Collaboration and Conflict in Europe around the Early Tranquebar Mission

Some 300 years ago, on July 9,1706, a new epoch in Protestantism began when Bartholomew Ziegenbaig and Heinrich Plütschau landed as missionaries at Tranquebar on the eastern coast of southern India. This mission, though not as well known as later Moravian Brethren missionary efforts or William Carey’s momentous journey, must be regarded as the first on-going Protestant foreign mission work.^ The cooperative nature of this endeavor throughout much of the eighteenth century has frequently been noted^ and stands in stark contrast to the more insular character of missions in the nineteenth century. It is the story of how an Anglican voluntary society in England supported a Royal Danish Mission in the sending of Lutheran missionaries from the Pietist center of Halle to Tranquebar

Using Hybrid Effectively in Christian Higher Education

Hybrid is just one of a number of terms used for the convergence of face-to-face and online learning, At the University of Central Florida (UCF) they are called mixed mode courses, In the corporate world the most common language used for hybrid is blended learning, Blended learning, says Bob Mosher, is about using multiple learning modalities, which include, but are not limited to, the Web.7 The blended learning term is also being used more frequently within academic circles,8 Because of the inconsistency in how blended learning is employed, though, and because our goal is not to describe learning in general but to focus on individual courses, this article will use the term hybrid and will apply it more narrowly to mean a course in which face-to-face and online learning are integrated in such a way that the seat time of the course is reduced

Luther’s Mysticism, Pietism, and Contemplative Spirituality

To ask, “Why church?” certainly stirs multilayered theological, missional, ecclesial, and pastoral reflection. The question also has spiritual ramifications. To explore some of them, we will trace a thread of the Lutheran spiritual tradition from Martin Luther’s own “faith mysticism” through particular aspects of German pietism. That overview will provide a foundation for engaging the contemporary contemplative movement, in order to discern how its concepts and practices might provide insight for the practice of spirituality. Our conviction is that deepening the interior journey through a living, active faith leads not to withdrawal but to an awareness—even a vulnerability—that welcomes a healthy struggle with the realities of our world