As I mentioned in a former post, I just wrapped up a class on the history and politics of the Middle East, a class I have taught for a number of years now. One of its goals is for students to wrestle with the complexities of revolutionary movements in the Middle East, the most recent and particularly … More How to Spark Islamic Revolution
Here… • Veterans Day took on a new poignancy for me this year… • Also on the 11th, I helped the local newsmedia celebrate the G.I. Bill. • What does your name say about your politics? • The Pew Forum found further evidence that Latin American Christianity is becoming less (Roman) Catholic and more Protestant. … More That Was The Week That Was
Here… • Tomorrow is the 25th anniversary of the still-remarkable fall of the Berlin Wall. • Further thoughts on Christian colleges and racial-ethnic diversity: do CCCU schools mirror the populations of the metro areas they inhabit? • A funeral inspired me to rethink how history provides a kind of Christian testimony to those who study it. • … More That Was The Week That Was
Here… • As my series on Ed Gilbreath’s Birmingham Revolution wrapped up, I concluded that “For the vast majority of us… the call is not to speak as a prophet, but to listen for such voices, to bend our ears to hear what [Ken] Wytsma calls ‘the God-given devices for bending society back when it veers from where it should be.’” • … More That Was The Week That Was
Here… • Are American Christians entering a time of exile? (Are Christians ever not living in exile?) How can history guide us? • Getting excited about stumbling across a term paper on Pietism by a college-aged John Howard Yoder is about the nerdiest thing I’ve done this year… …There and Everywhere • If you’ve been following … More That Was The Week That Was
Here… • While her talk at Bethel last week was about faith and science, I’ll happily credit journalist Krista Tippett with inspiring two posts about the practice of history: first, what do historians mean when they ask “Why?”; and second, how is history a “ministry of listening“? • Thanks to Paul Putz for teaching us about the … More That Was The Week That Was
If you dare, complete the sentence: “The Bible makes it abundantly clear that __________.” There are few phrases that frustrate me more than, "The Bible makes it abundantly clear…" — Rachel Held Evans (@rachelheldevans) October 23, 2013 Rachel Held Evans’ tweet last night preceded a series of conversations about Reformed megachurch pastor Mark Driscoll’s contention … More “The Bible makes it abundantly clear…”
Here… • Announcements: Books & Culture is alive and kicking; Efrem Smith took a new job; the U.S. News Best Colleges report came out and it’s still ridiculous. That is all. • Not exactly the finest hour for either Britain or France: the Phoney War of 1939-1940. And WWII would get worse for both countries … More That Was The Week That Was
When I started to put together this week’s edition of my Saturday links post, I realized that I’d flagged so many links related to Syria that I should just go ahead and present them as a separate post… The standard edition of That Was The Week That Was will go up later today or tomorrow. … More That Was The Week That Was: Syria
Here • I’m not sure Pope Leo XIII thought all that much of evangelical Protestants in his day, but some of them in the present won’t let that get in the way of their admiring his most famous encyclical. (Meanwhile, Alan Jacobs was a bit less sanguine about finding “the common good.”) • Why Augustine … More That Was The Week That Was
The Pietist Schoolman 