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Scholarship and Vocation

One Sunday in the 1950s, when I was in my teens, my uncle and aunt had joined my parents for refreshments after our Sunday evening church service. Before the delicacies were ready, my dad guided my uncle downstairs to my basement aviary and aquarium room to see my nesting parakeets and tropical fish. As they…
August 31, 2026
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Words Are (but Shouldn’t Be) Cheap (Part 2)

May my spoken words and unspoken thoughts be pleasing even to you, O Lord my Rock and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:14 TLB I could take a whole lot of words to talk about the need to pray for my students and colleagues and their families. Yet, I’ve found the more time and effort I put…
August 28, 2026
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Words Are (but Shouldn’t Be) Cheap (Part 1)

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer. Psalm 19:14 KJV Daily (if not multiple times a day!), I pray Psalm 19:14 for myself. As a professor, writer, and speaker, I spend a lot of my day, every day, occupied…
August 27, 2026
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Preface to the Reviews

This issue’s book review section contains two review essays, each of which examines multiple books on a common theme, and four reviews of individual books. The first review essay, “Rest and Sabbath: A Review Essay,” is written by Amy Davis Abdallah, who teaches practical theology at Ashland Theological Seminary. Abdallah’s essay examines three recent books…
August 26, 2026
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Introducing Christian Scholar’s Review 2026 Summer Issue

With today’s blog, I’m pleased to introduce the summer issue of Christian Scholar’s Review. Our Spring issue was sadly delayed, largely due to printing schedules, so I am delighted to have this issue in hand (or on screen) for many just as the academic year begins. With decades of the rhythms of the academic year much more real…
August 25, 2026
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Helping the World’s Search for a Vocabulary

In a fascinating conversation published in Advance magazine a few years ago, Shirley Hoogstra interviewed Anne Snyder and David Brooks about their impressions of the kind of Christian education happening on our CCCU campuses.  Are we doing enough, Shirley asked, to be a “leaven” in the larger academy, helping “to transform things for the better?”…
August 24, 2026

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Guest Post: Towards a More Useful Understanding of Competition

A pioneer in the academic field of sport and spirituality, Shirl Hoffman has long sought to return sport to its roots in play.See for example, Shirl Hoffman, ed., Sport and Religion (Champaign, Ill.: Human Kinetics Books, 1992). In 2010, he published his magnum opus, Good Game: Christianity and the Culture of Sport. While the product of a lifetime of thoughtful,…
May 25, 2021
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Fiscal Justice for the Generations

Our God is a God of justice; of this, there can be no doubt. As Christians, we know the familiar refrain of Amos 5:24: “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” There is much dialogue today about how to pursue and achieve justice on various issues, and that is a good thing…
May 24, 2021
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Stop AAPI Hate: An Interview with Russell M. Jeung, Part II

Read part I of the interview here Sometimes, Asian and Asian American churches have remained silent on the issue of racism. Possible reasons for this reluctance to engage might be due to Asian cultural values (e.g., maintaining social harmony, restraining of emotions), an internalized model minority stereotype, and a lack of racial socialization efforts. What…
May 21, 2021
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Stop AAPI Hate: An Interview with Russell M. Jeung, Part 1

Professor Russell M. Jeung, Professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University and a co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate. I am appreciative of the opportunity to interview Dr. Russell M. Jeung, who is a Professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University and co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate. His efforts in…
May 20, 2021
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Fallen Scholarship in the Ivory Tower: Resisting Simple Dichotomies

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…
May 17, 2021
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Academic Freedom: From Ram-skit to Bull-dung

My first lesson in academic freedom came not long after completing my Ph.D., at which time I was invited to teach a course in Medieval Drama at a Research-I university. In addition to allegorical morality plays, wherein Everyman must negotiate attacks from the World, the Flesh, and the Devil, medieval playwrights dramatized Bible stories and…
May 14, 2021
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Belated Happy Earth Day (and many more)

I have never missed an Earth Day. That’s only because I was fourteen on April 22, 1970 when the whole thing started. I generally don’t make a big deal out of the annual observance, any more than Presidents Day or College Department Chairs Day (there must be one, right?). It’s not that I don’t care…
May 13, 2021
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Searching For the Soul of the University: An Interview with George M. Marsden

Risking understatement, George M. Marsden’s The Soul of the American University: From Protestant Establishment to Established Nonbelief sparked intense reactions in academe when released by Oxford University Press in 1994.For example, please see John Patrick Diggins’ “God, Man and the Curriculum,” The New York Times  (April 17, 1994, Section 7, Page 25).  Administrators of church-related…
May 12, 2021