Chris Gehrz

Job Title

• 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
• 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:

• "Conversations at the Crossroads: The Spiritual But Not Religious Life of Charles A. Lindbergh" - Seminary Ridge Museum, Gettysburg, PA (January 2022)
• "'Evangelical': Past, Present, and Future" - Salem Covenant Church, New Brighton, MN (September-October 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)
• "The Reformation at 500" - Calvary Church, Roseville, MN (September-October 2017)
• Faculty Retreat - Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, WA (September 2017)
• "The Three Journeys of the Christian Liberal Arts" - Crown College, St. Bonifacius, MN (April 2017)
• "Lest We Forget: World War I Memorials" - New Ulm (MN) Public Library (April 2017)
• "The Pietist Option for (Current and Former) Evangelicals" - North Park University, Chicago, IL (February 2017)

Professional Organizations, Committees, and Boards

Current: 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;

Areas of expertise

International/military history (World War I, World War II, Cold War) 20th century Europe History of Christianity, especially Pietism and the Evangelical Covenant Church History of Christian higher education, including Bethel University

Website

https://pietistschoolman.com