UPDATE (January 3, 2023): I’m afraid I’ve had to cancel this tour. I’ll be leading a private tour in 2024, but if you’re interested in what we’re considering for 2025 and 2026, click here. For most of the 2010s, my Bethel colleague Sam Mulberry and I had the joy of leading a biennial travel course … More Announcing Our June 2023 Tour of Germany
This week I checked in on responses to my essay about how Pietists follow Jesus and considered some history of how Americans have used the imprecatory psalms. Elsewhere: • The latest story of workplace sexual harassment is set in the offices of evangelicalism’s flagship publication: Christianity Today (as reported in CT itself). • Religion journalist Jack Jenkins … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I surveyed the history of evangelical responses to capital punishment and reflected on joining historians, philosophers, and political scientists in a single department. Elsewhere: • With Independence Day approaching, Christianity Today ran several thoughtful essays suggesting how American Christians can think about this holiday, including John Wilsey reviewing a new book on patriotism and … More That Was The Week That Was
I’m hoping to get back to blogging regularly this week. But first, a look back at some of what I was reading and writing during my May break from Pietist Schoolman: • Over at The Anxious Bench, I wrote about COVID, abortion, “practical atheism,” and a Norwegian bishop who resisted his country’s Nazi occupiers. • While it … More That Was The Month That Was
If Protestants know that today is the feast of St. Stephen, it’s probably because of a rather odd carol, a Christmas song that makes no mention of Christ. As John Mason Neale’s “Good King Wenceslas” begins, it is December 26th, “the Feast of Stephen.” That night the medieval Czech monarch looks out and spots a … More Twelve Days: On the Feast of Stephen
For all the saints, who from their labours rest,Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,Thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blessed.Alleluia, Alleluia! William Walsham How (1864) Who are we remembering on this day dedicated to the memory of “all the saints”? I’m Protestant enough to think in terms broader than a who’s who of … More The With-God Life: All the Saints
Beloved, do not imitate what is evil but imitate what is good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God. (3 John 11) I’m not sure that imitate is an especially inspiring verb in this culture. It suggests a lack of originality and creativity. In evangelical Christianity, it may suggest … More The With-God Life: Imitation
Some weeks it feels like most of what I do is deliver bad news. Well, not “news” — but old stories from the dismal past: nuclear crises and mutually assured destruction are coming up tomorrow in Cold War; on Monday morning my freshman seminar studied apocalyptic themes in post-World War I art; and this morning, the … More The With-God Life: “The Lord Was Very Angry”
This week I curated some advice from fellow historians about how parents can help their home-bound kids learn history, reflected on the 75th anniversary of V-E Day, and recorded podcasts about sports journalism and the psychology of pandemics. Elsewhere: • I haven’t formally announced it until now, but I don’t think it will surprise anyone … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I considered a recent survey showing that more and more non-evangelicals are embracing the language of being “born again.” Elsewhere: • I’m excited that Bethel will host John Inazu next month. Hopefully he’ll revisit some of the themes from his most recent piece for Christianity Today, on the need for white evangelicals to … More That Was The Week That Was
The Pietist Schoolman 