A big moment in my career happened last Friday around lunchtime, when I sent this document to our editor at InterVarsity Press: Yes, this is the manuscript for the book that Mark Pattie and I have been writing all year. There’s still a lot of work left to do before it comes out (maybe next fall?), but … More What Comes Next? (On Reaching Mid-Career in Higher Education)
Last week our family spent several days in Washington, DC and Pennsylvania, taking the kids to historic sites ranging from the Air & Space Museum to the Gettysburg battlefield. Indeed, one of my favorite things about this fall’s sabbatical is that it lets us continue the historical exploration that we did much of the summer back in Minnesota. … More 6 Things I’ve Learned about Teaching History to 6-Year Olds
Like Jared, I think it’s evident that David Barton struggles to understand what historians do and how we do it. That’s especially true whenever he gets to the intersection between faith and learning. Consider his recent mini-tirade against John Fea: He [Fea] said the founding fathers didn’t want ministers–the founding fathers were ministers in office [sic]. So they’re doing this … More What David Barton Doesn’t Understand about Graduate School and Christian Scholarship
One of the pleasures of being (almost) done with grading is that I can start to catch up on reading. A summer book list will come another day, but this week, I want to mention two articles in the Easter issue of The Cresset, starting with a review essay that makes kind mention of our book, The Pietist Vision … More Searching for Jerusalem: A New Review of Our Pietist Vision Book
I didn’t mean to write a fourth Christian higher ed post in four days, but… It’s all too possible that someone newer to the blog could read the first three and come away thinking that I’m thoroughly disillusioned about Christian colleges in general and disgruntled with Bethel in particular. Those feelings are there — as they would be, … More Why I’m Glad I’m at Bethel
I’m pretty sure the world has heard enough from me for now on the subject of the “crisis of the humanities” in Christian colleges. At the risk of overreaching, let me just add a few closing thoughts: First, that I appreciate the enormous response to the first two posts this week. They provoked some truly enlightening … More Final Thoughts on Evangelicalism and the Humanities: Rethinking How Christian Colleges Serve the Church
“This is going to be on the blog, isn’t it?” This post is about to prove my friend Will right. But honestly, as we stood in front of the climbing wall at Covenant Pines Bible Camp this past Saturday afternoon, all I could think was, “I can’t believe Lena wants to go up that thing!” My daughter is … More What My Daughter Taught Me This Weekend about Courage… and Education
I’ll be out of town this weekend, so here’s an early, abbreviated links wrap. Here… • This week’s podcast revisited the themes of our book, The Pietist Vision of Christian Higher Education, then applied them to Christian formation in other settings, including churches and homes. • Elsewhere on the Christian Humanist Radio Network, the Sectarian Review took on David … More That Was The Week That Was
Here… • This Saturday links wrap is quite a bit later in the day than usual because this morning I decided to join every other writer with a platform and muse about Prince. • There’s no charge to read this blog, but occasionally I’ll invite you to support a worthy cause like Minnehaha Academy. • On Tuesday we celebrated the … More That Was The Week That Was
A list, but it can’t be click-baity with this kind of bait, right? So this past Tuesday my friend Sam Mulberry and I got to co-host a special presentation in the Bethel University Library: a walk down memory lane for GES130 Christianity and Western Culture, a staple of Bethel’s gen ed curriculum for three decades now. While it was … More 6 Reasons to Watch a 40-Minute Tribute to a 30-Year Old Western Civ Course
The Pietist Schoolman 