As you might have noticed yesterday, I enjoy fusing my interests in history and travel. Besides writing about Moravian Bethlehem, I’ve used this blog to share images and thoughts from trips to the Blue Ridge Mountains, the former Western Front, and a few of the many historic sites I’ve taken our kids over the years. (And to … More Looking for Some Historic Sites to Visit This Summer?
All I did here was to promote some upcoming speaking engagements and to invite people to sign up to receive a free e-copy of our forthcoming Lenten devotional. (At The Anxious Bench, I considered Ulysses Grant’s position as America’s first Methodist president.) I’ll try to get back to Pietist Schoolman blogging next week; until then, here’s some of what … More That Was The Week That Was
One way or another, it’s clear that white evangelical support for Donald Trump is the biggest religion-and-politics story to come out of the election. But as a former student pointed out to me yesterday, that’s not the only Christian group that might have some soul-searching to do. Now, this is preliminary analysis of exit polls, and such … More It’s Not Just Evangelicals…
Here… • I realized that my sabbatical had temporarily relocated me to a bastion of Donald Trump support. (At least during my sabbatical, I’m planning to move my week-in-review posts from Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon.) • Our friend Jared Burkholder was back with an open letter to David Barton about primary sources. I’ll have my … More That Was The Week That Was
When I shared my summer reading list last year, it started with John Turner’s biography of Mormon leader Brigham Young and Philip Jenkins’ religious history of World War I. Little did I know that a year later I would be sharing a blog with both scholars! So I’ll start this year’s list as optimistically as I … More My 2016 Summer Reading List
Here… • After debuting the new look of this website, the first post in the new format was one I’d been researching all summer: how to teach history to five-year olds! • I’d still welcome nominations for the best history-related podcasts. • Not mine, of course: it’s more about religion and education than history. And anyway, it … More That Was The Week That Was
Here… • After the week started with conflicting evidence about evangelical attitudes on human sexuality, I urged more conversation on the topic. • Two questions for historians: Is historical empathy actually possible? Is there a power struggle between historians and their subjects? • And the story of an American atrocity in the middle of WWII reminded me of war’s corrosive effects … More That Was The Week That Was
Hagiography is not a term that most Western academics dream of seeing in reviews of their work, but historian Rick Kennedy meant it as a plaudit when he dedicated his recent Christian Scholar’s Review essay to an “emerging genre” he termed the “new academic hagiography”: In this New Hagiography the author must try to analyze methodically while believing. Unthinking piety has … More Is (Responsible, Thoughtful) Hagiography Coming Back?
Offered as a daydream, as by one who trusts rather than knows that the grading will get done and this impossibly busy academic year will reach its end… John Turner, Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet (Harvard UP, 2012) A big part of my summer reading is simply playing catch up, and I’ve already got a head start on that … More Is It Too Early For a Summer Reading List?
Here… • Because a blog just isn’t enough new media for one person, I announced that The Pietist Schoolman Podcast will debut next month. (I recorded two of the initial episodes on Friday — excited to share them!) • Speaking of more media than any one person needs to produce… Our department’s webisode got a behind-the-scenes tour of … More That Was The Week That Was
