I’ve sometimes dreamed of having a holodeck-like classroom in which the walls were massive screens that could be changed to make it seem like we were suddenly sitting in the middle of the same physical environment we were discussing. To teach the French Revolution while sitting in the middle of Paris’ Place de la Concorde, … More What Did History Smell Like?
Aside from some Tweeting and Facebook microblogging, I took Christmas week off. But others kept the blogosphere humming… • On Christmas Eve I sang carols about angels and wrote a brief reflection on Twitter and Facebook that concluded with St. Augustine’s famous prayer asking God to “give your angels charge over those who sleep.” But … More That Was The Week That Was
What follows is as good a summation of what we do in Christian higher education as I know. It’s courtesy of my friend and frequent collaborator Sam Mulberry. Background: yesterday morning we held our semester-ending “synthesizing dialogue” with 140 students in Bethel’s Christianity and Western Culture class. It was my twentieth such conclusion, which still … More “Wounded and Healed”: A Benediction for Fall 2013 (Sam Mulberry)
Last Thursday morning in the Bethel University Library, philosopher David Williams (Azusa Pacific University) returned to his alma mater to give the seventh and final talk in a series previewing chapters from Whole and Holy Persons: A Pietist Approach to Christian Higher Education (forthcoming in late 2014 from InterVarsity Press). In “The Pietist Impulse and … More Watch the Entire Series of Talks Previewing Our Book on Pietism and Higher Education
I have larger misgivings about moving more and more of higher ed online (which I’ll explore soon), but this talk given earlier this fall found me beginning to explore its costs and benefits in light of my experience teaching a fully online Western Civ course last summer. This past summer my colleague Sam Mulberry and … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: A Field Report from the Digital Frontier
If you want to sound like you’re a serious, forward-thinking educator these days, you’d best master a couple of facile cliches: (1) speak derisively of the “sage on the stage” in order (2) to exhort colleagues to embrace “student-centered, active learning.” To help yourself convey the proper degree of disdain for the lecture, think back … More The Value of the “Sage on the Stage”
Here… • How an acclaimed history of politically progressive evangelicalism helps bridge the gap between religious and diplomatic history. (That from my trip to Baltimore… Look for the second half of this talk, coming Monday.) • Jared Burkholder on a famous case of martyrdom in North American history. • Celebrating 125 years of mission and … More That Was The Week That Was
Earlier this week my employer announced further results of a prioritization and review process meant to address a serious budgetary shortfall. Previously, this had resulted in the loss of several programs and faculty positions and the closure of Bethel’s arts and media center in New York City. On Monday a number of staff (far more … More In Praise of Colleagues, Learning in “War-Time”
Here… • “Happy Reformation Day!” definitely is the wrong wish for anyone, but hopefully watching a music video of me singing about the life of Martin Luther made someone, somewhere giggle just a bit. • Two more videos to watch, only one of which featured me: the first two talks in our series previewing Whole … More That Was The Week That Was
I haven’t yet read Andy Crouch’s new book, Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power, but it’s been hard to miss. An essay on power from Crouch is the cover story in the October 2013 issue of Christianity Today (where Crouch is now executive editor). Borrowing concepts from anthropologist Geert Hofstede, Crouch observes that American … More Andy Crouch on Power: Implications for Education?
The Pietist Schoolman 