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Articles

Preface

Notes from the Editor

During the last volume year the total number of submissions was sixty six—about average. Our current acceptance-to-publication timeframe is about twelve months. Table 1. Statistics: April 1, 2012 - March 31, 2013 Our summer 2013 theme issue, “The Global Face of Christian Higher Education,” was co-edited by Janel Curry of Gordon College and Joel Carpenter…
October 15, 2013
Book Review

Classical Christian Doctrine: Introducing the Essentials of the Ancient Faith

Reviewed by Kyle A. Schenkewitz, Theological Studies, Saint Louis University Ronald E. Heine observes a lacuna in undergraduate-focused theology texts. His intention is to provide a “gateway into the beliefs and teachings of the early Christians” that would compliment the growing academic interest in early Christian writers (vii). Heine incorporates the Nicene Creed as the…
October 15, 2013
Article

Will the Evangelical Church Remove the Color Line?: Historical Reflections on Divided by Faith

Sociologists Michael Emerson and Christian Smith asked in their book Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America: will the evangelical church remove the color line? Phillip Luke Sinitiere offers a “history” of Divided by Faith since its publication in 2000. This article traces out the book’s impact on scholars, accounting…
October 15, 2013
Article

Rehabilitating Willow Creek: Megachurches, De Certeau, and the Tactics of Navigating Consumer Culture

Introduction The American religious landscape is increasingly dominated by the influence of megachurches. A common criticism of megachurches is that they reinforce the bad habits of consumer culture. They do so by commodifying religion for the easy consumption of the religious consumer. Using Vince Miller’s account of consumer culture, and Michel De Certeau’s theoretical project…
October 15, 2013
Book Review

Management and the Gospel: Luke’s Radical Message for the First and Twenty-First Centuries

Reviewed by Craig Hinnenkamp, Global Commerce and Management, Whitworth University An increasing number of writers in both Christian and secular journals are calling for a fundamental change in the basic orientation and purpose of business. Articulated from a faith-based perspective, J. Van Duzer et al. proposes the purpose of business is to serve God through…
October 15, 2013
Review Essays

Art and Theology—A Review Essay

Katie Kresser is Associate Professor of Art History at Seattle Pacific University. This essay treats three recent works on the subject of art and theology, ranging from a simple handbook of Christian symbols (Judith Couchman’s Art of Faith) to a dense and learned discussion of postmodern art and philosophy (Richard Viladesau’s Theological Aesthetics). The wholly…
October 15, 2013
Article

Problems and Possibilities of Sociology as Prophetic

Many Christian sociologists have experienced the juxtaposition of those two identities as casting them into a socially prophetic role. Sociology often places the Christian sociologist as one who speaks to the established Christian community rather than for it. Dennis W. Hiebert traces the development of the classic distinction between the sociological concepts of priest and…
October 15, 2013
Reviews

Moral Minority: The Evangelical Left in an Age of Conservatism

Reviewed by Philip D. Byers, Residence Life, Bethel University David R. Swartz has produced a book that is at once innovative historiography and enlivening prose. Using the 1973 Thanksgiving Workshop of Evangelical Social Concern and its resulting “Chicago Declaration” as his framework, Swartz narrates and analyzes the mid-twentieth-century progressive movement in American evangelicalism. Examining many…
July 15, 2013