A Faith of My Own
A few years ago, the NBC TV show The Office was all the rage. Despite it seeming like everyone I knew was watching it, I couldn’t. It wasn’t that I wasn’t invited to the watch …
Higher Education
The importance of being Cromwell: Using “Subversive Play” to teach the English Reformation
We meet at “The Gift” a few minutes after high noon on a sunny spring afternoon. Though our feet are planted in Iowa soil, our hearts and minds had been transported back in time five …
The Costly Wars on History: Censorship and Books
Book burning and censorship campaigns seemed a relic of the past in the rural middle-class world where I grew up. We vigorously attacked the censorship of the repressive Soviet Union and insisted that Americans stood …
Speaker Mike Johnson and the painful cost of “Heroism”
I just saw the news that Mike Johnson from Louisiana was elected as Speaker of the House of Representatives. As he became the leading contender some of my friends began a group chat about it. …
Philosophy for Theology: A scholar of art & religion
The last part of my Philosophy for Theology project was to discuss my own academic interests. This will certainly give readers a better understanding of what my scholarly agenda is. A Scholar of Art …
Recovering from religious trauma: Healing begins with believing
The number of people sharing stories of religious trauma has increased significantly in recent years. Religious cultures in the United States all too often create broken institutions led by broken people, who do everything imaginable …
Exvangelical: Moses had horns, the Bible tells me so
Look at those horns on Moses! I teach art and art history at a religious, evangelical university. Every year, we have a fun discussion when it comes to pieces like Michelangelo’s Moses or Claus Sluter’s …
What might the Pentecostal/Charismatic future of Evangelicalism mean?
I got my first taste of Spirit-filled higher life theology from the long-serving recently deceased pastor of First Baptist Church Atlanta, Charles Stanley. Stanley’s The Wonderful Spirit-Filled Life and its accompanying sermon series were released …
The big God, small God divide at Christian colleges
A Christian college trend There is a disturbing trend that I have noticed at Christian colleges. It is a trend that has been confirmed to me by other professors with whom I have spoken. Most …
Mandates from the masses and the call to courageous Christian scholarship
I am pausing to reflect on the fickle fate of kings as I prepare to unleash the French Revolution in my undergraduate civilization class next semester. January anniversaries present an interesting study of both the …