Between final exams and commencement last week and leading a faculty workshop and grading this week, I’ve been a little late to check in on this month’s Following Jesus conversation. But don’t let that delay (or this too-brief introduction) deter you from checking out a highly important installment in the project, featuring an opening essay … More Following Jesus: The Black Church Tradition
“Unlike every other participant in this year-long conversation,” I wrote early in my lead essay this month for Following Jesus, “the Pietist Tradition has no ecclesial shape or institutional structure. And the number of Christians worldwide who identify as Pietist is vanishingly small.” But what Roger Olson calls the Pietist ethos shows up in virtually … More Following Jesus: The Pietist Tradition
Any reasonable, empathetic person can find any number of reasons to find troubling Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The suffering, dislocation, and grief that any war inflicts on anyone in its path. The odiousness of Vladimir Putin, who had the gall to say that one goal of his “special military operation” was the “denazification” of Ukraine: … More Thoughts on Ukraine
Yesterday I was given the honor of delivering the keynote address at the college faculty retreat for Bethel University. The retreat committee asked me to speak on the theme of unity. Here’s a lightly edited version of my comments. I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the … More “Let the Tension Remain” (Eph. 4)
Last week I shared the acknowledgments section from my biography of Charles Lindbergh. Today, a few words about the dedication: In honor of another descendant of Swedish immigrants:Dick Peterson—for whom physics is an act of worship,whose career confirms Anne Lindbergh’s instinct that“the true scientist [is] akin to the artist and the saint,”whose life demonstrates that … More Why I Dedicated a Charles Lindbergh Biography to Dick Peterson
With the 2020 elections just over two weeks away, I’ve started to see more Christians on social media post some version of this claim: Whomever we elect president, God is still in charge. Yes, on the one hand, and amen. As today’s psalm opens: The Lord is king; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the … More The With-God Life: The King Who Loves Justice
I’ve taken some time off from blogging here at Pietist Schoolman in order to get my fall courses launched under unusual circumstances and to finish revisions to my Lindbergh manuscript. Before I share some of what else I’ve been reading, here’s good news on the latter count, courtesy of my editor at Eerdmans: Thrilled that @cgehrz's terrific … More That Was The Week That Was
We don’t live all that close to the places in Minneapolis and St. Paul that have seen actual violence in recent days. But last night we were told by a neighbor that a man with a semi-automatic weapon had been seen walking around our first-ring suburb, and Twitter reported that white supremacists were staying at … More The With-God Life: Breath and Fire
Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps faith forever; who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. (Psalm 146:5-7) It’s reassuring to start another week … More The With-God Life: “Do not put your trust in princes”
About thirty years ago, I got to know a fellow middle schooler named Kimberly Weaver. She was both smarter and funnier than me, and while we went to different schools, I was glad that church gave us twice-weekly opportunities to connect. But she went to college at Bethel, while I headed east. Coincidentally, I joined … More RIP Kimberly Weaver Olson
The Pietist Schoolman 