I’ve been teaching an online summer course since 2013, when my friend Sam Mulberry and I debuted a new version of a multidisciplinary, gen ed pillar at Bethel called Christianity and Western Culture. (It’s still not my favorite mode of instruction, but we’ve figured out how to make it work — and, as importantly, which … More How I’m Teaching a Virtual Travel Course This Summer
Although I just wrote a biography about a man dedicated to the art of practical joking, I can’t stand April Fool’s Day. Because even if I were clever enough to come up with hilarious practical jokes, I’d feel guilty about making other people to look foolish. But driving to work today, it struck me that … More In Praise of Folly
The other day, I saw a professor of my acquaintance offer anyone on Facebook a billion dollars to teach a class on citation for him. I couldn’t blame him. Because I teach our department’s gateway course, Intro to History, I have the annual responsibility of ensuring that our new majors and minors understand the intricacies … More In Praise of Citation. Seriously.
This week I invited readers to help me launch a new book project, opened a Lenten devotional series from the Conference on Faith and History and recorded a podcast about the National Anthem and athlete protests. Elsewhere: • For Democratic voters in New York, complained one Slate columnist, “celebrating the idea of the competent blue-state governor … More That Was The Week That Was
I’ll never forget February 1, 2016. I had just got back from the first meeting of a spring course and barely sat down in my office when the phone rang: G.W. Carlson had had a stroke. I was stunned. Not just because GW was my friend and mentor, or because he had seemed so hale … More Five Years Later… The Legacy of GW Carlson
This week I reflected on what I learned from Esau McCaulley’s book, Reading While Black and celebrated the publication of our own book, Faith and History: A Devotional. Elsewhere: • We have one more week of fall classes remaining, which makes this a good time to think about the importance of how we end a semester. … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I wrote about the difference between Swedish and American evangelicalism. And while I didn’t quite keep up my daily devotional pace to end October, I did reflect on Jesus as Messiah, the challenge of perfection, and the political implications of Martin Luther’s least favorite epistle. Elsewhere: • The “state of a polarized nation” … More That Was The Week That Was
We’ve now finished the first two weeks of the fall semester at Bethel University, where there’s no football opener tomorrow, only a handful of people could be in the Great Hall for a chapel service saying farewell to our president emeritus, and I still forget my face mask half the time I head to work. … More Two Weeks In and…
This week I wrote a letter to my students about the coming fall, recorded a podcast about sports under COVID, and introduced readers to a Lindbergh biographer who never got to finish her book. Elsewhere: • I’m worried that masks are going to make it harder for my students and me to get to know … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I considered the importance of Christian friendships between women and men and shared a bit more about the origins of our Faith and History devotional. (Click that link to learn how to pre-order with a publisher’s discount.) Elsewhere: • We’re now less than a month away from starting face-to-face classes at Bethel… I hope someone’s … More That Was The Week That Was
The Pietist Schoolman 