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If Jesus Were A College Professor…

Here are some fake college course evaluations for Jesus courtesy of Amanda Lehr: “Kind of absent-minded. My name’s Simon, and he’s called me ‘Peter’ for the entire semester.” “A complete joke. Only got the job because his dad is important.” “Inaccessible. He told me he’d be in his office; I walked all the way there,…
May 22, 2026
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“Gratitude Does Not Arise in Isolation”: Four Psychologists in Dialogue on Gratitude, Chronic Pain, Faith, and Culture

For those who are going through some of life’s most difficult situations, what might gratitude look like? Does it even make sense to talk about gratitude? And what is helpful about such gratitude, and what might not be as helpful or even harmful? These are some of the big picture questions that my psychology colleagues…
May 20, 2026
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“Something Worth Knowing”: Future Letters and Faith Formation

Last spring, I exchanged emails with a former student I’ll call Anna. It had been a year since Anna had taken my composition course, and I had just sent her the “Future You” letter she had written to herself as an end-of-the-course assignment. Reading back over her letter had given Anna perspective on herself and…
May 19, 2026
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An Aging Academic

I turned eighty-four early in 2026. Eight-four years old. It is hard to believe. Indeed, I am still in denial about this. We moved to a seniors’ complex in Waterloo, Ontario, one year ago, and this was the most difficult move of my life. I really felt that I didn’t belong here with all these…
May 18, 2026

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BlogBook Review

Hearing Vocation Differently: Meaning, Purpose, and Identity in the Multi-Faith Academy

Clark Kerr, former president of the University of California, once quipped that universities have become “a series of individual faculty entrepreneurs held together by a common grievance over parking.”Clark Kerr, The Uses of the University, 5th ed. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001), 15. In this context, Kerr also introduces the term “multiversity.” While playful,…
August 3, 2023
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Spiritual Murder 

The world is full of recrimination nowadays. There’s the online marketplace of terror, for one thing: doxxing, death threats, so-called “cancelling,” and just plain old ad hominem bomb throwing. There is the bloodthirsty tribalism that casts one’s opponent as an existential (and almost inhuman) enemy. And there is always, in abundance, that quiet world of “bitching…
August 2, 2023
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Becoming a Teacher

The things of the world call to us, and we are drawn to them—each of us to different things, as each is drawn to different friends.Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach, (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998), 105. — Parker Palmer I entered the world of academia several years ago as a complete novice. My love of…
July 31, 2023
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Introducing Christian Scholar’s Review Themed Issue: Vocation

I am grateful to the editors of Christian Scholar’s Review for their invitation to guest edit a special issue of the journal, focusing on vocation and higher education. Although vocation is an important theological concept, it has had a complicated historical sojourn; it therefore requires some unpacking. At various times and in various contexts, the…
July 27, 2023
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Interdisciplinary Research as a Sharing of Gifts, Part 1

For all their economic vulnerabilities, small Christian colleges, and universities might be the ideal environment for fostering interdisciplinary research. Given that the realities of size, scale, scope, and student load can serve to restrict the kind of projects faculty at these institutions can carry out, it makes sense to recognize our strength in this niche…
July 24, 2023