Several of these blog entries are reflections of various aspects of the holocaust-studies tour. These essays are designed to provide the reader with specific information about various memorials and locations as well as a personal reflection of meaning associated with a location or feature of a memorial. Some blog entries will not be animated by the holocaust-studies tour.
Additionally, I recently completed a writing project overhauling a behavior and social sciences statistics textbook. Some selected sidebar essays that may be of interest to a more general audience have been extracted and placed in this section of the website.
This is Asbury – Russ Ramsey
Recently I had the pleasure of sitting down with author and pastor, Russ Ramsey. Russ leads the congregation at Christ Presbyterian Church in Franklin, Tennessee. He has also written several books – the most recent two were designed to articulate an appreciation for the great works of art from a Christian perspective and with a pastor’s heart. In 2022, he published, Rembrandt is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art Through the Eyes of Faith, and in October of 2024 his most recent offering was published, Van Gogh has a Broken Heart: What Art Teaches Us About the Wonder and
A Book Review: TheoPsych
About a year ago I was asked to submit a book review to a journal entitled, “Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith.” It covers a manuscript written by a well-known Christian academic psychologist (Dr. Justin Barrett) which is designed to serve as a primer on what academic psychology has to offer the theologian and the theoretically-inclined pastor. Below is my critique of Barrett’s work: TheoPsych: A Psychological Primer for Theologians by Justin L. Barrett. Blueprint 1543, 2022. 176 pages. Paperback; $19.15. Also, free download at: https://blueprint1543.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/TheoPsych-PDF.pdf ISBN: 979-8985852004 It is not often that one finds a book about construction written
Christian Marx and the Brandenburg Euthanasia Memorial
Last winter I had the privilege of hosting historian and educator Christian Marx at Asbury University. He had come all the way from Berlin, Germany for an Asbury University Honors Program talk about the work he does at the Brandenburg Euthanasia Memorial, just a one-hour train ride away from the capital city. In addition to the campus-wide talk he delivered, I had the privilege of sitting down with him for an episode of “This is Asbury.” Here is a link to that 19 minute conversation. Christian Marx and my Asbury Psychology Department colleagues
Dr. Felicia Wu Song, Restless Devices
Last winter I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Felicia Wu Song about her latest book, “Restless Devices.” Here’s the link to the 25 minute interview.
Living and Learning Together, Rediscovering a Lost Aspect of Education
Below is a summary of this year’s Holocaust Studies Tour, 2024 The tour this year was, as each one promises to be, a sundry blend of the predictable and repeatable commingled with the new, the unanticipated, and the potently particular. This is the complex base-fabric out of which study abroad experiences are cut. With regard to the new and particular, I was so pleased this time around to be able to meet Dr. Daniel Rottke and Historian Fabian Schwanzar at a place called Alt Rehse, a retreat and resort built by the National Socialists on the western banks of the
Holocaust Studies Tour, 2024, Day 13
Last Day in Kraków Short and sweet update for today. Most students decided to go to the world-famous (UNESCO World Heritage Site, first list) Wieliczka Salt Mine. However, St. Mary’s church was also visited, as was the Polish Home Army Museum. In the afternoon we had a great wrap-up team-discussion about the tour. We also had a final meal together. Some pictures are below. Tomorrow morning the students fly home. This was such a great group…so blessed!