In May of 2021, I finished my thirtieth year as an English professor and scholar in residence at Houston Baptist University. Over the years, I have marked my growth as a professor by the continual research, publishing, and speaking I have done in my areas of specialization. I have marked it as well by my…

As we celebrate the New Year, we commemorate the passage of the old. In the mass media, this comes in the form of top ten lists and “in memoriam” montages. In folk imagery, it is symbolized by Father Time with his sickle. (He even appears in Rudolph’s Shiny New Year.) Though often comical in recent…

Author Q&A with George Yancey Christ Animating Learning blogger George Yancey is coming out with a new book in March by Intervarsity Press entitled, Beyond Racial Division: A Unifying Alternative to Colorblindness and Antiracism.  We were able to ask George some questions about this new book. In your introduction you suggest there are two main…

Devastating as the pandemic has been, it has created space for reflection on important questions. Much of what we considered “normal” before no longer seems viable. As some argue, wealth, social and racial inequality, oppressive work conditions, among other issues not only remain, but have become exacerbated as a result of the on-going pandemic. A…

Author’s note: In yesterday’s post, I argued that one of the purposes of scholarship is friendship with the dead. Today, I reflect on how our relationship with the dead can both enrich and be enriched by friendship with the living. . . . We sometimes think of scholarship as something occurring in a vacuum. The…

Author’s note: This two-part post is based on a talk first delivered to Baylor University’s Crane Scholars (2010), a cohort of Christian undergraduates considering careers in academia, and then to undergraduates in Baylor’s Honors Residential College (2015). . . . About the weird title—I had better confess right now that I am not a Facebook…

“America needs more private intellectuals.”Francis Joseph Beckwith, Twitter post, June 22, 2021, 10:36 a.m., https://twitter.com/fbeckwith/status/1407346836223021065. Emphasis added. So tweeted Baylor University philosopher and occasional public intellectual Francis Beckwith. Perhaps Beckwith had in mind a particular public intellectual’s unfortunate essay or social media misadventure. There is little doubt public intellectuals draw fire from all sides. Scholars…

Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control.Prov. 25:28 (NIV) That self-control is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:23) required of both men and women is not debated in Christian circles (see also 2 Peter 1:6). Titus 2 specifically emphasizes the need to teach self-control to older men (v.…

“Now, every day as soon as I wake up, I am instantly aware that I am female.  I never used to think about this.”  - From a student completing a six-month internship in India Learning to navigate involves a whole lot of relating and locating: relating a map to the actual landscape we are traversing,…

This post is dedicated to my mother, Deborah Elizabeth Mitchell (née Vestal), whose faith, hope, and love will always sustain me. Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. –Isaiah 64:8 Growing up, my mom, née Vestal, would sometimes remind me…