The With-God Life: Idols

At the end of the 6th century AD, Pope Gregory the Great launched one of the most significant missions in Christian history. “Do not let the toil of the journey or the tongues of men, discourage you,” he told the apprehensive monks tasked with converting the Anglo-Saxon people of England, “but with all earnestness and … More The With-God Life: Idols

That Was The Week That Was

This week I wrote about Confederate statues at The Anxious Bench and… well, I wrote thousands of words about Charles Lindbergh. (Yep, manuscript deadline starting to loom.) Elsewhere… • I used this week’s 5th anniversary of the shootings in Charleston, SC to frame my Confederate commemoration post. The historic AME church where those nine people were … More That Was The Week That Was

I’m a Pietist

Over the past months of transition, challenge, and uncertainty, I’ve learned something about myself: I’m a Pietist. It may seem like an obvious statement from someone who wrote a book called The Pietist Option and keeps a blog called The Pietist Schoolman. But I’m seeing even more clearly than before just how central Pietism is to my understanding … More I’m a Pietist

That Was The Week That Was

Other than pondering my potential Lutheran-ness and dropping a #Reformation500 podcast on a world desperately short of both podcasts and #Reformation500 material, I continued to shirk my duties as a blogger committed to giving away multiple posts on multiple topics week in and week out. I’ll try to get back to that next week. Meanwhile, … More That Was The Week That Was

Now Streaming: My Talk on “The Pietist Option for Evangelicals”

If you couldn’t attend my lecture last week in Chicago, it’s now streaming online via North Park University. Entitled “The Pietist Option for (Current and Former) Evangelicals,” the talk suggested how Pietism might renew evangelicalism — by way of “a Pietist gloss” on the familiar evangelical themes of biblicism, crucicentrism, conversionism, and activism. Click here to watch the … More Now Streaming: My Talk on “The Pietist Option for Evangelicals”

Glad Hearts: Some of My Favorite Voices from the Covenant Church

As I begin work on a book with one of its pastors about its theological heritage, I’ve been thinking a lot about the Evangelical Covenant Church. So with delegates from its congregations gathering in Phoenix, Arizona for our denomination’s annual meeting, I thought I’d share a few quotations from a few of my favorite Covenanters, clustered around our denomination’s … More Glad Hearts: Some of My Favorite Voices from the Covenant Church