Peter Blum

Religion and Philosophy, Humanities, Hillsdale College

Journal article Peer reviewed

Matteo Bortolini, A Joyfully Serious Man: The Life of Robert Bellah

by Peter Blum and The Polanyi Society

Published 2023

Tradition & discovery, 49, 2, 37 - 38

Journal article Peer reviewed

Edward Shils as Stranger, Social Thought as Vocation

by Peter C. Blum and The Polanyi Society

Published 2021

Tradition & discovery, 47, 3, 14 - 18

This essay is a response to Struan Jacobs, “Recovering the Thought of Edward Shils,” which is an extended review of Adair-Toteff and Turner’s The Calling of Social Thought. It considers Edward Shils as a “stranger,” in the sense defined by Georg Simmel, relative to contemporary sociology. Christian Smith’s claim that American sociology is implicitly pursuing a “sacred project” is invoked, in contrast with Shils’ vision for consensual sociology. The expansion by CST to “Social Thought” as a calling (vocation), and its ties to science as understood by Polanyi, are strongly affirmed.

Journal article Peer reviewed

The Absent Christ: An Anabaptist Theology of the Empty Tomb

by Peter C Blum

Published 01/07/2020

The Mennonite quarterly review, 94, 3, 397