Spring/Summer 2011

Volume XXVI, Number 1

In This Issue

• Psalm 30 for Svea by Jeff HansPetersen

  Jeff HansPetersen's artwork, based on Psalm 30 and inspired by the birth of his daughter.

• Navigating in the Fog by Mark Safstrom

  A common thread in this issue of Pietisten is the attempt by several authors to engage this moving target of post-modernism.

• At Home in Halle by Michelle Clifton-Soderstrom

  Halle is a familiar place in the imaginations of those who love German Pietism. It is a place where teachers formed future pastors. It is a place where children found new life. It is a place where poverty met food, fellowship, and… Francke.

• Sightings in Christian Music Closing Hymn by Glen Wiberg

  Closing Hymns were always my biggest challenge whenever preparing an order of worship. This challenge was based on my understanding that the closing hymn should bring resolution to the theme and drama of worship, especially as it is a response to the sermon.

• An Archbishop and the Pietists: A Delayed Rapprochement by Tom Tredway

  Pietists and the archbishops of the Church of Sweden have not always gotten along.

• A Pietist's Bookshelf The Scandinavian Detective and the Dissolution of a World by John E. Phelan Jr.

  Jay Phelan examines the social criticism found in Scandinavian crime fiction.

• F.O. Nilsson and the Swedish Baptists by David Jessup

  It is interesting that Baptist General Conference churches today should be so hesitant to identify themselves as Baptists given the hardships that their forebears endured for doing exactly that. The life of one of the first Swedish Baptists, Fredrik Olaus Nilsson, was characterized by determination in the face of opposition.

• The Architecture of a Heritage by Eloise Nelson

  Almost all of our “Holiday Lights” travelers to Sweden last December had heard of P.P. Waldenström. And so on our way from Dalarna to Stockholm, it was a special delight to visit Gävle, the town where he lived and served for many years.

• Reflections on “Pietism and Postmodernity” by Ryan Eikenbary-Barber

  A report on Roger E. Olson's Aus Memorial Lecture at Luther Theological Seminary.

• Practical, Therapeutic, Theological Thought Power Plays, Part II by Penrod

  It’s difficult to play most positions. To play well takes practice.

• Sport Prophecy Sports Prophecy by Eric by Eric Nelson

  Giving up professional football could save the average fan 3 to 18 hours per week, depending on the health of your addiction. So the pews may have a few more congregants on fall Sundays, lawns may be mowed and well-raked through autumn, and you may notice another game —which some people also call “fütbol” – on the tube more often.

• Youth Movement

  Svea Lucia HansPetersen

• Poetry Corner Easter and the Jesus Seminar by Arthur Mampel

  When language lacks the power of metaphor, it is too direct, too shallow, too narrow. Its focus makes the audience go away saying, “Well, yes, I can see that, that makes perfect sense.” When instead we should go away saying, “I wonder what that means for me?”

• Poetry The Sailor and the Wind by Carl Boberg and translated by Mark Safstrom
• Poetry A Sonnet for Gardeners by John C. Streed
• Poetry Faith by Clark Johnson
• Poetry Pieces by Clark Johnson
• A bit of wisdom, from the beginning by Bob Blomgren

  I think it is fairly clear that the foundation for the atheism of the Four Horseman of Atheism (Dawkins, Dennett, Harris and Hitchens) is Science, with a capital “S.” So it is important to try to understand what has been happening in science over the last 50 years.

• Readers Respond
• Tributes Paul Victor Bjorklund by Mark A. Nilson

  A churchman’s churchman, entrepreneur, loving husband and father, and faithful life-long servant of Christ, our prayers are ones of gratitude at the celebrating of this his final homecoming. Peace to his memory.

• Tributes Charles Shelton Frasier by Erik M. Strom

  Charles Frasier is lovingly remembered as a husband to Jane, dad to Joel (fiancée Jamie), and Nathan (wife Lindsey), and grandpa to Trajan and Tareq. His new life in Jesus Christ and desire to serve the Kingdom of God guided him to the ministry of Covenant Point Bible Camp in 1985 in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. There he led a steady, loving, faithful life for 26 years as executive director.

• Tributes Margaret M. Markuson by John Markuson

  Born on April 30, 1916, Margaret died on April 1, 2011 after having led a very long and productive life.

Web Exclusives

• Encounter by Bob Bach

  It has only been a month since my heart transplant at Stanford University Hospital, and I am back in The Intensive Care Unit.