Professor of History
Educational Background
A.B., College of William and Mary
M.A., M.Phil., and PhD, Yale University
Courses Taught
- HIS230L World War I
- HIS231L World War II
- HIS290 Introduction to History
- HIS/POS305G The Cold War
- HIS354 Modern Europe
- HIS499 Senior Seminar
- GES130 Christianity and Western Culture (also program coordinator)
- GES160 Inquiry Seminar: Christians and Unity
Research Interests
Chris has written or edited three books on the history of Pietism, Bethel’s founding religious tradition: The Pietist Option: Hope for the Renewal of Christianity (IVP Academic, 2017); The Pietist Vision of Christian Higher Education: Forming Whole and Holy Persons (IVP Academic, 2015); and The Pietist Impulse in Christianity (Wipf & Stock, 2011).
Chris’ other teaching and research interests cluster around the international history of the 20th century, particularly war, diplomacy, and religion. He is currently working on a “spiritual, but not religious” biography of Charles A. Lindbergh (under contract with Eerdmans). In 2014-2015, he and Bethel student Fletcher Warren collaborated on Bethel at War, 1914-2014: A Digital History of a Christian College in Wartime.
FYI
Chris is a past winner of the Bethel Faculty Excellence Award for Teaching (2009). He blogs regularly at The Pietist Schoolman and The Anxious Bench and has helped produce and host our departmental webisode, Past & Presence.
Click here for posts about Chris Gehrz
