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Reviews

Sin: A History

Gary A. Anderson, professor of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible in the Department ofTheology at Notre Dame, argues that sin has a history. He uncovers this history in the shifting metaphors for sin found in the Bible, Aramaic texts of the Second Temple period, early rabbinic Judaism, and the Church Fathers. Sin, as a concept, has evolved.…
July 15, 2010
Reviews

Souls in Transition: The Religious & Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults

The November, 2009 Christianity Today webinar featuring Christian Smith discussing his most recent book provided a rich example of his argument. In this session Smith discussed the content and implications of his findings thoughtfully and articulately while online participants watched, listened and had the opportunity to post real-time questions that showed up in a sidebar…
July 15, 2010
Reviews

This Mortal Flesh: Incarnation and Bioethics

In spite of the apparent benefits of recent and predicted advances in medical science which promise to enhance human well-being and extend life, many people experience a vague uneasiness about a brave new world where disease, suffering, and finitude in general might be vanquished. If we can replace limbs, repair organs, cure cancers, and even…
July 15, 2010
Reviews

The Meaning of Sex: Christian Ethics and the Moral Life

Although Christian ethics masquerades sometimes as a discrete discipline, it is understood better as an ambitious multidisciplinary enterprise, requiring knowledge of (at the very least) biblical studies, theology, philosophy, and the social sciences. Dennis P. Hollinger ’s The Meaning of Sex draws on material from across all these fields as he articulates and defends the…
July 15, 2010
Reviews

Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate

In 1954 Aldous Huxley published Doors of Perception, an account of his mescaline-induced mystical experience. R. C. Zaehner responded to the wave of experimentation Huxley provoked with Mysticism Sacred and Profane: An Inquiry into Some Varieties of Praeternatural Experience, a book that drew fine distinctions between categories that Huxley had neglected to address. In the…
July 15, 2010
Reviews

Performing the Sacred: Theology and Theatre in Dialogue

Billed as the first full-scale exploration of theatre and theology, Performing the Sacred: Theology and Theatre in Dialogue by Todd E. Johnson and Dale Savidge endeavors to find anexus between the previously distinct worlds in which both of the authors participate. Johnson, the theologian, and Savidge, the theatre practitioner, desire to create a new form…
July 15, 2010
Introduction

Introduction to the Theme Issue: Christian Higher Education as Character Formation

Many of our students are required to read Plato’s Gorgias at some point in their college careers. Occasionally, and after some reflection and discussion of the text, those students come to appreciate just how high the stakes are for those confronted with the Gorgias’s central question: how should one live? Socrates, Plato’s protagonist, champions the…
Review Essays

How Serious Are We About Moral Education?—A Review Essay

America is a very moralistic country, with entire cable channels devoted to gossiping about moral lapses and crime. Our colleges and universities, by contrast, have a reputation as value-free zones, with professors who refine their skepticism about value judgments and students who are indulged in whatever behaviors they choose. This is how we train our…
July 15, 2010
Review and Response

The Neuroscience of Religious Experience—A Review Essay

Patrick McNamara, Associate Professor of Neurology at Boston University School of Medicine, has made a thoughtful and nuanced contribution to a growing field centered on questions concerning brain activity required for, and involved in, religious life. In a field spanning the disciplines of neuroscience and religious studies, it is often hard to find a perspective…