Perry L. Glanzer

Liberal arts:  the term designated for the education proper to a free person (Latin liber, “free”) as opposed to a slave. (Merriam-Webster dictionary) “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:34-36 Although the concept of a liberal arts education has existed for over fifteen hundred years, the way scholars…

Our students are often our best teachers. Their actions often expose the ungodly perspectives and habits that have accumulated on us like barnacles on a ship. I encountered two stories while coding interviews from Baylor students that reminded me that I have some barnacles from difficult experiences about loving the unlovable.   If I had been…

Universities, including Christian ones, have become quite comfortable with what some might describe as the “virtue” of honor. Although we may instinctively classify it as a favorable trait, honor—as it exists on college campuses today—has a troubled backstory. What is more, today’s faculty and administrators who esteem honor may not know about its contentious history.…

Yesterday, I wrote about how only three of eighteen Baylor seniors interviewed for our Baylor Faith and Character Study mentioned that they found their identity and worth in God. How did those students arrive at that conclusion? Unfortunately, for one mixed-race student, it did not come from her family. Her mother and father divorced a…

What makes you feel worthwhile and valuable? This past year, I added this question to the qualitative portion of our Baylor Faith and Character Study with 18 seniors (for more about the study see here). I came across it when rereading Carol Gilligan’s In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development regarding some of…

Better a patient person than a warrior; one with self control than one who takes a cityProverbs 16:32 (NIVUK) Editor’s note:  I thought summer would be a good time to start a blog conversation and invite responses to a post. I’m guessing that there is no better way to get responses than by posting about…

One of the consequences of the Fall is rather obvious. We have differences about who we should love and worship, and when political entities try to force the proper ordering of loves, they often fail miserably. Politically speaking then, one of the beauties of the American system of higher education is that it is the…

Last month I wrote about the Fall and what it means for Christian scholars, institutions, and the Church. Of course, the Fall also requires that we deal with bad arguments and replace them with better arguments and understandings. In a January Chronicle of Higher Education article about “Bad Religion in the Ivory Tower,” the secularist…

We cannot count on academics to study the most important realities in our lives (versus the latest academic fad). Motherhood is one of those important realities. Noble Laureate and University of Chicago economist James J. Heckman recently made this astounding observation, “hat we don’t have—and to me, it’s an amazing deficiency—we don’t any good economic…

Editor’s Note; In this series on academics and the Fall, I have focused on the consequences of the Fall for Christian scholars in general, Christian scholars’ view of time and liberal arts education, but in this final post, I want to talk about the consequences of the Fall for our academic agendas regarding evil.  Christian…

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter;    to search out a matter is the glory of kings.Proverbs 25:2 One of the central problems often influences Christian education is an inordinate belief in quick moral or intellectual virtue. Growing up on a diet of conversion stories, evangelical Christians love the idea of lives transformed…

Editor’s Note: In this column and the two following I’m going to discuss how Christian scholar’s should have a different view of time and decision-making regarding current events. Unfortunately, scholars often confuse what events need an immediate decision or pronouncement and what needs patience and additional knowledge gathering before a decision.  As a Christian higher…

Happy are those Who do not follow the advice of the wicked, Or take the path that sinners tread, Or sit in the seat of scoffers; Ps. 1:1 (NRSV) Editor’s note: the theme of my earlier blogs have related to creation and our creation-based identities as individuals (e.g., imago dei) and professionals (our need for…

And there is a second commandment, which seems to me even more incomprehensible and arouses even stronger opposition in me. It is: “Love thine enemies.”                                                                                     Sigmund FreudSigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents Trans. and Ed. James Strachey (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1961), 57. “…while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the…

When I was a young kid, I watched my dad do other things besides parent and work. We moved to Littleton, Colorado when I was almost four. My dad had a new job and two young kids. For some people, this season of transition with children would have been a good reason to step away…

Although I am a college professor, I must confess that my most important education during college did not come from professors. As an undergraduate majoring in history, political science, and religion at Rice University, I had some great classes with outstanding professors—one even won a Professor of the Year award among faculty for the entire…

At the end of a busy and tiring semester, I asked blog contributors if they had a favorite faith-learning book of the year.  I received suggestions from a variety of blog authors and disciplines. A book by a professor from Rice University (go owls), Elaine Howard Ecklund, received Ruth Bancewicz and Clay Carlson’s votes for…

For the first post of the New Year on the Christ Animating Learning Blog, I think it is important to assess how far we have come with regard to Christianity and higher learning. We should certainly rejoice in the fact that, by God’s grace, Christians have created hundreds of Christian educational institutions around the world.…

I have been thinking about academic titles this past semester (as is evident from my blog post at the beginning of the academic year and my Ph.D. student’s post yesterday about his experience of my experiment).  How fitting, then that the semester should end with the twitter-stirring controversy sparked by an op-ed about the academic…