This week I questioned my own skepticism about miraculous healing. Elsewhere: • Half of the country’s Christian congregations have 65 or fewer attenders — half what the attendance level was at the start of the century. • Meanwhile, not quite half of Americans have watched church online during the COVID pandemic — and one-third of them don’t normally … More That Was The Week That Was
This month’s round in the Following Jesus conversation is a bit unusual. First, while it’s broadly about “The Roman Catholic Tradition,” the author of our lead essay, Christina Wassell, is a former Protestant who now identifies as a “traditional” Catholic and devoted almost all of her original essay to the importance of the Traditional Latin … More Following Jesus: Traditional Catholicism
I preached this sermon yesterday at Rice Creek Covenant Church in Lino Lakes, Minnesota. I was there partly to teach an adult class on The Pietist Option, but the text came from the congregation’s participation in our denomination’s Immerse Bible reading program. They’d just finished Exodus 1-24… I have to say, it’s risky to invite a non-preacher to … More God Will Speak… and We Will Die
Since today is a particularly significant Reformation Sunday, I’m going to forego my usual weekend links wrap and instead repost an updated version of my most recent piece for The Anxious Bench. “A red-letter date looms,” wrote Tal Howard in one of his many recent books, “31 October 2017, the five-hundredth anniversary of the Reformation, the widely recognized … More 3 Ways to Remember the Reformation
“We live in a political world,” Bob Dylan once sang, “Where mercy walks the plank.” It’s a world, after all, where even a democratic socialist promises a “merciless” response to a vicious attack. Where a leading Republican presidential candidate can be criticized by a leading conservative columnist for engaging in a kind of discourse “marked by what you … More Oh Mercy
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
Someone who likes to blog about Christian higher education probably shouldn’t admit this, but I’ve only visited the “evangelical Harvard” once. Last fall I was invited to accompany our president and some of his cabinet to a meeting of the Christian College Consortium at Wheaton College, where I got to share ten minutes’ worth of reflections on how … More Wheaton, Islam, and the Christ-Centered University
Here… • I had to remind myself that there’s more to “Christian higher ed” than one organization wrestling with its membership criteria. • Former Eastern Mennonite and CCCU president Myron Augsburger spoke up. • Another distinguished Christian college figure reviewed our Pietism/higher ed book. • And I shared the surprising story of three Japanese-Americans who came … More That Was The Week That Was
Here… • The situation in the CCCU came to a somewhat surprising conclusion (for the moment). I noted a few lingering questions, but will wait till Monday to offer some belated reflections on the departure of Goshen and Eastern Mennonite. • CCCU vice president of academic affairs Rick Ostrander shared his experience of that crisis, plus his … More That Was The Week That Was
If you’re looking for a Christian historian-blogger to cover Pope Francis’ visit to the United States, John Fea is probably your go-to source. But let me share a brief post on an easy-to-overlook dimension of the event: what Francis means for Catholic colleges and universities. While Francis’ first public mass in the U.S. will be held today … More Pope Francis and the Idea of a Catholic University
The Pietist Schoolman 