“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?
After a midwinter break, Mark Pattie and I are preparing to record the next podcast in our series thinking aloud through the book we’re writing for InterVarsity Press, tentatively called Hope for Better Times: Pietism and the Future of Christianity. The structure of our book will mirror that of Pia Desideria, the 1675 booklet published by the Lutheran pastor … More What’s Wrong with Chris(tianity) in 2016?
So if Pietism is an ethos or spirit, where can you see it today in Christianity? Who or what exemplifies the instincts we talked about last time? On today’s episode, Mark, Sam, and I share some of our experiences with Pietism in the Evangelical Covenant Church and at Bethel University (two Christian institutions that explicitly claim … More Thursday’s Podcast: Pietists Today
This morning’s new episode of The Pietist Schoolman Podcast finds Mark Pattie and me talking about a question that’s foundational to the book we’re going to be writing this year: What is Pietism? And, almost as importantly, what is it not? Anti-intellectualism, legalism, quietism… though the seeds of such pathologies are present in the Pietist “instincts” that we … More Thursday’s Podcast: What’s Pietism?
If I could have our book on Pietism and higher education reviewed in just one journal, it would be Christian Scholar’s Review, meant as it is to encourage reflection on “the integration of Christian faith and learning” and discussion of “the theoretical issues of Christian higher education.” So I can’t thank John Hawthorne enough for sharing his thoughts on The Pietist … More The Pietist Vision in Christian Scholar’s Review
One advantage of having this J-term off is that I’ve been able to accept and prepare for a few more speaking engagements than usual for this time of year. Remarkably, they all cover different topics: • This Sunday morning (Jan. 17, 10am), I’ll be at Presbyterian Church of the Way (Shoreview, MN) to address their “Third Sunday … More Where You Can Hear Me Speak This Winter
As much as the Larycia Hawkins case at Wheaton College connects to issues like Muslim-Christian relations and the place of academic freedom on Christian campuses, I think it should also take us back to another topic I blogged a lot about in late 2015: What does it mean to be an “evangelical” Christian? In addition to my usual … More “Who’s an Evangelical?” Revisited (#DocHawk Version)
It’s here! The first episode of Season 2 of The Pietist Schoolman Podcast is now available for download on iTunes! It’s the first of twelve weekly (mostly) episodes in which Mark Pattie and I will think aloud about our in-process book, Hope for Better Times: Pietism and the Future of Christianity. This episode (#13 in the entire run of the series) … More Thursday’s Podcast: A New Book, A New Season
I don’t normally comment on things a year after they’re published, but since a post I hadn’t noticed before was referred to me over the weekend by two different colleagues, let me offer a few thoughts on Luke Harrington’s January 2015 piece, “Baptizing ‘Masculinity’: The Real Reason Men Are Leaving the Church.” In short, Harrington suggests … More Are Men Leaving the Church Because It’s Insufficiently Intellectual?
It’s just like a historian to live in the past, but… Before we get too far into 2016, I thought I’d look back once more at 2015: Not to the most-read posts of the year, but to those that were barely noticed. Most of them were announcements: new podcasts or webisodes, speaking engagements, etc. But for whatever … More What You Might’ve Missed in 2015
The Pietist Schoolman 