Today: a second reflection inspired by Lauren Winner’s Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis. Read the first here. As you might guess from the title, Lauren Winner spends plenty of time alone with her thoughts in Still, but it doesn’t usually take more than a page or two before a relative or friend or pastor … More Reflections on Lauren Winner’s Still: The Potluck Church
From this past April… For those reading my series recapping Bethel’s Pietism colloquium, let me encourage you to look at something Jay Phelan wrote yesterday on his blog, Additional Markings. His post begins: I had reason again this week to be thankful that I am a Pietist. For reasons buried deeply within Vatican paranoia the … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: Pietism vs. the “Imperial Church”
Today I’ll continue my recap of the series of talks I gave last weekend for Salem Covenant Church‘s annual “family camp,” held up at Covenant Pines, outside McGregor, MN. They concerned the topic, “The Family History That Most Christians Don’t Know, But Can’t Ignore: Three Biblical Tools for Understanding Church History.” In the first part … More Church History as Family History (part 2)
In his scathing review (“pretty much an adventure in missing the point”) of Randall Balmer’s scathing review of Ross Douthat’s Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics, philosopher Jamie Smith took particular exception to Balmer’s observation that “institutions, in my experience, are remarkably poor vehicles for piety.” My post that follows isn’t actually … More Anti-Anti-Denominationalism
I’ll come back to our Pietism studies colloquium later today or tomorrow with a concluding set of reflections, but let me interrupt that series briefly to encourage its readers to look at something Jay Phelan wrote yesterday on his blog, Additional Markings. His post begins: I had reason again this week to be thankful that … More Pietism vs. the “Imperial Church”
Last Friday Bethel hosted its inaugural Colloquium on Pietism Studies, a one-day gathering that I hope to see become a biennial or triennial event. (It came three years after we hosted an international research conference on “The Pietist Impulse in Christianity.”) Thanks to our generous and supportive deans (Deb Harless and Barrett Fisher, in particular) … More Pietism Colloquium Recap: Scot McKnight
My wife and I were blessed to be part of a very special wedding yesterday. Among many other memorable elements of the occasion, the New Testament text that our friends chose stood out: Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in … More “One in spirit and of one mind”
I’ll be back tomorrow with my usual Saturday links post, then expect more new posts next week as we return from Bethel’s Spring Break. Today, one more reprised post from recent months: my meditation on the mysteries of the Christian sacrament known as Communion, Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper, etc. There are few things I understand … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: The Mystery of Communion
Today I’ll continue my recollection of the churches that I’ve called home over the years. (See part 1 here.) While the congregations of my childhood and adolescence in the Twin Cities were all members of the Evangelical Covenant Church, deciding to attend the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia meant that I didn’t … More My Churches: A Spiritual Travelogue (part 2)
There are few people in the history of the world whom I respect more than the late Dietrich Bonhoeffer. But even he was bound to be very, very wrong about something: Because it is bound wholly to the Word, the singing of the congregation, especially of the family congregation, is essentially singing in unison. Here … More Live (and Sing) in Harmony with One Another
The Pietist Schoolman 