While I was starting a new podcast season and sharing some final thoughts on the affordability and sustainability of Christian liberal arts colleges, here’s what some other writers had to say: • A Reformation Day question from Jay Phelan: what does it mean to be Protestant? • If an annual listen to “The Reformation Polka” … More That Was The Week That Was
Greetings from the Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan! After a terrific couple days at the Conference on Faith and History, I’m waiting for my flight home and thought I’d share a few of the pieces I’ve been reading the last seven days: • With all that’s been going on at my … More That Was The Week That Was
Tonight’s guest-blogger is Mark Safstrom, chief editor of the devotional journal Pietisten and assistant professor of Scandinavian Studies at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. More importantly, Mark is both a friend and a Mission Friend: that is, a fellow member of the Evangelical Covenant Church. What follows is adapted from his piece in next month’s issue … More Humble Leadership and Gentle Persuasion: A Plea to the People of the Covenant Church (Mark Safstrom)
This spring I’ve had the pleasure of teaching a group of adults who are planning a trip to Germany this fall. We started with a 90-minute tour of the Reformation last week and will conclude next Sunday with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, but for the middle of our three-Sunday course, they were kind enough to let me … More If I Ever Led a Trip to Germany on the History of Pietism…
Here… • Liberty University Online was the subject of a troubling profile, in which Pres. Jerry Falwell, Jr. celebrated how he had found “a way to tame” professors who objected to the program. (For a bit more interesting historical context, see Adam Laats on the long history of evangelical institutions using technology to do education … More That Was The Week That Was
I’ll leave it to actual American historians like my Anxious Bench colleague Kristin Du Mez to explain the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. on this, the 50th anniversary of his assassination. But one topic about which I can perhaps say something meaningful is MLK’s response to the Reformation initiated by his namesake. (As you may know, … More Martin Luther King, Jr. on Martin Luther
Let me suspend my Lenten hiatus just long enough to share the text of the sermon I delivered yesterday at Salem Covenant Church in New Brighton, Minnesota. It was the fourth in a “Path to Renewal” series inspired by The Pietist Option: Hope for the Renewal of Christianity, with my co-author — and Salem’s senior pastor … More The Path to Renewal: Be a Priest! (John 2:13-22)
In my column for the Fall/Winter 2017 issue of the journal Pietisten, I took a shot at doing something I’ve been most leery to do. Here’s how the column starts: “You need an elevator speech.” So said a friend when I announced on Facebook the publication of our book on Pietism. What she meant is that … More “Do You Believe in the Resurrection?”: My Elevator Speech for The Pietist Option
If you live in the Twin Cities — or want to capitalize on some post-Super Bowl deals and pay us a visit next weekend — please consider attending the Winter Seminar at Bethlehem Covenant Church in Minneapolis on February 9-11. I’ll be preaching at both services that Sunday, with the bulk of the seminar itself … More Always Reforming: Next Weekend’s Seminar on The Pietist Option
Sam and I wrap up our third season by considering some of the legacies of the Protestant Reformation: from democracy and free inquiry to religious pluralism and secularization to the notion that Protestants are “reformed and always reforming” (and why that means you should all buy The Pietist Option). Featured Book Alec Ryrie, Protestants: The Faith That Made the Modern World … More Thursday’s Podcast: Legacies of the Protestant Reformation
