Skip to main content
Blog

Theological Foundations for Creation Care: Replacing Apathy and Despair with Hope and Christian Virtues — A Review Essay (Part 1)

Andrew J. Spencer’s and Steven Bouma-­Prediger’s recent releases applying Christian theology to contemporary environmental problems share similar goals and face common constraints. As trade paperbacks, both books are intended to motivate an indifferent or skeptical Christian readership and theologically equip students to address hot-­button political topics. The authors self-­identify as Evangelical, utilize the language of…
December 11, 2024
Blog

Shaping Witnesses: Baylor’s English Graduate Program

In the past year or so, six graduates of Baylor University’s English graduate program have published books about the arts of reading well and the value of forming Christian imaginations. Jessica Hooten Wilson (grad of 2009) published Reading for the Love of God: How to Read as a Spiritual Practice (Jessica has also published several…
Blog

Sharing Our Screens

Recently I re-watched The Truman Show, the 1998 film about a man, played by Jim Carey, who discovers that his life has been broadcast to the world as a reality TV show. Though produced a quarter of a century ago, the movie’s critique of an “always-on,” surveillant media culture felt timely and spoke to my…
December 9, 2024
Blog

Not Quite Exiles nor Never Much of an Eden: The Meaning of Vocation for the Professorate Thirty Years after the Publication of Mark Schwehn’s Exiles from Eden

The early 1990s saw a rash of books on religion and higher education, and Mark Schwehn’s 1993 Exiles From Eden: Religion and the Academic Vocation in America was a book unlike any of the rest. It begins with two memorable illustrations of the central problem Schwehn addresses. The first recalls a faculty get-­together at the…
December 5, 2024
Blog

Be the Hope You Seek

A friend asked me not so long ago, “Where can we find hope in such uncertain times?” Many of us have been asking this reasonable and pressing question for much of the past five years. As Christians, we can easily recite a couple of the 140 Bible verses that, in various different stories and admonitions,…
December 4, 2024
Blog

Christ-Animated Scholarship and Human Worth

Every once in a while, I come across an article or book that exemplifies the best of what Christ-animated scholarship can and should be. I recently came across one such article in the field of psychology that addressed the topic of human worth. The concepts of self-worth and self-esteem have a long history in the…
December 3, 2024

Subscribe

for new content notifications, access to video and audio conversations with our writers, and invitations to our events.

Blog

How Is the Christian Use of the Race Metaphor Unique? Part 1

One of the most enduring and persistent images ancient Greco-Roman philosophers used to depict the struggle of the good life was the metaphor of life as a race. Writers as diverse as Epictetus and Cicero illustrated the moral struggle through the metaphor of a run or a marathon. There is a start, there are difficulties…
January 18, 2024
Blog

The Play That Stops Too Soon

Recently I had a vivid reminder of the value in the breadth of a liberal arts education. My son, who is a computer science major, has become a fan of live theater. When he texted me the title of an upcoming play that we could see together with my other son (a music therapy major),…
January 17, 2024
Blog

Writing in the Time of ChatGPT

It seems that every day brings news of a development in AI technology, whether advances in the medical or tech fields, new threats to (cyber)security, or concerns for industries that might have jobs overtaken by computers or robots. Some commentators exhibit great excitement about possibilities for change and improvement, while others fear our lives might…
January 16, 2024
Blog

Reminiscing About and Removing Obstacles to Christian Hospitality

Having grown up as a child of educators who were Christians with non-Christian students from all over the world, Perry Glanzer’s recent blog post reminded me of my parents and their approach to hospitality in our home. We often had students in our home (including living with us for periods of time). Our home was…
January 9, 2024
Blog

Peace On Earth: 12 Rests for a New Year

“Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28–30, NASB) Rest strengthens. Rest calms. Rest works! After…
January 8, 2024