If you’ve been reading this blog at all closely for the past year or so, you know that I’m no great fan of our current president. But even I was taken aback at this description of a recent Trump rally near Orlando, by a local Nazarene pastor named Joel Tooley: Call it what you will, but … More Is “Demonic Activity is Palpable” in American Politics?
I’m afraid I’m the kind of Christian who thinks about the Bible more often than I actually read it. So I’m excited to be taking part in a new initiative from my denomination called the Community Bible Experience. Starting this week and continuing up to Palm Sunday, dozens of people in our congregation are re-reading the entire New Testament … More The Bible as “An Altar Where We Meet the Living God”
Thanks to Mark Pattie for sharing these reflections on the 2016 Bethel Colloquium on Pietism, held earlier this month at Bethel University. Mark is senior pastor at Salem Covenant Church in New Brighton, MN and my co-author on a forthcoming book about Pietism in the 21st century (stay tuned for more details in the New Year). … More A Living Faith (Mark Pattie)
Today’s guest post comes from Tim Johnson, who attended last week’s Bethel Colloquium on Pietism. (To watch video of all sessions, click here, select the On Demand tab, and look under December 13, 2016.) Tim is Curator of Special Collections & Rare Books and the E. W. McDiarmid Curator of the Sherlock Holmes Collections for the University … More Reflections on a Pietist Identity (Tim Johnson)
Here… • Bethel hosted another colloquium on Pietism (if you missed it, you can watch everything here), which made me think again about the notion of a “usable past.” • What happens when historians have too much evidence? • The War on Christmas is over. • I’ve decided to stick with Twitter and Facebook, but only for certain purposes. … More That Was The Week That Was
Having offered some unsolicited homiletic advice last Saturday, I thought today I might share a rare example of my own preaching: a sermon I delivered last month in Denver, to set up a four-class series at Covenant Village of Colorado on the history of Christians engaging with the wider culture. For the Sunday evening vespers service, I meditated … More Habitation and Homelessness: My Sermon on Citizenship
Back in March, when Donald Trump was nothing more than the surprise leader in the Republican primaries, the fact that he was getting even 40% of the self-identified “evangelical” vote had already led Southern Baptist leader Russell Moore to declare that religious term “almost meaningless this year.” Even worse, “in many ways the word itself … More Done with “Evangelical”? Maybe You Should Try…
By the end of this week, Mark and I will have submitted the manuscript for our book on Pietism and the future of Christianity. As it happens, this stage concludes as churches like ours prepare to celebrate Reformation Sunday, and our book will come out in 2017 — the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Indeed, Martin Luther is currently … More Reformed and Always Reforming… Even 499 Years Later
For today’s sneak peek at the working draft of Hope for Better Times: Pietism and the Future of Christianity, I’m happy to share an excerpt from my co-author Mark Pattie. Following the lead of Philipp Jakob Spener, we’ll start by encouraging Christians to listen more attentively to the Word of God. In this excerpt from early in ch. … More Sneak Peeks of Our Pietism Book: The Transformational Power of Scripture
Here… • Hamilton! (Thanks for all the kind words on a post that obviously me took some time to write. But I especially appreciated the allusion in this tweet from Justin Taylor.) .@cgehrz is young, scrappy, and hungry. In this blog post, he doesn't waste his shot: https://t.co/REtuuACUgL — Justin Taylor (@between2worlds) September 21, 2016 • … More That Was The Week That Was
The Pietist Schoolman 