News and Notes

New book of essays honors Prof. Philip J. Anderson

Sacred Migrations: Borderlands of Community & Faith

Edited by Hauna Ondrey and Mark Safstrom, this book of essays is a tribute for Philip J. Anderson, longtime professor of church history at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, and president of the Swedish-American Historical Society for the past thirty years. The essays touch on various cultural and religious aspects of life in Swedish America, the intersections of faith and wilderness, and Lutheran Pietist and Evangelical Covenant Church history.

Authors and contributors include: James Amadon, William Beckstrand, David Bjorlin, Dag Blanck, Ann Boaden, Michelle Clifton-Soderstrom, Rune W. Dahlén, Scott Erickson, Anne-Charlotte Hanes Harvey, Joy Lintelman, Carol M. Norén, Anita Olson Gustafson, Hauna Ondrey, Glenn Palmberg, John E. Phelan Jr., Kevin Proescholdt, Mark Safstrom, Stephen Spencer, Mark Tao, Thomas Tredway, and C. John Weborg.

Available for purchase through the Swedish-American Historical Society: swedishamericanhist.org

Nels Elde wins MacArthur Grant!

From Sunday school at Bethlehem Covenant Church in Minneapolis, high school days at Minnehaha Academy and on through Carleton College, Nels Elde was my right-hand man and he became Pietisten’s associate editor. He was up to any challenge, especially when it came to electronic matters, including teaching me how to use publishing programs. Many readers know, or know of, Nels. Check the link to one of his Pietisten articles online.

When he started graduate studies at the University of Chicago he continued as associate editor of Pietisten, the distance notwithstanding. Following work and studies at U of C and the Fred Hutchinson Research Center in Seattle, he has distinguished himself as professor of evolutionary genetics at the University of Utah. Along the way, his workload was lightened by resigning his position with Pietisten.

It was lightened enough to make time to become a MacArthur Fellow, an award so rare that it is known as the “genius” grant. When you look up stories from the MacArthur website or Pietisten archives online (find links with this story online), I think you will see why Nels was chosen. It should be noted that despite the honor and the money involved, this award pales in comparison to the birth of Hannah Minnow Elde to Nels and Anne this spring.

– Phil Johnson, Editor Emeritus