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An Appeal to Embrace Purposeful Mentorship

Writing in the pages of the New York Times, reporter Hans Sanders tells the story of Cris Hassold of New College Florida.Hank Sanders, “A Professor’s Final Gift to Her Students: Her Life Savings,” New York Times, May 11, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/11/us/cris-hassold-professor-new-college-will.html. A story that in so many ways captures the best of what the university can provide…
July 25, 2025
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That sense of nagging fear

That sense of nagging fear  There is a nagging fear I experience sometimes. I’m tempted to attribute it to something earthly and circumstantial - some specific, mundane event or condition that, once solved, will make the fear go away. But I know better now. This fear is repetitive and familiar. Finally, I begin to recognize…
July 21, 2025
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Review of Sarah Irving-­Stonebraker, Priests of History: Stewarding the Past in an Ahistoric Age

In Priests of History, Sarah Irving-­Stonebraker diagnoses a partial cause of the identity crisis currently plaguing Western culture, generally, and the Western Church, particularly. We do not know ourselves because we have neglected the past. We are “ahistorical,” a term used by Irving-­Stonebraker to describe the loss of “meaningful engagement with, and connection to, history”…
July 17, 2025
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Review of Christopher Watkin, Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture

Biblical Critical Theory is sparklingly clear and engagingly written. Part of the reason it is so engaging is that Christopher Watkin’s personal story is woven into the story without ever being intrusive or grating. As Christian academic writers, we can learn from the way he as a human being seeking truth and wholeness addresses us…
July 10, 2025

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Advising Students and Discerning Direction

The student who sat in front of me was having difficulty looking me in the eyes as he shuffled his hands. He slowly began to speak. He was a second-year engineering student having second thoughts about his chosen field of study. He knew he liked being creative, but he was becoming increasingly convinced that his…
March 11, 2021
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Guest Post: Why I am Abandoning Online Test Monitoring

Dear friends, I have decided to stop using the online test monitoring system.  I had felt conflicted about it throughout the semester last fall, because I was not convinced that it would prevent cheating and suspected it could worsen equity issues. Now I am finally abandoning it because it is bad for my soul and erodes…
March 10, 2021
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Enjoying the Bible?

I’m particularly thrilled to interview Matthew Mullins (Twitter: @MullinsMattR) this month, not only because his book Enjoying the Bible: Literary Approaches to Loving the Scriptures (Baker Academic 2021) is such a timely and insightful book, but also because Matt is my colleague at The College at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary where he serves as Associate…
March 9, 2021
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The Last Acceptable Prejudice

There’s been an ongoing, race-to-the-bottom-like debate about what actually constitutes the “last acceptable prejudice” in mainstream culture. Among a list of contenders, I want to focus on one that has been suggested elsewhere—a bias toward rural America and rural Americans. I highlight this bias, not because I have particular empirical support for it, although much…
March 5, 2021
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Counting the Saved

In the first weeks of 2021, during what were (please God) the deadliest days of the pandemic, a theoretical modeling study was published in the British medical journal, The Lancet. Behind the confidence intervals and bewildering acronyms is a testimony of God at work, bringing life and life flourishing where otherwise death and isolation would…
March 4, 2021
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Extending Hospitality When We Fear

Half a century ago, my parents were expatriates in Brazil during a volatile time of that country’s history. My father was a university chaplain and my mother a nurse in the local favela. Reflecting on what has unfolded in the US over the past weeks, my mother wrote to me: “We watch with anxiety what…
March 3, 2021
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Guest Post: At the Intersection of Sport and Faith

March Madness. The Masters in April. The Champions League in May. The NBA playoffs in June. The Olympics in July. We’re bombarded with popular sporting events to watch in the coming months, offering us a wealth of opportunities to consider the connection between sport and character even in COVID constraints. What does it mean to…
March 1, 2021