From Oxford to Malibu

Apologies in advance, for this is going to be a short post. I have been on the road quite a bit, most recently to the UK to give a talk on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of World War I. The particular topic of the conference was Theology, Culture, and World War I. Even more particularly, it had as its focus the acrimony that developed between German and British theologians at the outbreak of the war. I gave a talk on the currents of nationalism that motivated German theologians in the summer of 1914 to support the Kaiser’s war aims. As things turned out, I was slated to speak the day after the vote on Scottish independence! Fortunately, in my opinion, Scotland did not hive off from the United Kingdom. And that made my talk on nationalism less awkward.

Now I find myself in California, giving a talk at Westmont College in Santa Barbara with the University of Notre Dame’s Mark Noll on Theological Resources for Academic Enterprises. Later today I will travel to Pepperdine University in Malibu to take part in the biennial conference of the Conference on Faith and History. The conference has an excellent program this year. If you are not familiar with the journal, Fides et Historia, that this outfit produces, you might want to take a look at. Edited by Don Yerxa, it has much to offer those interested in religious history, but it roams into many other areas as well.