As longtime readers know, I love Christian hymnody, especially that of my own tradition, Scandinavian Pietism. So I was happy for the excuse to revisit those songs as I kicked off a new Anxious Bench series today: on looking beyond books to other types of Christian writing. It’s a kind of belated response to the top 25 Christian writings list that Christian … More Beyond Books: Hymns as Christian Writing
I’ve occasionally used this blog to write about my mom and her family, my dad and his family, and my children. But today I’m going to break with longstanding tradition and devote an entire post to my wife Katie. (But knowing how much this will embarrass her, I’ll try to keep it short. Just over a … More For My Wife, on Our Tenth Wedding Anniversary
As I begin work on a book with one of its pastors about its theological heritage, I’ve been thinking a lot about the Evangelical Covenant Church. So with delegates from its congregations gathering in Phoenix, Arizona for our denomination’s annual meeting, I thought I’d share a few quotations from a few of my favorite Covenanters, clustered around our denomination’s … More Glad Hearts: Some of My Favorite Voices from the Covenant Church
During our travels over the holiday weekend, we visited a church and witnessed an odd, telling moment. Looking for a negative sermon illustration at one point, the pastor spontaneously mentioned “the presidential candidate who says he doesn’t need God’s forgiveness.” As best I can recall, the pastor didn’t even say Donald Trump’s name, but he clearly thought he had crossed … More “Tell It Like It Is”: How the Church Should Respond to Trump
Happy as I was to see our Pietist Vision book reviewed in The Cresset, it’s another article that’s the real highlight of that publication’s Easter issue. Written by a friend of mine, Katie Koch, it starts with one of my favorite places — the public library — then quickly moves to a theme that has come up time and again for … More Of Libraries, Churches, and the Importance of Welcoming
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
I’m kind of amazed how many people actually took me up on the offer to read a long, untitled post yesterday about Donald Trump — and grateful for the kind, thoughtful responses here, on Facebook, and at Twitter. I’ll likely wait till next week to publish a follow-up, but when I write again on Trump, I … More “Make the Church Great Again”?
In the course of trying to convince evangelicals that they might actually be Pietists, yesterday I argued again that the beginning of Christian witness is the unity of the church. With Jesus, we ought to pray that his followers “may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them … More Christian Unity Is a Task for Christian Formation
I’m taking a week off from blogging, but our podcast is back today with a new episode. If we consult the Holy Scriptures we can have no doubt that God promised his church here on earth a better state than this. Philipp Jakob Spener (1675) Given all the problems we discussed in our previous episode, why … More Thursday’s Podcast: Why So Hopeful?
This Sunday I’ll be speaking at First Covenant Church in St. Paul on “Reconciled Diversity: Seeking Church Unity in the Midst of Conflict.” I’m still working out the kinks in the talk, but at this point, I think I’ll probably start with a much-discussed op-ed piece published late last week by Baptist ethicist David Gushee: American … More Is It Time for an Evangelical “Divorce”?
The Pietist Schoolman 