Submissions from 2024
Is Great Art Ahead of Its Time?, Daniel E. Ritchie
In this article, Daniel Ritchie examines the frequent observation that an author "is ahead of his or her time," and criticizes its chronocentric bias: it diminishes our engagement with the past, distorts the past, vitiates education, and tr...
Books from 2022
Enchantments of the Mississippi: A Contemplative Journey of Time and Place, Thomas Becknell
In a time of desolation, Thomas Becknell is drawn to the Mississippi River, then caught by its powers of enchantment. He sets out to learn about the river's great allure, to be near it and to ponder what it might show him....
Centered on Jesus: A Lenten Devotional from the Faculty of Bethel University, Christopher Gehrz, Esther Shull, Carl Albing, Rebekah Bain, Andy Bramsen, Susan Leigh Brooks, Jeannine K. Brown, Michael Crawford, Julie Anne De Haan, Joy Doan, Dale Durie, Julie Finnern, Barrett Fisher, Joel Frederickson, Laura Gilbertson, Rhonda Gilbraith, Ann Holland, Stephen Hunt, Rachel Jorgensen, Patricia Kelly, Denise Muir Kjesbo, Marion H. Larson, Erik Leafblad, Elisabeth E. Lefebvre, Jim Lewis, Joyce LeMay, Alison Lo, Gary A. Long, Christopher Moore, Katherine Nevins, Pauline E. Nichols, Meredith Nyberg, Chad Osgood, Jeanine Parolini, Richard Peterson, Dan Ritchie, Matt Runion, Robin Rylaarsdam, Kristin E. Sandau, Sara L. H. Shady, Angela Shannon, Marta Shaw, Paula A.G. Soneral, Peter T. Vogt, Laura Wennstrom, Gloria Wiese, Brandon Winters, Yu-li Chang Zacher, and Nick Zeimet
For the 2022 season of Lent, Bethel faculty and staff members collaborated to pen Centered on Jesus: A Lenten Devotional from the Faculty of Bethel University. The daily devotionals in Centered on Jesus are intended to help the Bethel commu...
No Justice, No Peace? Rene Girard and Endless Rivalries, Daniel E. Ritchie
St. Paul, MN. I often drive through the square commemorating the 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on my way home from the school where I help out. Until recently, it bore the slogan, “Kill Your Inner Cop.” Neighborhood lawns are p...
When Was Culture Invented?, Daniel E. Ritchie
Imagine that a time machine has set you down in England in the late 14th century, and you bump into Geoffrey Chaucer just as an apple falls from a tree. Before you can exclaim "Sir Isaac Newton!" Chaucer explains what you've seen. "The grou...
Submissions from 2019
Building Bridges Across Faith Lines: Responsible Christian Education in a Post-Christian Society, Amy Poppinga, Marion Larson, and Sara Shady
The demographic composition of students and employees at many Christian colleges and universities in the United States does not reflect the growing religious diversity of the twenty-first century. While Christian higher education provides a...
Submissions from 2018
Fashioning a Free People, Daniel E. Ritchie
What makes you think that Iraq can create a democracy?" Three years after the 2003 U.S. invasion, as the Iraqi insurgency was killing civilians at random and a full civil war seemed inevitable, this questioner at a University of Minnesota f...
Submissions from 2017
Is the Party Over?, Daniel E. Ritchie
ll that is Necessary for the forces of evil to triumph is for enough good men to do nothing." You may know this as the most famous sentence that Edmund Burke never wrote. It's attributed to Burke all over the internet, in film, on a card fo...
Books from 2016
From Bubble to Bridge: Educating Christians for a Multifaith World, Marion H. Larson and Sara L. H. Shady
Summary: In a world of deep religious strife and increasing pluralism it can seem safer to remain inside the "bubble" of our faith community. Many Christians worry that engaging in interfaith dialogue will require watering down their faith ...
Books from 2015
Nebrasketball : Coach Tim Miles and a Big Ten Team on the Rise, Scott Winter
When fall rolls into winter, most sports fans in Nebraska long for spring football. But Coach Tim Miles has given hibernating fans a reason to cheer through winter for the first time in twenty years. Since taking over the men's basketball p...