Chris Gehrz
Email: cgehrz@bethel.edu
Job Titles
-
Professor of History
History, Philosophy, and Political Science, College of Arts and Sciences
Highlight
Gehrz teaches courses on international, European, military, and sports history. He is the author or editor of three books on the Christian movement known as Pietism. His most recent publication is a spiritual biography of Charles A. Lindbergh.
Started at Bethel
2003
Education
- College of William and Mary - B.A. in History, 1996
- Yale University - M.A. in History, 1998
- Yale University - M.Phil. in History, 2000
- Yale University - Ph.D. in History, 2002
Courses Taught
- Applied Humanities Seminar
- Christianity and Western Culture
- The Cold War
- History and Politics of Sports
- Inquiry Seminar: The Fog of War
- Introduction to History
- Modern Europe
- Pietas Seminar II
- World War I
- World War II
Awards
Bethel University, Edgren Scholars Program for Collaborative Student-Faculty Research, 2014
Bethel University, Faculty Excellence Award for Teaching, 2009
Publications
Books:
- Charles Lindbergh: A Religious Biography of America's Most Infamous Pilot (Eerdmans, 2021)
- Faith and History: A Devotional (Baylor University Press, 2020) -- co-editor and contributor
- The Pietist Option: Hope for the Renewal of Christianity (IVP Academic, 2017) -- co-author
- The Pietist Vision of Christian Higher Education: Forming Whole and Holy Persons (IVP Academic, 2015) -- editor and author of introduction and conclusion
- The Pietist Impulse in Christianity (Pickwick, 2011) -- co-editor and co-author of introduction
Articles:
- "Blogging as Public Thinking," Fides et Historia 53 (Summer/Fall 2021): 62-64
- "The Christians Who Didn't Take Communion... for 350 Years," The Schwenkfeldian, Fall 2020, 3-5
- "Anabaptist Visions of Sport: Separation, Accommodation, and Transformation," Reflections (2018-2019): 103-110
- "Philipp Jakob Spener," Christianity Today, online (April 26, 2019)
- "Do This in Remembrance," Christianity Today, online (May 29, 2017)
- "The Church of the Bystanders," Christian History Magazine, no. 121 (February 2017): 32-36
- "We Will Remember Them," Books & Culture, online (January 2016)
- "The Global Reflex: Toward a Transnational Turn in Evangelical Historiography," Fides et Historia 47 (Winter/Spring 2015): 107-15.
- "An Immigrant Church," Friends of Covenant History (Winter/Spring 2015): 3-4.
- "Missional Pietists: Lessons from Dale W. Brown and Carl H. Lundquist," The Covenant Quarterly (August/November 2012): 35-47
- "Recovering a Pietist Understanding of Christian Higher Education: Carl H. Lundquist and Karl A. Olsson," Christian Scholar's Review 40 (Winter 2011): 139-54
- Book reviews in Books & Culture, Brethren in Christ History and Life, Christianity Today, Fides et Historia, and Mennonite Quarterly Review
- Multiple articles in Pietisten and The Baptist Pietist Clarion
Presentations
Recent adult classes and presentations include:
- "Turning Points" - men's retreat for First Presbyterian Church, Stillwater, MN (May 2023)
- "The War in Ukraine... One Year Later" - Trinity Lutheran Church, Stillwater, MN (February 2023)
- "The Religious World of Young Charles Lindbergh" - Lindbergh House and Museum, Little Falls, MN (January 2023)
- "The Past, Present, and Future of Evangelicalism" - "D-term" series for First Covenant Church, River Falls, WI (December 2022)
- "Conversations at the Crossroads: The Spiritual But Not Religious Life of Charles A. Lindbergh" - Seminary Ridge Museum, Gettysburg, PA (January 2022)
- "The Case of Charles Lindbergh: History, Biography, and the Image of God" - Colonial Church, Edina, MN (March 2021)
- "Hope for Better Times: The Pietist Option for Lutherans" - online adult ed series for Roseville (MN) Lutheran Church (April 2020)
- "The Value of the Christian Liberal Arts" - Point Loma Nazarene University (October 2019)
- "Thinking in Public" - Bethel University Library (April 2019)
- "The Pietist Option for Baptists" - Central Baptist Church, St. Paul, MN (August 2018)
- "Always Reforming: The Pietist Option for Covenanters and Other Protestants" - Bethlehem Covenant Church, Minneapolis, MN (February 2018)
Professional Organizations, Committees, and Boards
Current: Program Chair, 2024 Biennial Meeting of the Conference on Faith and History; Editorial Board, Fides et Historia
Past: Minnesota State World War I Centennial Commission; Board of Trustees, Minnehaha Academy; Executive Board, Conference on Faith and History;
Research interests
History of Bethel University, Christian higher education, Pietism
Teaching specialty
Military/Diplomatic history, Modern Europe