Introduction

Hi folks.I’m Chris Armstrong (Ph.D., Duke University), associate professor of church history at Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. I get paid to learn and teach about dead people. It’s the greatest job in the world, as far as I’m concerned! Here are a few things about me:

Last month my first book (not counting the dissertation) was published by InterVarsity Press. Patron Saints for Postmoderns is a loving “group biography” of ten figures from church history.You can find a copy of it here. I explain why I think we’re all postmoderns, and we all need patron saints, here. And Scot McKnight is leading a discussion on it here and here.

I also blog monthly over at Christianity Today’s Christian history blog, along with my friends David, Elesha, Ted, and Collin. You should check it out. On that blog, I’ve written about a bunch of things:

A prominent Reformed evangelical who tells us we should all be reading the medieval mystics.

The overlooked fact that the church was charismatic during its first few centuries (and well beyond).

An oxymoronic list of ten “hot issues in church history.”

Evangelicalism’s hidden liturgical and confessional past (that raised some hackles, but I don’t make the history, I just report it).

A rejoinder to a common fundamentalist “slippery slope” argument, based on the life work of an Enlightenment-era Moravian bishop.

A plea to mine the rich resources of medieval faith.

A reminder that such beloved authors as C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, and Dorothy Sayers can serve as worthy guides as we mine those medieval resources.

A peek inside the medieval cloister.

Six things that took me by surprise when I wrote an encylopedia article about “contemporary fundamentalism.”

I’ve also written over 70 articles as the former managing editor of the dear departed Christian History & Biography magazine and contributing writer to Christianity Today, Leadership Journal, www.christianhistory.net, and other publications. (Not that you’d want to, but search on my name at that last website and you’ll stumble on all sorts of weird and wonderful articles).

My research and teaching interests include the holiness, Pentecostal, and charismatic movements; a usable medieval past; the “Inklings” authors; religion and emotion; evangelical spirituality; and the “ancient-future” and “new monastic” movements within evangelicalism.

Welcome to my blog!