Okay, let’s go back to Wesleyan University president Michael Roth’s claim that while he wants his students (even fellow secularists) to engage with religious ideas and feelings, he certainly isn’t “trying to make a religious believer out of anybody.” But as a Christian historian — and as a professor at a Christian college — aren’t … More Am I “Making Religious Believers” Out of My Students? (part 2)
Of all the ways the 500th anniversary of a German monk posting ninety-five Latin theses on a church door is being celebrated, this is clearly the best. Reports Deutsche Welle: Nearly 500 years after his death, the German monk who symbolizes the Protestant Reformation movement, has his own Playmobil figurine. Playmobil, maker of plastic toy sets … More Martin Luther, Child’s Plaything
If it’s not bad enough that I’m posting a second consecutive list (classic clickbait for bloggers), today I’m shamelessly ripping off an idea from Peter Enns, who two weeks ago shared ten passages from the Old Testament and ten from the New that shape how he thinks about God. Of course, Peter Enns knows the Bible … More Five Bible Passages that Shape How I Think about God
Here… • How diverse are Christian colleges and universities? • Does history teach lessons? • Is it helpful to argue from historical analogy, or a sense of historical inevitability? • Where can you find the newest issue of the Baptist Pietist Clarion? • And where am I this morning? …There and Everywhere • As we closed the … More That Was The Week That Was
Today I’m happy to present a guest post on J. S. Bach and Pietism. It comes from Chuck King, visiting assistant professor of music at Trinity International University, where he teaches courses in music and worship and music history, as well as directing the Symphonic Band. He has three decades of experience as a pastoral minister … More Bach and Pietism (Chuck King)
Track this and tell me that God doesn’t work in mysterious ways: 1. When I was hired to come to a Baptist/Pietist/evangelical college as the new European historian, I was expected to teach an upper-level course on the Reformations. The last time I had studied this chapter in history was… oh, the first week of … More Why I’m Almost a Lutheran
Since I’ve already seen it shared this week on Facebook and Twitter by friends and former students, I might as well join the fun and mark this 496th anniversary of Martin Luther posting his “95 Theses” by posting “The Reformation Polka” — a music video that my friend Sam Mulberry and I made several years … More Reformation Day (and Response)
“Martin Luther must be turning over in his grave,” tweeted a former student of mine last night, re: the following announcement from the Vatican (via The Guardian passing on news from an Italian newspaper) about a certain practice that both prompted and survived the Protestant Reformation: Indulgences these days are granted to those who carry … More e-Indulgences?
Here… If you like reading about Swedish-American Pietist educators who left their denominations’ colleges in the 1970s to do other things… Well, this past week at The Pietist Schoolman was pretty much your best week ever. • Karl Olsson, the Evangelical Covenant historian and former president of North Park College and Seminary, would have turned … More That Was The Week That Was
In 1713 the newly-crowned king of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm (Frederick William) I, visited the city of Halle and toured its pioneering educational and charitable institutions. The king’s tour guide was the institutions’ founder, the Pietist pastor August Hermann Francke. Their conversation soon turned to Friedrich Wilhelm’s central concern: the Prussian army. FW: What do you … More Francke and Friedrich Wilhelm: Can Pietists Serve “Two Kingdoms”?
The Pietist Schoolman 