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“God Don’t Make No Junk” 

After a good conversation on genetics with a dear colleague, I started pondering the following question: Isn’t it interesting how one’s training and worldview make such a vast difference in an approach to a topic? One thought led to another, and this is where I landed…  Even though the idea about differing worldviews can be applied to almost every topic in our world and our lives, I want to zero in on human genetics. That is, to consider the long sections of DNA that…
February 10, 2026
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“Save Time with AI”: How Software Disciples Us

I offer you a close reading of a single line of text that startled me as I was perusing a seventeenth-century educational treatise. I am sitting at a writing retreat, drafting a research paper. Those who know me would be unsurprised to learn that the PDF open on my screen contains a work by John…
February 9, 2026
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A Review of Becoming the Pastor’s Wife

Becoming the Pastor’s Wife gets interesting immediately, with its subtitle: How Marriage Replaced Ordination as a Woman’s Path to Ministry. When was ordination ever a common path for women? Hasn’t “pastor’s wife” always been the Christian ideal? Beth Allison Barr, professor of history at Baylor University, delves into the intrigue evoked by the book’s cover…
February 5, 2026
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Toward a Language of Creation: AI and the Dominion Mandate (Part II)

Part 2 – A Technological Partnership in the Academy The modern university has taken responsibility (we might call it a dominion mandate) for instructing generations in critical thought, writing, communication, and skill training, confirming the proficiencies of the students under our care. Our work has focused largely on certification, and AI practically eliminates that priority.…
February 4, 2026

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Strength in Christ’s Body

Praising Athletic Excellence In the early 20th century, physical culturist Bernarr Macfadden wrote a paean to praise the glory of humanity. His hymn of the gym—titled “Manhood Glorified”—was to be hailed, he said, “with majesty”: The world resounds, demanding human glory The cry for health prevails throughout the land While grovling through life’s mire Seeth…
March 4, 2025
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Peter Dougherty’s responses to the posts on “In Praise of Lunch”

First I would like to thank Todd Ream for his kind invitation to participate in the online discussion of my Inside Higher Ed article, “In Praise of Lunch,” appearing in Christian Scholars Review, and its editor-in-chief,  Perry Glanzer. Secondly, I’m deeply grateful to Tim Muehlhoff, Christopher Gehrz, and Jenell Paris, the three scholars who so…
February 28, 2025
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Benefits of Lunch Outside the Office: A Response

“Grab drinks?  We don’t even share the same elevators!” For the past five years, in addition to being a professor of communication, I’ve served as co-director of Biola University’s Winsome Conviction Project that seeks to open lines of communication between people entrenched in ideological, political, or theological disagreements.  When I was asked to respond to…
February 27, 2025
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Lunching Alone

It’s an odd thing to reflect on the meaning of academics gathering for lunch when you’re an academic on sabbatical. I relish so much about these occasional sabbaths from teaching: the time to rest and recharge, the opportunity to enjoy our twins’ first months in high school, the chances to travel and do research. Still,…
February 26, 2025
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An Empirical Examination of Dougherty’s Unified Field Theory of Lunch

In a commencement address to La Salle University, Peter J. Dougherty culled the most precious piece of wisdom from his 53 years of professional expertise to impart to graduating students. Just four words: meet often for lunch. In fact, let’s make it Lunch, a long, slow, enjoyable time at a sit-down restaurant. Getting together with…
February 25, 2025
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In Praise of Lunch

Editor’s Note: This past year we enjoyed reading Peter J. Dougherty’s essay “In Praise of Lunch.”  The essay inspired CSR’s Publisher, Todd Ream, to organize a series of responses to his article.  Thus, today’s post reprints the essay with his permission. Then, over the next three days, we will post three responses from different faculty.…
February 24, 2025
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Between Two Worlds: Safety, Suffering, and the Cross

I remember the dissonance I felt when I was invited to join a prayer meeting organized by Wheaton’s Politics and International Relations Department soon after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Masked and socially distanced, we gathered in a calm setting to pray for the people of Ukraine—huddled in basements and subways…
February 20, 2025
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A Liturgy for the Writing of Citations

Liturgies and daily prayers have long been part of Christian practice. The Psalms and the Lord’s Prayer are two prominent examples from the Bible, but church history also tells of the development of prayer books, books of hours, and the Book of Common Prayer. These aids helped the faithful meditate on scripture and Christian principles…
February 18, 2025