Category Background and Methodology
Christians at War: Retrospect and Prospect
It’s been a busy fall, too busy to permit for much Bethel at War blogging past sharing my reminiscences of 9/11/01 on 9/11/14. But as the Bethel of 2014 settles down for a few weeks, I’m ready to get back to the Bethel of 1917-18 and 1941-45. (Fletcher, meanwhile, is spending the term in Oxford. If he spends more […]
A College’s Denomination: The BGC and the Vietnam War, 1970-1975 (Conclusion)
This is the last of a five part series on the Baptist General Conference during the Vietnam War era. You may find it helpful to begin reading from the beginning. ❧ Writing this post feels a bit like an unnecessary repetition. The themes covered in the previous installment continue, unaltered in content and purpose: the military […]
Tweeting a Visit to the Archives
As our #bethelatwar work continues, I'm up in the archives of @BethelU and @convergeww. http://t.co/fBvIpykQQo — Chris Gehrz (@cgehrz) August 5, 2014 As the summer continues, I’ve become increasingly interested in integrating social media into our digital history project, as a way of breaking down some of the barriers traditionally separating scholar and audience. Not just to share […]
“That’s one small step…”: The Moon Landing as Public Theology
Paging through the Standard from 1969, I came across an interesting article by editor Donald Anderson titled “Moon Reflections.” And while I’ve missed the 45th anniversary of the moon landing by a few days, it’s still an interesting tidbit — one that also happens to illustrate a trend I’ve noticed in the Standard. It’s a well-known story: after a four […]
Christians at War: Introduction
I am afeard there are few die well that die in battle; for how can they charitably dispose of any thing, when blood is their argument? Henry V, IV, i They occupy indeed a higher place before God who, abandoning all these secular employments, serve Him with the strictest chastity; but “every one,” as the […]
A College’s Denomination: An Exercise in Contrasts (Part 2)
Several weeks ago, I teased a series I planned to write on the Baptist General Conference during the Vietnam years. On Wednesday, I introduced that series. Today’s post was intended as the first of the three parts, but after a few hours of work on that post, I realised that there were too many background problems to […]
Can You Help? A Community Invitation
If you’re coming here via the Bethel News channel, I’d like to encourage you to read about how you can contribute to this project by filling out a survey. Until now, I’ve spent most of my time researching on the Vietnam War. As we move into July, I’ll be focusing increasingly on the War on Terror. […]
Silence in History: Bethel’s War Historiography?
I’ve spent much of the day writing the first of a three part series on the Baptist General Conference’s response to the Vietnam War. Before the first part of that series debuts on the blog sometime this weekend, I wanted to pause and reflect on something Chris and I noticed at the outset of this […]
Digital History as “Nonargument” and “Preargument” Scholarship
“Has the digital revolution transformed how we write about the past?”, ask Kristen Nawrotzki and Jack Dougherty, editors of Writing History in the Digital Age. “Have new technologies changed our essential work-craft as scholars and the way in which we think, teach, author, and publish?” Their book itself exemplifies how digital technologies may reshape publishing: it […]
Introductions: Vietnam and the War on Terror
When Chris and I started divvying up research tasks, my inclination was to focus on Vietnam and the War on Terror. This much is surprising – despite my being reasonably cognizant for 9/11 and the subsequent military actions those events sparked, I know less about the War on Terror than any of the conflicts we’re […]
Bethel at War 1914 - 2014 