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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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Fallen Scholarship in the Ivory Tower: Resisting Simple Dichotomies

Last month I wrote about the Fall and what it means for Christian scholars, institutions, and the Church. Of course, the Fall also requires that we deal with bad arguments and replace them with better arguments and understandings. In a January Chronicle of Higher Education article about “Bad Religion in the Ivory Tower,” the secularist…
May 17, 2021
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Academic Freedom: From Ram-skit to Bull-dung

My first lesson in academic freedom came not long after completing my Ph.D., at which time I was invited to teach a course in Medieval Drama at a Research-I university. In addition to allegorical morality plays, wherein Everyman must negotiate attacks from the World, the Flesh, and the Devil, medieval playwrights dramatized Bible stories and…
May 14, 2021
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Belated Happy Earth Day (and many more)

I have never missed an Earth Day. That’s only because I was fourteen on April 22, 1970 when the whole thing started. I generally don’t make a big deal out of the annual observance, any more than Presidents Day or College Department Chairs Day (there must be one, right?). It’s not that I don’t care…
May 13, 2021
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Searching For the Soul of the University: An Interview with George M. Marsden

Risking understatement, George M. Marsden’s The Soul of the American University: From Protestant Establishment to Established Nonbelief sparked intense reactions in academe when released by Oxford University Press in 1994.For example, please see John Patrick Diggins’ “God, Man and the Curriculum,” The New York Times  (April 17, 1994, Section 7, Page 25).  Administrators of church-related…
May 12, 2021
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The Flourishing Teacher: An Interview with Christina Bieber Lake

I once heard a seasoned professor talk about curating his summer reading, intentionally including at least one book about teaching. If you’re similarly inclined, add Christina Bieber Lake’s The Flourishing Teacher: Vocational Renewal for a Sacred Profession to your list.Christian Bieber Lake, The Flourishing Teacher: Vocational Renewal for a Sacred Profession (Downers Grove, IL: IVP…
May 11, 2021
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Psalm 8 includes Computers

The moon and stars, flocks and herds, wild animals, birds and fish. Psalm 8 lists each of these as part of God’s creation. But how do computers fit into creation? To begin, Psalm 8 is a song of praise to God, the “creator of heaven and earth.” The psalm then goes on to list aspects…
May 10, 2021
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The Tragic Academic Neglect of Mothers’ Impact: And a Christian Remembrance and Call for Change

We cannot count on academics to study the most important realities in our lives (versus the latest academic fad). Motherhood is one of those important realities. Noble Laureate and University of Chicago economist James J. Heckman recently made this astounding observation, “hat we don’t have—and to me, it’s an amazing deficiency—we don’t any good economic…
May 7, 2021
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Prostitution and the Limits of Economic Reasoning

In my capacity as host of the podcast Faithful Economy, I recently had the opportunity to interview Scott Cunningham, an economist at Baylor, about his work related to markets for prostitution. Albeit a bit reluctantly, Scott made a powerful case for at least partial legalization of prostitution. You can listen to our conversation here. I…
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May 6, 2021