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
Yesterday I dedicated my new Substack newsletter to reflecting on my first visit to Berlin’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. There’s nothing unexpected about seeing such a site in the capital city of Germany — though it is still striking (maybe not surprising) that it wasn’t until 2005 that the memorial was finally … More Unexpected Sites of Holocaust Remembrance: Berlin
No, it’s not unexpected that the capital of Germany would have commemorative sites related to World War I. But the ways that the memory of that war show up in Berlin can catch you off guard, as I discovered on my recent tour. Amazingly, I’d never been to Berlin, so we started by orienting ourselves … More Unexpected Sites of WWI Remembrance: Berlin
Even as we start to get back to something like a pre-COVID normal, this summer I want to do even more of one of my chief pandemic hobbies: reading books. Here’s some of what’s on my reading list for the next three months. History Most of my more academic reading will be devoted to boning … More What I’m Hoping to Read This Summer
This week I shared video of my first Lindbergh book talk and considered whether we’re seeing a realignment of American Christianity along lines other than the mainline-evangelical divide. Elsewhere: • If you liked my post last weekend on the history of religious colleges in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, you’ll want to read pieces by Benjamin … More That Was The Week That Was
This week: • Michael Gerson’s argument for not voting on the basis of abortion alone was compelling when he wrote it on Thursday… but all the more so after the Supreme Court abruptly reentered the presidential campaign on Friday night. • I’ll write more about the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a couple of days, … More That Was The Week That Was
I have to admit: I’d never heard the name Ernst Lohmeyer before I reviewed James Edwards’ new biography of that German theologian and biblical scholar for the current issue of Christianity Today. But the more I read Between the Swastika and the Sickle (Eerdmans, $30.00 in hardcover), the more I could see how Lohmeyer could … More Between the Swastika and the Sickle
It’s been far too long since I’ve shared any links, so let me go back through a busy first month of summer and recommend several pieces to readers: • I’m not the world’s biggest Stanley Hauerwas fan, but his recent comments on the church in the age of Trump are well worth considering. • The … More That Was The Month That Was
I reported on a Supreme Court case involving a World War I memorial, talked baseball history on The 252, and reflected on the relationship between faith and science for The Anxious Bench. Elsewhere… • The big religion news of the week is that the United Methodist Church is having its final (?) reckoning over sexuality this weekend. … More That Was The Week That Was
The fourth season of The Pietist Schoolman Podcast wraps up today with Sam Mulberry and me talking about our favorite memorials, museums, meals, and masterpieces in the southern German city of Munich. In addition, we closed with some broader reflections on the spiritual purposes of travel. (If nothing else, skip ahead to 33:50 for our discussion of … More Thursday’s Podcast: Munich (and Why We Travel)
The Pietist Schoolman 