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Writing Short Stuff

Reading these daily postings has become a refreshing ritual for me. As someone who likes books and long essays, I have been a faithful reader of the Christian Scholars Review since its beginning in 1970. Yet, as the blog has developed, the format of short daily pieces has come to be something I cherish. Early…
October 30, 2026
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The Problem with Siloed Religion Departments, a Lack of Incentives, and Christ-Animated Learning

Earlier this year, an article by the well-known Christian sociologist Christian Smith made the rounds. Entitled “Why I’m Done with Notre Dame,” Smith chronicled his frustration with the University of Notre Dame’s priorities and administrators' lack of effort in promoting its Catholic mission. I found his description of what happens at the University of Notre…
October 29, 2026
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A Conversation, So-Called

FIRST: I’ll tell you what I’d like to see in my classroom: genuine Socratic dialogue. SECOND: You’ve been reading too much Classical Education hype. What makes you think that’s the answer? FIRST: Formally, it just works. You’ve got to admit that Plato is so much more engaging than most philosophers, mostly because he wrote dialogues!…
October 27, 2026
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The Logic of Belief: The Design of the Universe

We do this thing at LeTourneau as we interview people for faculty positions – “Tell us about your faith journey.” Some call it giving your testimony. Many candidates branch off along two main paths: (1) I've always been Christian, since I was a small child - I can't remember anything else; or (2) they relate…
October 26, 2026
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The Rational Structure of Creation: What Organic Chemistry Reveals About the Logos

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being,sustaining all things by his powerful word. – Hebrews 1:3 Organic chemistry reveals a world of remarkable order. Whether one examines the molecular handedness of amino acids and sugars or the predictable mechanisms governing substitution, elimination, and addition reactions, the natural…

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Flourishing 2.0: The Justice of Shalom

In the immediate post-­war period, the writers representing Flourishing 1.0 primarily examined the crises of flourishing within the interior life—questions of meaning, selfhood, and the courage required to live amid despair. Yet they were also attentive to the broader cultural forces that produced such crises. Tillich, for example, warned that political systems such as Communism…
July 8, 2026
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Four Cultural Movements in the Search for Meaning, Justice, Happiness, and Well-­being: Flourishing 1.0–Staying Human in the Absence of Meaning

What does it mean to flourish? The Israelites in Babylon likely did not imagine that they would prosper in exile. Yet through the prophet Jeremiah, they were instructed to build houses, plant gardens, and seek the good of the city in which they lived, even knowing that the exile would outlast most of them. Flourishing,…
July 7, 2026
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Beholding the Birds of the Air: A Reflection

I am a teacher at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and have been a student of God’s creation all my life. My family and I attend Geneva Campus Church, where several years ago, Rev. Bill Vander Hoven came for three months to fill a pastoral vacancy. I saw him often during my student coffee…
July 6, 2026
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God, Christian Virtue, and Government

“For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.” Romans 13:4 When taking Russian lessons in Moscow, my Russian language teacher and I…
June 26, 2026
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Book Review of Mere Christian Hermeneutics: Transforming What It Means to Read the Bible Theologically

In Mere Christian Hermeneutics, Kevin J. Vanhoozer offers what may be his most pastorally ambitious and ecclesially conscious work to date. While firmly rooted in the technical world of theological interpretation, the book’s animating concern is not merely how Christians read Scripture, but who Christians are becoming as readers, and how that reading shapes faithful action…
June 25, 2026
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The Spring 2026 CSR Book Reviews

The review section of this Spring 2026 issue of Christian Scholar’s Review dovetails quite nicely with the content of the special theme issue guest-­edited by Bryan Gill, though the two parts were planned independently. The bulk of the review section is devoted to three review essays. All three essays (especially the first two) examine themes…
June 24, 2026
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Introducing the Spring 2026 Issue of Christian Scholar’s Review: Finding the Imago Dei in Health Care

Sunday, on the last official day of spring, we released our spring issue online, coinciding with the expected arrival of the journal’s paper copies in the mailboxes of subscribers and faculty members at our institutional partners. We pride ourselves here at Christian Scholar’s Review, with our small volunteer editorial team and a single paid graduate…
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America’s Low-Wage Earners

Twenty-five years on, Nickel and Dimed still reveals our continuing blindness—and its author’s as well This year marks a quarter of a century since the publication of Barbara Ehrenreich’s classic account of what life is like for low-wage earners: Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America. It is a book that continues to…
June 22, 2026
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If Jesus Were A Teacher Today…

What new insights might skimming 20+ online posts uncover about Jesus as a teacher? If you are like me, there can feel like a gap in knowing how Jesus taught compared to how you and I teach in the classroom setting today. It was surprising for me to find there’s very little specified content around…
June 18, 2026