by Dan Miller. James Skillen thinks that most Christians have an impoverished view of politics, regarding it as a necessary evil in a fallen world. Skillen wants them to think of it as something inherently good, an essential part of the social order like families and churches. He notes that while politics can be corrupt …
Continue reading Book Note: The Good of Politics by James Skillen
by Will Katerberg Every year I teach a section of the history department's capstone course on historiography. The most basic questions in the course are: What is the nature of historical knowledge? Is objectivity possible? Is it necessarily desirable? How does historical thinking work? What is the purpose of historical study? To understand the world? To …
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by Ronald A. Wells. Russel Botman, a friend who was a Reformed theologian and university president, died on June 28 in Stellenbosch, South Africa. A sixty-year old dying in his sleep is not typically a matter for international attention. But, in later press investigation and commentary a more complex story emerged. The context of his …
Continue reading The Cost of Faithful Witness in South Africa: Russel Botman, 1953 – 2014
by Kate van Liere. A few weeks ago a bumper sticker caught my eye on a pickup truck in a Best Buy parking lot. It read, "A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take away everything that you have. –Thomas Jefferson.” I am no Jefferson scholar. …
Continue reading The Trouble with Quotes on the Internet
by Bob Schoone-Jongen. The great 18th century New England preacher and theologian passed on March 22, 1758. Today he is most remembered for his fire and brimstone sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” The high school history books link him to the Great Awakening, the revival that swept the Thirteen Colonies during …
Continue reading Did you know that Jonathan Edwards died from a small pox inoculation?
by Coryn Mulder. This entry comes from Coryn Mulder, a senior nursing student in Professor Karin Maag’s spring online History 151 class, responding to a final exam question about the value of taking a core history class. Her response is featured here with her permission. History 151 covers human history from the Paleolithic era up …
Continue reading Student voices: Why take a history survey class?
Historical Horizons 