How’s this for a college recruitment slogan? “Bethel University: you might not come back, but you will not be the same” No? What if we had Sir Ian McKellen intone it, as in the first part of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy, when Martin Freeman’s Bilbo is being encouraged by McKellen’s wizard Gandalf to go … More The Christian Liberal Arts as Tolkienesque Quest
One of the most interesting cultural histories I’ve read is The Mansion on the Hill, former Rolling Stone editor Fred Goodman’s sprawling, well-researched examination of the development of the “rock and roll business” from the Sixties through the Eighties — how rock went from being a partner of “a counterculture professing to be so firmly against … More Albums A to Z: Nebraska
The late Karl A. Olsson (whose 100th birthday we celebrated yesterday) had a lithograph in his home office with the following caption: “A Pietist disturbs the joy in a tavern.” Given the importance Olsson attached to joy, it’s not surprising that he wrestled with the legacy of Pietism: disturbed by the ways in which its … More “An Honorable Word as a Dishonorable Handle”: Karl Olsson on Pietism
Here… • The Winter Seminar at Bethlehem Covenant will continue later this morning after getting off to a great start last night. In preparation for it, I shared a couple of posts on Pietism: one on Covenant theologian Don Frisk’s attempt to apply Pietist principles to Christian education; the other on a Church of the … More That Was The Week That Was
Some more Reformation Day fun… A few of my favorite — and not-so-favorite, but significant or revealing — quotations from Martin Luther: On Faith Faith is God’s work in us, which transforms us and by which we are reborn from God. By faith the old Adam is crucified. Faith makes us entirely different in heart, … More The Quotable Luther
Some quick thoughts about what’s happened at Penn State in recent days, including the student rioting last night… First, I feel for people like sportswriter Michael Weinreb, who experienced an idyllic upbringing in State College — his father was on the Penn State faculty — and had a good experience at PSU himself. Despite that … More Unhappy Valley
November 8, 1923 – The Beer Hall Putsch in Munich November 8, 1937 – The “Eternal Jew” exhibition opens (also in Munich) It’s an important week for Nazi-related anniversaries. I’ve blogged earlier about the Putsch (on the 16th anniversary of which — November 8, 1939 — Georg Elser failed in his attempt to assassinate Hitler). … More This Day in History: The Worst of Sinners
The Pietist Schoolman 