It’s not how I wanted to head into 2023, but I need to cancel our planned June tour of Germany. In the end, there just wasn’t enough customer interest to support even a scaled-down version of what I had in mind, so I’ve refunded deposits and will return any late-arriving checks. It may be that … More Cancelling Our Germany 2023 Tour… But Planning Our Return to Europe
I’m glad for any review of Charles Lindbergh: A Religious Biography of America’s Most Infamous Aviator, but I’m especially tickled to see the one published recently in Church History, the journal of the American Society for Church History. “Ambiguity best characterizes both the life of Charles Lindbergh and the contemporary and historical interpretations of him,” … More “Understandable but not sympathetic”: The Latest Review of My Lindbergh Biography
This week I spoke as part of a panel on the war in Ukraine, recorded a podcast about the blurring line between high school and college, and let churches, colleges, etc. know how they could book me for a talk or class in 2022-2023. Elsewhere: • For Mother’s Day, Elizabeth Bruenig lamented that “when it comes … More That Was The Week That Was
This first week of 2022 I previewed some upcoming Lindbergh events and reflected on whether Christians ought to treat biography as hagiography, hamartiography, or something else. Elsewhere: • Yesterday my university decided to shift most classes online for the remainder of our J-term. I’m fine with that in our situation, but there are good reasons to … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I considered the problem of evangelical catechesis, reflected on the length of biographies, and reported on the Anabaptist round of the Following Jesus conversation. Elsewhere: • The history of the American Civil War led Dan Williams to wonder “why, despite abundant historical and contemporary evidence that biblical interpretations vary widely, does the Bible continue … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I tried to excite incoming Christian college students about academics, announced my participation in an ecumenical conversation about Jesus (more on that here next week), launched a launch team for my next book (two or three spots still open!), recorded a podcast about the politics of the Olympics, and asked whether it’s possible … More That Was The Week That Was
I’ve written before about my enthusiasm for Current, the online magazine edited by historians John Fea, Jay Green, and Eric Miller. So it was an honor to make my debut there this morning, with an essay that connects the ongoing debate over historical commemoration to themes from my new biography of Charles Lindbergh. Entitled “The … More More on the Challenge of Commemoration
This week I celebrated my 10th anniversary of blogging, and a vacation on Lake Superior made me reflect on the importance of historical complexity. Elsewhere… • It’s always good to see your own country through other eyes, like those of the BBC journalist who wrote that, “in modern-day America, there is no such thing as a … More That Was The Week That Was
I’ve read Charles Lindbergh: A Religious Biography of America’s Most Infamous Pilot several times now. Each pass through the manuscript leaves me with two, deeply Midwestern thoughts: “I think this turned out okay,” and “I wonder if anyone will like it.” So it’s always a relief and a terror to hear back from the first … More Some Early Praise for My Lindbergh Biography…
This week I celebrated the value of scholarly citation (really) and told the story of a rather enterprising Catholic priest who lamented the rise of what we now call “religious nones” at the end of World War II. Elsewhere: • Bob Smietana broke the story of popular speaker-writer Beth Moore leaving the Southern Baptist Convention. • If … More That Was The Week That Was
The Pietist Schoolman 