The most important historian in my life is the one who described his research project in this way: Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the … More Merry Incarnation
Like I said in my very first post… I’m not exactly an early adopter. But however late to the party this makes me… I am just now getting into word cloud generators! Here’s how I belatedly learned of this toy… In place of a final exam this week in our Christianity and Western Culture class, … More Fun with Word Clouds
At The Pietist Schoolman I don’t tend to cry in the classroom, but here’s why a lecture on the Holocaust (and the related program of euthanasia that killed hundreds of thousands of children, youth, and adults with physical and mental disabilities) gets me every time. My planned travel course on World War I was approved, … More That Was The Week That Was
The three most frightening moments in my life, in descending order: 3. The breath that precedes the first word of every single lecture I’ve ever given. 2. The half-second between the end of me asking, “Will you marry me?” and my wife answering, “Of course.” 1. Every single second between now and approximately 9:00am CST … More The Fear of Preaching
He has shown all you people what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8, TNIV) Let me say right off the bat: I believe Christians ought to seek social justice. We follow a Savior who opened … More Micah 6:8 in Christian Rhetoric
What you might have missed last week, first here at The Pietist Schoolman and then around the blogosphere: Here Reading Carolyn Weber’s Surprised by Oxford in light of memoirs by Augustine of Hippo and Frederick Buechner had me thinking about how hard it can be to talk about loving God with those I most love. … More That Was the Week That Was
What you might have missed this week, here and elsewhere: Here Why Pietism may have been an obstacle to the development of higher education in some American Christian traditions, plus one exception. Three stories of Africans who led revivals in the 20th century. The problematic legacy of “muscular Christianity,” plus contemporary Christian ambivalence about athletic … More That Was the Week That Was
It’s been a pretty tough summer for us Minnesota Twins fans. We got spoiled just enough to start complaining that the team was only winning divisions, not getting deep into the playoffs. Expectations thus raised, we naturally got hit with a season in which there were so many injuries that half the time it felt … More 600 and 3000
The banner image running across each screen of this blog is cropped from a 1601 painting by the Italian Baroque artist Caravaggio, “Supper at Emmaus.” (Congratulations to Rachel Neiwert for winning yesterday’s challenge!) The story of the risen Jesus’ encounter with the two disciples traveling to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35) has special meaning for me, in … More Emmaus Education
Part two of my new series on (neo)Anabaptist critiques of Pietism. See the first entry, on Harold Bender’s “Anabaptist Vision” here. Pietism in the larger sense is a quiet conventicle-Christianity which is primarily concerned with the inner experience of salvation and only secondarily with the expression of love toward the brotherhood, and not at all … More The Friedmann Thesis
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