Spring/Summer 2012
Volume XXVII, Number 1
In This Issue
Finding myself in Alaska, unexpectedly
The difference between seeing and seeing by Mark Safstrom
In many places in the gospel, the disciples appear less as haloed saints, and more often as the very image of human frailty.
Surprised by conversion’s image in the mirror by Chris Gehrz
“Next to pride,” wrote the Covenant historian Karl Olsson in Seven Sins and Seven Virtues, “envy is traditionally considered the ‘worst’ sin, not because it is less loathsome than pride, which it is not, but because, unlike pride, envy does not pretend to godlikeness.
Scientific uncertainty and faith by Tom Tredway
There have been plenty of people worrying about how to relate modern science and Christianity, and there are many ways to try to do it.
A Future for Classic Pietism? by John E. Phelan Jr.
Recently I was commissioned to write an article for US Catholic magazine, as they had seen a column of mine in the Covenant Companion and asked me to expand it. The article argued that concern for the environment was as much a prolife concern as war, capital punishment or abortion. Our ongoing pillaging and spoliation of the planet risks the lives of billions of yet unborn children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I expanded the argument and sent the article on. They liked it, except that they wanted me to let people know what they should do in the face of such a challenging crisis. They were looking, it seemed to me, for big solutions, big programs, dramatic actions. I wrote back and told them that I had been reading Wendell Berry far too long to believe there were big programs, congressional legislation, or religious mandates that could turn the tide. Only small, invisible acts of renunciation and stewardship will make any difference. Only a slow, thoughtful, bottom-up cultural transformation can save us.
“The Well” — Church Through Community by Rev. Aaron J. Thompson
“Is church planting really necessary in Sweden?”
Sightings in Christian Music by Glen Wiberg
In a recent issue of Pietisten I described a Service of Lament I was asked to lead on the evening of 9/11, remembering the hundreds who perished in the Twin Towers.
Hymns to Avoid by Royce Eckhardt
Från den lilla stugan: Sidelined by Chrissy Larson
No one likes to be sidelined.
Filial Piety by Elder M. Lindahl
A young Vietnamese woman gave me a pedicure at our local Golden Nails shop the other day.
(Re)Reading Kierkegaard Along with Paul Holmer by Phil Johnson
The late Paul and Phyllis Holmer regularly attended the various meetings of Pietisten.
Gustaf Seth Johnson Awes; Kjarsten Lynn Hawkinson; Felix Addison Blomgren
“I wish Christmas would come more often, don’t you?”
Poetry Corner by Arthur Mampel
The playwright, Will Welch, in one of his plays, has his protagonist, Roger, say to his sister Mabel...
The Beggar Children by Carl Boberg and translated by Mark Safstrom
Arisen is the Christ by N.F.S. Grundtvig and translated by Mark Safstrom
The Late Years by Arthur Mampel
Painter Carl Larsson’s Link to Waldenström by Eloise Nelson
Hanging in our den is a print of a portrait of the renowned Swedish preacher Paul Peter Waldenström. This prized possession of ours came from a friend, Paul Carlson of Belfast, Maine, who found several of these prints while poking around in an antiquarian store in Stockholm’s Old Town many years ago. He later gave them to friends he knew would value them.
Irene E. Anderson by David Hawkinson
A few personal thoughts upon the life and enduring witness of Irene Anderson (while standing on the shore of Round Lake, Wisconsin).
Further Reflections on the Potential Influence of Pietism on Postmodernism by Mike Langer
In a 2011 Pietisten article, the Rev. Ryan Eikenbary-Barber provided a wonderful summary of Roger Olson’s lecture series on the potential common ground between Pietism and Postmodernism. Olson proposed three specific areas in which one might find the possibility of convergences between these two important cultural movements: epistemology, spirituality and ethics. I want to offer a few complementary thoughts about what I have understood as potential common ground epistemologically.
Web Exclusives
Lucille Dobbs, originally from northern Minnesota, spent a total of 38 years in Congo as a missionary beginning in January 1961. The fictional short story here is loosely based on her experiences, and was written in 1964, while war prevented her return and prompted her own reflections on how a retiring missionary might view the meaning of “home.”