Earlier this summer I argued on Substack that you can’t really call yourself a liberal arts college if you’re not offering liberal arts majors. As my Bethel colleague Jim Beilby correctly intuited in his response, I didn’t mean that it’s necessary to offer an entire array of every field in the arts, humanities, and sciences. … More How Common Is the History Major among Christian Colleges?
This week I made a cautious case for what’s called “early college” and a more enthusiastic argument for the relevance of Pietism to what I do as a scholar. And I reported on the last of our twelve conversations about Following Jesus. (Look for some closing reflections from me Tuesday in my Substack newsletter.) Elsewhere: • Beth Allison … More That Was The Week That Was
If things seems quiet here at Pietist Schoolman, it’s because I’ve been busy over at another blog: CC 4th, the site I’ve been administering for my department since 2012. See, this is the week we announced that “my department” at Bethel is no longer History, but History, Philosophy, and Political Science. While the past few … More Reflections on a Departmental Merger
This week I learned about a pagan, white supremacist movement that is rededicating a church in Minnesota and looked at how Bethel and its peers scored on a financial stress test. Elsewhere: • Bethel caught flak on social media for establishing a scholarship named after George Floyd, but to his great credit, our new president … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I engaged in some hopeful thinking about the future of the humanities, announced my first online adult ed course, recruited some Anxious Bench colleagues to join me in identifying non-religious turning points in religious history, and recorded podcasts about math and e-sports. Elsewhere: • Another week, another inspector general fired after he tried to … More That Was The Week That Was
Last night word spread that one of the nation’s two largest Christian universities had eliminated its entire Philosophy department, giving those seven professors just a few weeks’ notice for a June 30 end to their employment. Sad as that news is, neither the decision nor the means of announcing and implementing it can be all … More Hope for Better Times for the Humanities
On this week’s second episode of Pandemics and the Liberal Arts, Amy Poppinga and I talked to our friend and colleague Sara Shady about the significance of philosophy in the midst of COVID-19. It was fantastic! Sara primarily talked about ethics — how doctors, nurses, researchers, and others make decisions about health care during a pandemic; … More Wednesday’s Podcast: Pandemics and Philosophy
For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God…. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews … More The With-God Life: The Foolishness of the Cross
Beyond steering readers to Jay Phelan’s revived blog and reflecting on the “Baptist Pietist” legacy of G.W. Carlson, I enjoyed a quiet late summer week here at The Pietist Schoolman. Here’s some of what I read elsewhere: • In light of President Trump’s latest attacks on the “unpatriotic” press, I’m even more sure of the conclusion … More That Was The Week That Was
Dear madam or sir, I write in hope that you exist. Honestly, it’s hard for me to imagine that there are individuals in this or any society who have the ability to donate $75 million to their favorite good cause. (Subtract a few zeroes and I’d still need to battle my budget a bit.) But … More An Open Letter to Anyone with $75 Million to Give to Christian Colleges
The Pietist Schoolman 