Here… • As we neared the end of our J-term sprint through the history of World War II and my students heard from a Holocaust survivor, I returned to my Epiphany theme of “thick darkness.” • Lots of MLK Day posts claiming to reclaim some lost or neglected dimension of MLK: e.g., that he was … More That Was The Week That Was
Here… • When the week started, did I think that I’d writing about the spiritual implications of birdwatching? No. By Thursday afternoon had I written the phrase “orni-theological musing“? Yes. Blogging is weird. • Jared Burkholder introduced us to the Moravian branch of the Pietist family tree. I’m hoping for a sequel in which he … More That Was The Week That Was
November 22, the day that marked the passing of that strange threesome of JFK, C.S. Lewis, and Aldous Huxley, is now itself history. Here at Grace College, we marked the occasion with a symphonic concert of 1960s pop music (strange as that may sound) as well as a more academic event for which well-known C.S. … More Would Eighteenth Century Pietists Have Embraced C.S. Lewis?
Now that we’re into the academic year and I’m both busier and readership is up, I thought I’d ease into the week by reposting a couple of pieces that you might have missed during the warmer months. I’ll start with a three-part series from July. Which patriotic hymns are most popular? Have they changed over … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: A Brief History of Patriotism in American Hymnals
Change the first word to “Twelve” and this post from 9/11/2012 still seems to fit today, 9/11/2013. Eleven years ago this morning I was in Hamden, Connecticut, waking up after a late night of dissertation writing to turn on CNN in time to watch the collapse of the World Trade Center’s twin towers. Those structures … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: This Day in History: 9/11
I’ve complained a couple of times that Christian Piatt’s recent (very popular) exercise in identifying “25 Christian Blogs You Should Be Reading” gave short shrift (both in the readers’ and editor’s versions) to academics — in particular, my fellow historians. To a significant extent, this is the fault of our guild; I’m afraid that Sam … More 10 Blogs by Christian Historians You Should Be Reading
By far the most popular American patriotic hymn is Samuel Francis Smith’s “America,” appearing in over 1600 of the hymnals indexed at Hymnary.org — nearly four times as many as Katharine Lee Bates’ “America the Beautiful” and Julia Ward Howe’s “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” five times more than Francis Scott Key’s “Star-Spangled Banner.” And … More “Of thee I sing”: A Brief History of Patriotism in American Hymnals (part 3)
Here… • I don’t know if Frederick Buechner actually runs his own Twitter account or not, but regardless, it was an honor to have him (or “him”) retweet my post on balancing multiple callings, the first in a series on “The Vocation of a Christian Historian.” (From an essay I wrote over Christmas that drew … More That Was The Week That Was
Here • Thanks to G.W. Carlson, professor emeritus of History and Political Science at Bethel University, for paying tribute to Paul Wellstone on the 10th anniversary of his death. • This week also saw the death of another liberal Midwestern senator. Unlike Paul Wellstone, however, George McGovern did run for president (three times, I think). … More That Was The Week That Was
I may play the role, but I’m not a historian of Christianity, or any other religion. I edit books, write articles, give papers, and blog about Pietism, and I teach courses on Christianity and Western Culture and The Reformations, but my graduate education was overseen by this guy and this guy; I somehow never took … More Matthew Bowman’s The Mormon People
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