Tag: Philipp Spener

Bethel University: Community Life Center and Benson Great Hall

Pietist Vision Previews: Education as Conversion

December 31, 2014

What is the purpose of Christian higher education? There is, of course, no single answer to the question. In any college, or any of its departments or programs, or of their required or elective courses and the individual class sessions that compose them, there are multiple objectives. But running through all of them, in our Pietist vision of Christian higher education, … More Pietist Vision Previews: Education as Conversion

Some of the endorsements on the back cover of The Pietist Vision of Christian Higher Education

Pietist Vision Previews: “Pietist not just in content but tone”

December 30, 2014

I’m still a bit staggered that scholars as gifted as John Fea, Rhonda and Douglas Jacobsen, John Schmalzbauer, and Amos Yong would think highly enough of our book on Pietism and Christian higher education to endorse it. But my heart was specially warmed that Houghton College president Shirley Mullen focused so much of her endorsement on how the book was written: … More Pietist Vision Previews: “Pietist not just in content but tone”

Bethel chapel in the library, 1973

Practice and Affection, Not Just Belief: Further Thoughts on How Colleges and Universities Remain “Christ-Centered”

November 20, 2014

Earlier this fall I shared the text of a brief speech I made to a Christian College Consortium symposium at Wheaton College: a Pietist perspective on what it means for schools like the CCC’s thirteen members to “stay Christ-centered.” I suggested that “staying” cannot be static and that “Christ-centered” must be understood in terms of … More Practice and Affection, Not Just Belief: Further Thoughts on How Colleges and Universities Remain “Christ-Centered”

Cover of The Pietist Vision of Christian Higher Education

Staying Christ-Centered: A Pietist Perspective (My Remarks to the Christian College Consortium)

September 24, 2014

The last two days I was honored to take part in a Christian College Consortium (CCC) gathering at Wheaton College. Our delegation from Bethel was assigned to help lead the Tuesday morning discussion, of what it means for colleges and universities to stay Christ-centered. I’m grateful to our president, Jay Barnes, for inviting me to prepare some remarks stemming from … More Staying Christ-Centered: A Pietist Perspective (My Remarks to the Christian College Consortium)

University of Halle-Wittenberg

Best of The Pietist Schoolman: A Pietist Model of Christian Scholarship

July 28, 2014

It’s going to be an unusually busy summer week for this college professor, so in place of new posts, enjoy a few of my favorites from the first half of 2014. We’ll start with my attempt to sketch a Pietist alternative to the scholarly model known as “faith-learning integration” — a three-part series that represented … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: A Pietist Model of Christian Scholarship

Pietist at Heart

What’s the Evangelical Covenant Church? “Missional Pietists”

July 1, 2014

So what’s this small but fast-growing denomination called the Evangelical Covenant Church? When I asked Facebook friends from the Covenant to suggest a sentence or two, I received several suggestions. I won’t repeat them all, but two common themes emerged. Most everyone appealed to figures or slogans from European history, and they described the Covenant as a group of people, … More What’s the Evangelical Covenant Church? “Missional Pietists”

University of Halle-Wittenberg

A Pietist Model of Christian Scholarship: Loving Neighbors

June 17, 2014

My series sketching the contours of a Pietist model of Christian scholarship concludes. In part one I critiqued the prevailing model of “faith-learning integration.” Then part two considered how scholarship transforms the scholar. In the conclusion, I’ll suggest how scholarship — particularly when understood not just as the production of knowledge but its transmission — benefits … More A Pietist Model of Christian Scholarship: Loving Neighbors

Pietist leader Philipp Jakob Spener

A Pietist Model of Christian Scholarship: Transformation and Character

June 9, 2014

In the first part of this post, I offered a Pietist critique of “the integration of faith and learning.” Today, as I continue to rework my recent presentation to Bethel’s annual faith-learning faculty workshop, I’ll tentatively suggest how Pietism might offer an alternative to the “integrationist” model of Christian scholarship. (I had intended this to be a … More A Pietist Model of Christian Scholarship: Transformation and Character

Shantz, An Introduction to German Pietism

The Challenge of Introducing Pietism

April 2, 2014

In recent months I’ve been invited to review two books seeking to introduce English-speaking audiences to German Pietism: Douglas Shantz’s An Introduction to German Pietism: Protestant Renewal at the Dawn of Modern Europe (Johns Hopkins University Press, paperback $31.50 on Amazon), and Michelle Clifton-Soderstrom’s Angels, Worms, and Bogeys: The Christian Ethic of Pietism (Cascade Books, $15.20). While … More The Challenge of Introducing Pietism

Bell, What We Talk About When We Talk About God

Pietism, Doctrine, and the Boundaries of Belief

March 7, 2013

What place, if any, do Pietists give to doctrine? Do they place any boundaries on what constitutes right belief (orthodoxy)? Those questions come to my mind at least two or three times a year, generally whenever I’m getting too excited about the prospects for a “Pietist impulse” to again revive Christianity (as it’s done at … More Pietism, Doctrine, and the Boundaries of Belief