We’re coming up on the end of the season 2 of The Pietist Schoolman Podcast, with only one or two more episodes remaining after tomorrow’s discussion of education. But if you’d like to find something new to listen to after we go on hiatus, you need not look further than the many other excellent podcasts on the Christian … More The Sectarian Review on “David Barton and the End of History”
Now that I’ve signed my faculty contract for next year, I think I can formally announce that I’ll be on sabbatical in fall of 2016. Having any such sabbath is a remarkable blessing — so first off, I need to thank the trustees, administration, and faculty of Bethel University for making it possible! But this one is especially exciting: Our … More Looking Ahead to My Fall 2016 Sabbatical
Today I’m happy to welcome Grace College professor Jared Burkholder back to the blog for a timely guest-post. With shootings in Michigan, Kansas, and Washington this past week, we are again confronted with moral dilemmas about responding to violent threats. In the wake of the mass shooting in San Bernardino back in December and the debate over Falwell’s … More There’s Nothing New about the Moral Dilemmas Raised by Violence… Just ask 18th Century Moravian Missionaries
For Martin Luther King, Jr. Day… Here’s a series of three posts I wrote in the summer of 2014, inspired by Ed Gilbreath’s Birmingham Revolution, on King’s famous letter from a jail in that Alabama city. Gilbreath (author of Reconciliation Blues and executive director of communications for my denomination) provides enough biographical and historical context that I began to realize just how little … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: Birmingham Revolution
I don’t normally comment on things a year after they’re published, but since a post I hadn’t noticed before was referred to me over the weekend by two different colleagues, let me offer a few thoughts on Luke Harrington’s January 2015 piece, “Baptizing ‘Masculinity’: The Real Reason Men Are Leaving the Church.” In short, Harrington suggests … More Are Men Leaving the Church Because It’s Insufficiently Intellectual?
No one has done more to inspire and encourage me in my own blogging than John Fea, professor of history at Messiah College and author of several books on American history (as well as a great introduction to the discipline that I’ll be teaching again this spring). So I’m happy to see that he has finally … More John Fea Is On the Move — and On the Air
It’s December 1st, time to share our annual round-up of historical works that have cracked various “Best Books of 2015” lists, for any reader who might be looking for gifts for the history buff in their life. (Key: G = The Guardian; NYT = New York Times; PW = Publishers Weekly; WP = Washington Post; Philip Ball, Invisible: … More The Top Histories of 2015?
Here… • It wasn’t quite the total vacation from blogging that I’d expected, but only two posts this week: a critique of Christian History Magazine‘s attempt to rank the top 25 Christian writings of all time, and a reflection on my favorite Thanksgiving hymn. …There (Gobble, Gobble)… • Meanwhile, Tracy McKenzie concluded his Thanksgiving countdown with a … More That Was The Week That Was
In recognition of Veterans/Remembrance Day, Fletcher Warren and I are proud today to unveil the final version of Bethel at War, 1914-2014: A Digital History of a Christian College in a Century of Warfare. Whether you’re a Bethel alumnus, student, or employee, a member of its denomination, someone who’s interested in the histories of higher education, Christianity (especially … More At Long Last, the Official Debut of Bethel at War, 1914-2014!
Last Friday I got to give a presentation to Bethel alumni and students — a “class without a quiz” for Homecoming — entitled “Remembering the Great War: Christian Perspectives on the Commemoration of World War I.” It’s a theme that I’ve explored often on this blog, and I’ve written an article about it that hopefully will come … More The American WWI Centennial (Don’t Wait for 2017)
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