This week I looked at the religious biography of a Minnesotan who was known for technological innovation and died on Hawaii. Not Charles Lindbergh, but Medtronic founder Earl Bakken. Elsewhere: • For Reformation Day, a Lutheran meditation on the importance of singing in church. • Two years after Rachel Held Evans died, her last book is coming … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I wrote a letter to my students about the coming fall, recorded a podcast about sports under COVID, and introduced readers to a Lindbergh biographer who never got to finish her book. Elsewhere: • I’m worried that masks are going to make it harder for my students and me to get to know … More That Was The Week That Was
Last night word spread that one of the nation’s two largest Christian universities had eliminated its entire Philosophy department, giving those seven professors just a few weeks’ notice for a June 30 end to their employment. Sad as that news is, neither the decision nor the means of announcing and implementing it can be all … More Hope for Better Times for the Humanities
This week I wrapped up my devotional series on “The With-God Life,” shared some wise words from one of my favorite historians, started a new podcast exploring the importance of the liberal arts in the middle of a pandemic, and considered Christian responses to the polio scares of the 1950s. Elsewhere: • I mentioned C.S. Lewis’ … More That Was The Week That Was
Perhaps because we’re taking next week off, this week’s episode of The 252 is bursting at the seams with interesting conversation. • Chris Moore and I started by reporting on the results of a public policy simulation we just finished in our History and Politics of Sports class at Bethel: students played different roles in a fictional … More Thursday’s Podcast: Stadium Funding, the NCAA, and More
When I wasn’t continuing my series of lectionary devotions, this week I wrote about a small Christian movement that went 350+ years without taking Communion and recorded a podcast about race and sports. Elsewhere: • My supply of yeast is running low, but while I’ve got it, I’ll join others in coping with COVID quarantine … More That Was The Week That Was
This week is my scheduled spring break, so I was expecting to be home, catching up on grading and writing a chapter in my Lindbergh book. But I didn’t expect that this break would last two weeks, nor that when classes resume on March 30th, they would be taught online through our Easter break. Such is life … More How Christian Colleges Are Responding to COVID-19
I considered whether I was an evangelical, responded to an astonishing editorial by evangelicalism’s flagship publication, and considered how religion factors into two British institutions: the monarchy (kind of) and the Premier League. Elsewhere: • A handful of the many other responses to that Christianity Today editorial calling for Donald Trump to be removed from office: Michael Wear … More That Was The Week That Was
Here at Pietist Schoolman I wrote about the military history of childhood and the religious history of my own adolescence. Over at The Anxious Bench, I considered the proposition that Instagram food photos are the 21st century version of table grace, and shared a small digital humanities project. Elsewhere… • Also at Anxious Bench, Andrea Turpin considered … More That Was The Week That Was
Aside from sharing part of my Pietist Option for Baptists class (on reading the Bible) and being interviewed for a new podcast by a Covenant pastor, I spent most of the week preparing for the start of the academic year. Here’s some of what was happening elsewhere in the realms of Christianity, history, and education: • Rest … More That Was The Week That Was
The Pietist Schoolman 