When I wasn’t continuing my series of lectionary devotions, this week I wrote about a small Christian movement that went 350+ years without taking Communion and recorded a podcast about race and sports. Elsewhere: • My supply of yeast is running low, but while I’ve got it, I’ll join others in coping with COVID quarantine … More That Was The Week That Was
What does the spread of the coronavirus mean for sports? We started to talk through that big question on this week’s extended spring break episode of The 252. In our first segment, we briefly discussed the postponement of the Olympics, how the absence of sports changes our perception of the passage of time, and Paul … More Wednesday’s Podcast: Sports in the Age of COVID-19
Yesterday I started thinking out loud about my plans for converting my courses at Bethel University into online offerings. Part one summarized some basic principles I’m trying to follow, then explained my plans for a 100-level gen ed survey. Today: my two 200-level History courses… HIS/POS252L History and Politics of Sports Course description and students: … More How I’m Planning to Teach Online (part 2)
As longtime readers of this blog may recall, I’m not a huge fan of online education. While I’ve taught an online course every summer since 2013, plus a couple of hybrid courses a few years back, I’m still skeptical that that mode of education can bring about the kind of whole-person transformation that I would … More How I’m Planning to Teach Online (part 1)
Apart from recording the first episode of my favorite podcast since January 2019, I focused my time this week on teaching and (book) writing. Elsewhere: • I’m grateful to Joey Cochran for giving me a week off from The Anxious Bench, with a guest post on the history of how Christians have used the word “heretic.” • … More That Was The Week That Was
I can’t seem to go more than a month without recording a podcast, but I can go a bit more than a year without recording my least consistent podcast series, Nothing Rhymes with Gehrz, in which Sam Mulberry and I jokingly continue our futile quest for words (in English) that rhyme with my last name. In … More Nothing Rhymes with Gehrz (Episode 5)
I wrote about Ethiopian Pentecostals like the new Nobel Peace Prize winner and debates in this country over religious liberty for Christian colleges. Elsewhere: • For a more serious case of a religious group being persecuted by the state, read this firsthand account of life for Uyghur Muslims imprisoned in Chinese “reeducation” camps. • According … More That Was The Week That Was
I thought through the educational implications of a Pietist motto, updated my speaking schedule for 2019-2020, and interviewed the author of a helpful new book on Christians who support Donald Trump. • Another way of looking at Red State Christianity: from the point of view of American evangelicals who live in England, came home for … More That Was The Week That Was
Apart from an Anxious Bench post on the new Christians Against Christian Nationalism statement, I took the week off from blogging to finish moving into my new office and to read through several years’ worth of Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s diaries and letters. Elsewhere: • If you can see any shades of gray on the debate over abortion, you’ll want … More That Was The Week That Was
This week marks the end of the first season of The 252, the podcast on the history and politics of sports that I’ve been hosting with my Bethel colleagues Chris Moore and Sam Mulberry. In our opening segment, we talked about the etymology of badminton, the history of the NFL draft, and the results of our … More Wednesday’s Podcast: What Have We Learned?
The Pietist Schoolman 