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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
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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…
December 10, 2024
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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
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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
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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
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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

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Do Not Be Afraid

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.” - Luke 2:10 Beneath the dissonant, thrumming symphony of contemporary culture, I think the creeping bass line is fear. I’m not sure if this was true a few years ago, but…
December 15, 2023
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The Jesse Window and Kaleidoscopic Wisdom

Our impulse to light the night with glowing colors at Christmastime is a good one. This is the time when “the people walking in darkness have seen a great light” (Isaiah 9:1 NIV; see also Mt. 4:16) Colors are good parts of a good creation—signposts to what is true, good, and beautiful. Paul describes Christian…
December 14, 2023
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Engaging the Heart to Improve Learning: The Neuroscience of Positive Emotion (Part 2)

This is Part 2 of a three-part blog. Part 1 explores the Hebraic understanding of the heart to reclaim a vision for the transformational and life-giving education that occurs when educators acknowledge students’ whole selves—intellect and emotions included. Part 2 uses neuroscience to further explore the nature and role of emotions in learning, and Part…
December 12, 2023
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Engaging the Heart to Improve Learning: Rediscovering the Inseparable Force Between Intellect and Emotion (Part 1)

Within the last two to three decades, formal education has significantly increased its emphasis on making learning engaging—albeit as a way to either improve the lecture or move the classroom experience beyond just lecturing. This change in emphasis is evidenced in such approaches as student-centered learning, active learning, and so forth.
December 11, 2023
BlogBook Review

God and Wonder: Theology, Imagination, and the Arts

In an era when the humanities are taking a beating in academic curricula and in church life, a work arrives to remind us of the revitalizing power of imagination that these disciplines offer. Edgar Allen Poe captures the human longing in his short story Morella: “It is a happiness to wonder; it is a happiness…
December 7, 2023
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What Do They Teach in School These Days?

The other night before bed, my sons and I were watching the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It was early in the film and two of the Pevensie children, Peter and Susan, were in Professor Kirke’s study because their sister, Lucy, had just caused a ruckus in the middle of…
December 6, 2023
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Healing Conversations on Race: A Call to Christian Educators

Jamal is a Black student in a predominately White Christian college. During a discussion in class, one of his White classmates, Blake, states, “I don’t see why Black people are so angry about slavery. They’ve gotten so many benefits since then, like affirmative action, welfare, scholarships, and government programs to give them a lift. If…
December 4, 2023