Email: cgehrz@bethel.edu
Job Title
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Professor of History
History, College of Arts and Sciences
Highlight
Gehrz teaches courses on international, European, and military history, including the department's travel course in Europe on the history of World War I. He is the author or editor of three books on the Christian movement known as Pietism. His current project is a spiritual biography of Charles A. Lindbergh.
Started at Bethel
2003
Education
- College of William and Mary - B.A. , 1996
- Yale University - Ph.D., 2002
Courses Taught
- Christianity and Western Culture
- The Cold War
- History and Politics of Sports
- Inquiry Seminar
- Introduction to History
- Modern Europe
- Senior Seminar
- 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:
- The Famous Unknown: A Spiritual Biography of Charles A. Lindbergh (under contract with Eerdmans)
- 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:
- "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, Fides et Historia, and Mennonite Quarterly Review
- Multiple articles in Pietisten and The Baptist Pietist Clarion
Presentations
Recent adult classes and presentations include:
- "From 'Queen of the Sciences' to 'One of the Humanities': Theology among the Liberal Arts" - Twin Cities Area Undergraduate Theology Conference, Bethel University (April 2019)
- "Thinking in Public" - Bethel University Library (April 2019)
- "The Pietist Option for Lutherans" - Incarnation Lutheran Church, Shoreview, MN (November 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
Executive board, Conference on Faith and History
Minnesota State World War I Centennial Commission
Board of Trustees, Minnehaha Academy (2015-2018)
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