Skip to main content
Blog

The Problem with Concept Creep and “Trauma”

A student I knew well confided in me last year, reporting that she was experiencing emotional distress related to trauma from her early childhood and needed an extension on an assignment. I did not doubt the veracity of the student’s report, nor did I feel it was my role to probe further into her struggles.…
September 8, 2026
Blog

The Anxious Generation

Jonathan Haidt has called this generation of students “The Anxious Generation.” That’s an interesting choice of words. Kierkegaard thought that anxiety is what we feel when we become aware that we are, despite everything we can point to as an excuse, fundamentally free, and therefore fundamentally responsible. We feel anxiety because we know we’re free;…
September 3, 2026
Blog

Scholarship and Vocation

One Sunday in the 1950s, when I was in my teens, my uncle and aunt had joined my parents for refreshments after our Sunday evening church service. Before the delicacies were ready, my dad guided my uncle downstairs to my basement aviary and aquarium room to see my nesting parakeets and tropical fish. As they…
August 31, 2026
Blog

Words Are (but Shouldn’t Be) Cheap (Part 2)

May my spoken words and unspoken thoughts be pleasing even to you, O Lord my Rock and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:14 TLB I could take a whole lot of words to talk about the need to pray for my students and colleagues and their families. Yet, I’ve found the more time and effort I put…
August 28, 2026

Subscribe

for new content notifications, access to video and audio conversations with our writers, and invitations to our events.

Blog

A Failure of Stewardship: The Problem with General Education

“ has been one of those places where we have told ourselves who we are.”Frederick Rudolph, Curriculum, A History of the American Undergraduate Course of Study since 1636 (San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 1977), 1. —Frederick Rudolph One of the odd things about most forms of general education is how they fail to prepare students for…
September 2, 2022
Blog

Christian Over-Spiritualization of Mental Disorders 

“Exvangelicalism” is a relatively new term for a much older phenomenon: those who’ve been raised as evangelicals coming to realize that they no longer identify as such, and intentionally reckoning with the continuing impact of that tradition in their lives. Philosophers have not had much to say about this phenomenon – until now.  The Evangelical Philosophical Society sponsored the panel “Exvangelicalism and Evangelical Philosophy”…
August 30, 2022
Blog

Trusting God in Crossing Race and Ethnic Boundaries

(Book Review: Sherwood Lingenfelter, Teamwork Cross-Culturally: Christ-Centered Solutions for Leading Multinational Teams. Baker Academic, 2022). In a world where just a word (not to mention phrases, topics, or modes of interaction) may cause offense or even trauma, perhaps the safer course may be to keep to ourselves and at least do no harm. The very…
August 25, 2022
Blog

Defending the Faith or Defeating the Faithful?: Christian Philosophy and the Practice of Self-Reflection

“Exvangelicalism” is a relatively new term for a much older phenomenon: those who’ve been raised as evangelicals coming to realize that they no longer identify as such, and intentionally reckoning with the continuing impact of that tradition in their lives. Philosophers have not had much to say about this phenomenon – until now.  The Evangelical Philosophical Society sponsored the panel “Exvangelicalism and Evangelical Philosophy”…
August 23, 2022
Blog

Rugged Dreams: What Today’s Students Lack

“…they want to hang on to different parts of religion that they find to be beneficial to their lives—but strictly on their terms.”Melinda Lundquist Denton and Richard Flory, Back Pocket God: Religion and Spirituality in the Lives of Emerging Adults (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020), 226. - Description of Emerging Adults When I met…
August 22, 2022
Blog

COVID: Me, Not Me, and Freedom in Christ.

On June 1st, while driving to meet family for brunch on a beautiful Sunday morning, tiredness overcame me. I told my husband I would drop him off, return home to take a little nap, and pick him up a couple of hours later. Once home, I made a beeline to the couch. I didn’t read…
August 19, 2022
Blog

The Importance Of How We Describe

“The way in which we describe the world determines what we think we see. What we think we see determines how we act on what we think we see. Descriptions matter.” This summer I had the privilege to hear Dr. John Swinton speak. He is Chair of Divinity and Religious Studies at the University of…
August 18, 2022