Of the all chapters that I’m primarily writing for our book on Pietism and the future of Christianity, none has been harder to write than the one that will lead things off. Here’s how it currently starts: We’re going to have a lot to say about “hope for better times” in this book, just as Pietist … More Sneak Peeks of Our Pietism Book: What’s Wrong with Christianity?
“What’s wrong with Christianity in 2016?” Yikes. As I wrote here last week, I’ve been dreading this question since we decided that our book on “Pietism and the Future of Christianity” would mirror the structure of Philipp Spener’s Pia Desideria, whose first major section is a “Conspectus of Corrupt Conditions in the Church.” As I mused … More Thursday’s Podcast: What’s Wrong?
I’ve always been particularly fond of the virtue of hope. Here in the Christian academy it tends to be overshadowed by faith (that’s what we integrate with learning, after all), and while hope too abides, the “greatest” of the three is love. But it was hope that was at the center of two of the most influential books in … More A Week of Listening: Allan Boesak on Hope and Her Daughters
Today’s “best of” post comes from late April. It came to mind because I’ll be spending today and tomorrow doing exactly the kind of work that puts me at risk of what Parker Palmer called “functional atheism… the unconscious, unexamined conviction that if anything decent is going to happen here, we are the ones who must make it … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: When I’m a “Functional Atheist”
I’m as convinced a theist as you’re going to find. I’m a Christian who teaches at a Christian college and serves as chairperson of his church. I have a book coming out later this year on Christian higher education. This is the 434th post at this blog in the category “Christianity.” And yet I increasingly … More When I’m a “Functional Atheist”
Preach it, Dr. Richard Gunderman! The nation’s 80,000 medical, 20,000 dental, and 180,000 nursing school students might think that lectures are dead, or at least dying. Health professions curricula increasingly feature small-group, interactive teaching, and successive waves of enthusiasm have arisen for laptops, PDAs, and tablet computers as the new paradigms of learning. Commentators frequently … More No, the Lecture Isn’t Dead
Some “best of” reruns and desperate pleading for Cliopatria Award nominations notwithstanding, I pretty much took last week off. But other bloggers were hard at work: On Thanksgiving Parker Palmer professed himself “profoundly grateful that America is not a Christian nation. If it were, my Quaker convictions might get me into very deep oatmeal. And … More That Was The Week That Was
The Pietist Schoolman 