Over the weekend I had the pleasure of taking five Bethel University students to Mankato, Minnesota, where Bethany Lutheran College hosted the second annual Minnesota Undergraduate History Symposium. (#1 was at the University of Northwestern – St. Paul; #3 will be at Bethel next spring.) Thanks to @RyanCMacPherson and @BethanyLutheran for hosting a great #muhs2015! pic.twitter.com/PWQfixivkp … More Christianity and Western Civ
Here… • The Pietist Schoolman Podcast debuted, as Roger Olson joined me to talk Pietism, evangelicalism, Jesus, seminaries, and more. • The newest issue of Fides et Historia included my article calling for more of an international or transnational turn in evangelical historiography — an article that I needed to update a bit. • Jared reported from the Cushwa Seminar … More That Was The Week That Was
In addition to this week-in-review, this weekend I’m taking some time to prepare a “That Was The Year That Was” post. I’ll start counting down the year’s top twenty-five posts later today on Twitter, then share the full results in a year-in-review post on New Year’s Eve. Here… • This year, I tried to imagine seeing the first … More That Was The Week That Was
By all rights, I should be thrilled that Unbroken, the biopic about Olympic athlete-turned-WWII POW Louie Zamperini, is coming to theatres this week. I always celebrate turning in my grades by going to the movies, and this one has been on my radar ever since I read Laura Hillenbrand’s remarkable book about Zamperini during my trip to California earlier … More Unbroken: The Challenge of Biography
It’s time for our annual holiday tradition: picking through some prominent lists of the best books of the past year to suggest potential gifts for the history buff in your life. This year we’ll cull suggestions from the New York Times (NYT), the Guardian (G), the Washington Post (WP), and Christianity Today (CT). Jessie Childs, God’s Traitors: Terror and Faith in Elizabethan England “…conjures … More The Best History Books of 2014?
The word veteran derives from a Latin term for “old,” but on this particular Veterans Day, I can only think of youth. Of holiday meals and summer picnics in childhood, when the Gehrzes would gather and I’d get to see my cousins from Wisconsin for a few hours. And of one of them in particular, six years younger than me, … More Veterans Day (For Mike)
11/11/14 – I was happy to be interviewed for today’s Star Tribune article about the 70th anniversary of the G.I. Bill and its impact on Minnesotan colleges and universities. You can learn more about that landmark legislation and what it meant for schools like Bethel at our Bethel at War blog.
In the 3+ years of this blog, I’ve written often about the value of the liberal arts — particularly as an integral component of Christian higher education. While I’ve occasionally pointed to the instrumental benefits of such an education (provides a marketable skill set, prepares learners who can pick up new skills and thrive in grad/professional schools), I’ve … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: Metaphors for Christian Liberal Arts
Here… • I started the week by reflecting on the idea that education might serve primarily to teach us how to pray. So it seemed appropriate that I ended the week by leading my European history students in praying for our enemies, having just read a book about late 19th century terrorism. • A World War I memorial was … More That Was The Week That Was
Here… • As my series on Ed Gilbreath’s Birmingham Revolution wrapped up, I concluded that “For the vast majority of us… the call is not to speak as a prophet, but to listen for such voices, to bend our ears to hear what [Ken] Wytsma calls ‘the God-given devices for bending society back when it veers from where it should be.’” • … More That Was The Week That Was
The Pietist Schoolman 