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
Holy Saturday is the moment when darkness has descended and there is nothing to make you think, “It will be all right.” It won’t. It can’t be. The worst has occurred and nothing will ever be the same. That’s how it feels. If you have known, this last week or this last year, a moment … More Keeping Vigil: A Holy Saturday Reflection
Here… • The situation in the CCCU came to a somewhat surprising conclusion (for the moment). I noted a few lingering questions, but will wait till Monday to offer some belated reflections on the departure of Goshen and Eastern Mennonite. • CCCU vice president of academic affairs Rick Ostrander shared his experience of that crisis, plus his … More That Was The Week That Was
The current issue of Christianity Today features an interesting interview with Christopher Wright, international ministries director for Langham Partnership International and author of the newest entry in IVP Academic’s “The Bible Speaks Today” series: The Message of Lamentations: Honest to God. Twice in the magazine’s introduction Lamentations is described as one of the Bible’s “most neglected” books, a theme that … More What Are the Most Neglected Books in the Bible?
In addition to this week-in-review, this weekend I’m taking some time to prepare a “That Was The Year That Was” post. I’ll start counting down the year’s top twenty-five posts later today on Twitter, then share the full results in a year-in-review post on New Year’s Eve. Here… • This year, I tried to imagine seeing the first … More That Was The Week That Was
Today is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel and elsewhere around the world. I don’t think it’s widely known in the United States — partly because it falls on the 27th day in the Jewish month of Nissan, and so moves year by year within the Gregorian calendar — but even if this is … More Holocaust Remembrance Day
In yesterday’s post, I mentioned singer-songwriter Marcus Mumford’s desire to follow Jesus but distance himself from “the culture of Christianity,” a combination critiqued by UCC pastor Lillian Daniel, author of When “Spiritual but Not Religious” Is Not Enough, in a recent op-ed. She might have added that Jesus himself was deeply religious, so bound up with … More “Religious, but Not Spiritual”: Jesus and the Pharisees
Here… • Historians shouldn’t ask half-baked, existential questions about theology if they don’t want actual theologians to answer them, as I learned in pondering the role of doctrine in Pietism. (Do check the comments on that post: two come from colleagues who are collaborating on a new book about Pietism.) • Part three of my … More That Was The Week That Was
The sermon I preached yesterday (Feb. 10, 2013) as the conclusion of the Winter Seminar on Pietism at Bethlehem Covenant Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Our text was Luke 9:28-45. (You can listen to the sermon at Bethlehem’s website.) “Better to keep silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.” (We’re … More “Listen to Him!”: A Sermon for Transfiguration Sunday
12/18/12 – The Winter 2012 issue of Pietisten is now available! In addition to my own piece on experiencing Christian unity in sacrament, song, and service, be sure to check out Bob Bach’s reflection on Christmas and light, Carolyn Poterek’s homily on Pietism as an Ephesians 4 movement, Michelle Urberg’s visit to a late medieval … More New Pietisten!
The Pietist Schoolman 