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Building the Future of Christian Scholarship

The first edition of George Marsden’s book The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship appeared the same year I completed my doctorate. I eagerly read it and it immediately became a touchstone book for my early career. And so, it was with great enthusiasm that I began reading the second edition. How have the ideas aged?…
May 29, 2025
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Addressing Reductionistic “Nothing but” Scholarship: The Conversation around a New Definition of “Evangelical,” Part 2

I remember teaching a weekend course on American Christian history in the late 1990s. Since it was a weekend course for working adults, I used several videos in those late Saturday afternoon hours when eyes glazed and heads nodded. I found some great videos about the history of American Catholicism and African American Christianity, but…
May 28, 2025
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Addressing Reductionistic “Nothing but” Scholarship: The Conversation around a New Definition of “Evangelical,” Part 1

Christian scholars interested in Christ-animated learning have long observed that one major danger to such scholarship is reductionism. George Marsden helpfully summarized the problem in his book, The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship, “Once we have a convincing explanation at the level of empirically researched connections we are inclined to think we have a complete…
May 27, 2025
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Intellectual Pilgrimage: Christians in the Contemporary Academy

The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship became an instant classic when it was released by Oxford University Press in 1997, but I must admit that I always disliked the title. While it is an effective attention-­grabber, the text itself is far more nuanced and polite than the title presages. Additionally, the word “outrageous” conveys neither…
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Catholic vs. Protestant

“In the one Christ, we are one.”                                          -motto of Pope Leo XIV The Catholic Church has recently elected a new pope, not quite three weeks after the death of Pope Francis on Easter Monday. Meanwhile, I have been thinking about Christian education in the city of Seattle, where I teach at a Protestant university…
May 21, 2025

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BlogBook Review

The Liberating Arts: Why We Need Liberal Arts Education

Geoffrey Galt Harpham has argued that conversation about crisis is fundamental to the humanities in the United States, an insight I extend to the liberal arts more generally.Geoffrey Galt Harpham, The Humanities and the Dream of America (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2011). Certainly, crisis-talk has spanned my own career. From internal academic anxiety…
March 15, 2024
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A Tale of Two Tales . . . Or Five

The stories that a culture tells give us a clue to the beliefs and values of that culture. The stories that achieve a popular following suggest what is on the mind of a culture at a moment in time. For over a thousand years, the people of Western Europe told their stories through allegorical poetry.…
March 13, 2024
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Resisting Educational Nationalism

Editor's Note: We apologize for the recent byline errors and broken links in our posts. Due to the transition associated with the tragic passing of our IT manager, we are experiencing some technical difficulties that we are working to resolve. Thanks for your patience. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior…
March 6, 2024
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Introducing the Christian Scholar’s Review Winter Issue

Over Thanksgiving weekend in 1973, a diverse group of more than fifty North American-based evangelical academics, publishers, and church leaders—both young mavericks and more senior statesmen—gathered at the Downtown Chicago YMCA to discuss the need for greater evangelical social concern. The impetus for the conference had occurred earlier in the spring at the first Calvin…
March 4, 2024
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Woke Sociology, Woke Jesus

In January, the Florida Board of Governors removed Principles of Sociology as a general education core course option in all twelve Florida public universities. The verdict came a week after the Florida State Board of Education had already unanimously voted to remove sociology as a core course offering in all twenty-eight Florida public colleges. As…
February 28, 2024
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AI and Truth in a Post-Epistemic World

“Every child will have an AI tutor that is infinitely patient, infinitely compassionate, infinitely knowledgeable, infinitely helpful.” These are the words of the web pioneer Marc Andreessen, writing about “Why AI Will Save the World.” Such optimistic claims are not new. The rise of the world wide web came with predictions that it would be…
February 27, 2024
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From Vulnerable to Valuable: Revising the Christian Framework for Neurodiversity in the Workplace

It is a great time to graduate college in America. Unemployment rates are hovering at around 3.7%, as low as they have been since the 1960s and approaching what economists would consider full employment.Niasse, Amina. "Unemployment rises in nearly a third of US states in December." Reuters. January 23, 2024. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/unemployment-rose-nearly-third-us-states-december-2024-01-23/. The hot job market…