Thursday, February 23, 2006

The Authentic Narrative of the Remarkable Life of Chris Armstrong (well, at least a brief bio)

Folks,

I've realized that other than the brief standardized "profile," I really haven't posted much on this blog about myself. Here's my late attempt to fix this. The following is the brief bio printed in the bulletins for my recent "presentation service" here at Bethel Seminary:
Posted by Grateful to the Dead at 02:37:30 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Saturday, February 18, 2006

"A Sociologist Reconsiders History"--responding to modern anti-Christian historical arguments

Here's a note I sent to my students tonight after finding an interesting _Christian Century_ article from a couple of years back:

Folks,

Some of you had your interest piqued by our review a couple of weeks ago of sociologist Rodney Stark's very prosaic, rational reasons why Christianity grew in the Roman world--against all odds. Here is an article from a couple of years ago in _Christian Century_ that does a good job of surveying Stark's revisionist ideas about the place of Christianity in the development of Western civilization:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_12_121/ai_n6173770
Posted by Grateful to the Dead at 00:46:32 | Permanent Link | Comments (4) |

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Welcome the new guys

At long last I've figured out who the final two figures will be in this book:
 
--Antony of Egypt (with a bit of Athanasius thrown in)

--Dante Alighieri
Welcome, gentlemen!
Posted by Grateful to the Dead at 14:19:06 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

A word to the wise from Rowan

The first chapter of Rowan Williams's book Why Study the Past? The Quest for the Historical Church contains this quoteworthy snippet:

"Good historical writing constructs our sense of who we are by a real engagement with the strangeness of the past. . . . Bad history is any kind of narrative that refuses this difficulty and enlargement--whether by giving us a version of the past that is just the present in fancy dress or by dismissing the past as a wholly foreign country whose language we shall never learn."

You go, Rowan. May my book (Patron Saints for Postmoderns, forthcoming from IVP--the pretext for this blog) provide the "good" kind of history!
Posted by Grateful to the Dead at 13:28:57 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Whose shoulders are you standing on?

Folks, here's a ra-ra speech I gave recently at my "presentation service" here at Bethel Seminary. A number of folks have asked me for a copy, so I'm posting it here.
Posted by Grateful to the Dead at 16:49:17 | Permanent Link | Comments (1) |