Why I think that women, African Americans, and other Christians can help to “evangelize evangelicalism.” • It’s not much to look at, but my faculty office is actually important to me. …There (Anxious Bench)… • Like millions of others around the world, I watched the royal wedding live. Unlike all of them, I … More That Was The Week That Was
The (early) reviews are in, and I’m encouraged to see that The Pietist Option has been well received by a distinguished roster of endorsers. You can read the current set of endorsements at the InterVarsity Press page for the book and I’ve already mentioned the blurbs by Dave Kersten and Brian McLaren in earlier posts. But here’s a … More “Timely… Practical… Immensely Winsome” (Early Reviews of The Pietist Option)
If you didn’t notice it over the weekend, do yourself a favor and read John Fea’s heartfelt “Confessions of a Lonely Christian Historian.” It begins: I think all of us who pursue a life of the mind are, to some degree, lonely people. We live in the world of ideas. We spend a lot of … More The Loneliness (and Solitude) of a Christian Historian
I’ve been busy this morning packing up for our gradual trip back home, so I’ll have to catch up later and watch video of the 2016 Bethel Colloquium on Pietism. But I did manage to catch the opening remarks by Bethel provost Deb Harless and theology professor Christian Collins Winn, my friend and co-coordinator. Both spoke … More The Promise (and Problems) of “Usable Pasts”
To what extent did evangelical colleges and universities contribute to the election of Donald Trump? That’s the question that Adam Laats, author of a forthcoming book on the history of such schools in the 20th century, raised recently at History News Network. (I’ve recommended his blog before.) Seeking an explanation for the much-cited figure of 81% of … More How Did Evangelical College Students Vote in the Presidential Election?
It’s November 15th, and I’m still not quite sure how I feel about evangelicalism — and my place in it — seven days after an election in which 81% of the white evangelicals who cast ballots opted for Donald Trump. For one thing, we’re getting analysis of the vote more sophisticated than what we saw from exit polls in the heat … More A Week Later… Evangelicalism
Here… • My favorite Anxious Bench post so far: a historical and personal reflection on Warner Sallman’s painting Head of Christ. (Though, not surprisingly, writing a post questioning a depiction of Jesus as white brought out the worst in Patheos commenters…) • Another fellow Covenanter, my co-author Mark Pattie, shared a sneak peek at his chapter on the Bible … More That Was The Week That Was
Like Jared, I think it’s evident that David Barton struggles to understand what historians do and how we do it. That’s especially true whenever he gets to the intersection between faith and learning. Consider his recent mini-tirade against John Fea: He [Fea] said the founding fathers didn’t want ministers–the founding fathers were ministers in office [sic]. So they’re doing this … More What David Barton Doesn’t Understand about Graduate School and Christian Scholarship
Every time I write a post about Donald Trump, I tell myself it’s going to be the last one. This is not, and has never been, a blog about politics. But it is a blog about Christianity, history, education, and how they intersect, so as the Republican National Convention begins, I’m going to write one … More Why I Signed the Historians Against Trump Letter
