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BlogReviews

A Review of David I. Smith, Everyday Christian Teaching: A Guide to Practicing Faith in the Classroom

David I. Smith’s most recent book, Everyday Christian Teaching: A Guide to Practicing Faith in the Classroom, represents yet another of his significant and vital contributions to Christian education. Commencing with an invitation to wisdom for teachers and their students, Smith offers philosophical insights along with practical strategies for authentically integrating faith into teaching practices.…
September 5, 2025
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A Call to (Christian) Excellence

One way to understand the evolution of popular management publications over the last 50 years is to see it as beginning with a reaction to the struggles of American manufacturing in the 1970s. Shocked by the oil embargo and an invasion of cheaper, more efficient foreign imports, US car manufacturers attempted to adapt quickly but…
September 4, 2025
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Are You Trying to Create Experts or Mentor Students toward Excellence? The Two Are Not the Same

One factor behind the recent populist revolt in North America and other parts of the world stems from an increasing distrust of various experts (esp. medical scientists, journalists, and general scientists). There are numerous reasons for this distrust—some of them consistent with a Christian theological perspective, but other reasons have led to a problematic undermining…
September 3, 2025

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The Value in Evaluating Your Students’ Work

I was recently engaged in a conversation with an old friend who took up teaching late in life and via a non-traditional path (read - no formal pedagogical training). He was discussing his mounting pile of grading and his complete disinterest in reading his student’s papers. I believe we have all engaged in conversations regarding…
March 26, 2024
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Hospitality, Teaching, and Pauses for Reflection

DAVID: Some years ago, I was teaching an intensive graduate class in curriculum studies to a group that included students from multiple countries. The first significant written assignment came a few days into the course. I asked students to write about how their upbringing and identity were likely to bias their curriculum work. Which of…
March 25, 2024
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Healing the Imagination: The Crucifix as Medicine

I am an art historian by trade, and recently, I had the opportunity to deliver an art history lecture at my church. I always relish these occasions, because they give me a chance to share my passion with a wider audience. They also, maybe surprisingly, help me with my own research. I’m deeply interested in…
March 19, 2024
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