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When and How Should We Respond to Unjust Laws? A Thomistic Analysis of Civil Disobedience

Keith D. Wyma argues that a coherent, well-grounded Christian perspective on civil dis- obedience is possible, and can be found in the work of Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas gives crisp guidelines regarding when civil disobedience could be morally allowable—or even obligatory—and supplies a “test” to determine whether a given method of disobedience is morally appropriate. The…
January 15, 2014
Article

Reframing the Faith-Learning Relationship: Bonhoeffer and an Incarnational Alternative to the Integration Model

The faith-integration model, with its working assumption that “All truth is God’s truth,” has become the standard approach for many scholars at evangelical colleges and universities as they seek to understand the relationship between faith and learning. In this essay, Kevin D. Miller proposes that the integration model harbors an imperialistic impulse and proposes instead…
January 15, 2014
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Will the Evangelical Church Remove the Color Line?: Historical Reflections on Divided by Faith

Sociologists Michael Emerson and Christian Smith asked in their book Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America: will the evangelical church remove the color line? Phillip Luke Sinitiere offers a “history” of Divided by Faith since its publication in 2000. This article traces out the book’s impact on scholars, accounting…
October 15, 2013
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Rehabilitating Willow Creek: Megachurches, De Certeau, and the Tactics of Navigating Consumer Culture

Introduction The American religious landscape is increasingly dominated by the influence of megachurches. A common criticism of megachurches is that they reinforce the bad habits of consumer culture. They do so by commodifying religion for the easy consumption of the religious consumer. Using Vince Miller’s account of consumer culture, and Michel De Certeau’s theoretical project…
October 15, 2013
Article

Problems and Possibilities of Sociology as Prophetic

Many Christian sociologists have experienced the juxtaposition of those two identities as casting them into a socially prophetic role. Sociology often places the Christian sociologist as one who speaks to the established Christian community rather than for it. Dennis W. Hiebert traces the development of the classic distinction between the sociological concepts of priest and…
October 15, 2013
Article

(Re)Considering a Critical Ethnorelative Worldview Goal and Pedagogy for Global and Biblical Demands in Christian Higher Education

Today’s world demands that we prepare learners to confront worldview implications for living in a multicultural and pluralistic world. One way we are doing this is through cross-cultural programs, domestically and internationally. While Christian higher education is increasing the number of students in these programs, Naomi Ludeman Smith, D.Min., asks if our institutions can show…
July 15, 2013
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Evangelical Paideia Overlooking the Pacific Rim: On the Opportunities and Challenges of Globalization for Christian Higher Education

What does it mean to do Christian higher education in global context? More specifically, what does this entail for specifically evangelical projects in higher education? Part of the answer to this question involves engaging in dialogue with non-Western traditions of education. This essay by Amos Yong is motivated by the challenges and possibilities attending such…
July 15, 2013
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Art as Invitation: Considering New Paradigms for Scholarship and Global Engagement through the Charis Exhibit

Until recently, art has commonly been treated as ancillary to the educational mission and intellectual discourse that are at the core of Christian higher education. Using the exhibition Charis: Boundary Crossings—Neighbors, Strangers, Family, Friends as a case study, Curator and Project Director Rachel Hostetter Smith argues that art has a distinct capacity to serve as…
Article

“His Studie was but Litel on the Bible”: Materialism and Misreading in Chaucer’s Physician’s Tale

Joshua J. Stigall notes that because Chaucer’s Physician’s Tale is generally considered the least interesting tale in the Canterbury Tales it has not received critical engagement on the scale that other tales, like the Wife of Bath and the Knight, have received. Moreover, when the tale is discussed, Chaucer’s characterization of the Physician in the…
April 15, 2013
Article

Risk and Responsibility in Global Environmental Governance

The fundamental problems of global environmental governance are scarcity (a relative lack of resources with which to satisfy our relatively abundant goals), tragedy (the necessity of choosing between competing goods or rights, a corollary of scarcity), and risk (a measure of the likelihood of a tragic outcome). This article by Noah Toly examines the origins…
April 15, 2013
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Natural law, Sexual Anthropology, and Sexual Licitness

Traditionally, Christianity has forbidden fornication, claiming that it is an offense against God. But why might God see it as a transgression? Miguel A. Endara contends that natural law reasoning applied to sexual anthropology helps us to discover that fornication promotes human objectification and existential fragmentation. In accord with natural law, that which undermines human flourishing is morally illicit.…
January 15, 2013
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Neuroscience and Cognitive Psychology Insights into the Classical Theological Debate about Free Will and Responsibility

In recent years significant advances have occurred in both fields of neuroscience and cognitive psychology which have provided further comprehension regarding the biological structures underlying intentionality and decision making. In this essay, Tobias A. Mattei reviews the insights such empirical data might provide to the classical theological debate about human will and responsibility. After analyzing the positions of John…
January 15, 2013
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John Foster and the Integration of Faith and Learning

The “integration of faith and learning” has become a touchstone of many Evangelical Protestant higher education institutions in recent decades. Martin Spence argues that modern Evangelical scholars and teachers have intellectual forbears who long ago raised similar questions about the relationship between faith and learning. The author introduces one such individual, the nineteenth-century British Baptist…
January 15, 2013
Article

“My God is a Rock in a Weary Land”: A Comparison of the Cries and Hopes of the Psalms and African American Slave Spirituals

Despite the nearly three millennia that separate them, the psalms of the ancient Israelites and the spirituals of the African American slaves are remarkably similar, reflecting their communities’ similar milieus, emotions, and convictions. In this article, Elizabeth Backfish compares these musical manifestations of the heart, arguing that Israel’s subjugation in exile produced similar musical effects…
October 15, 2012
Article

John Foster and the Integration of Faith and Learning

The “integration of faith and learning” has become a touchstone of many Evangelical Protestant higher education institutions in recent decades. Martin Spence argues that modern Evangelical scholars and teachers have intellectual forbears who long ago raised similar questions about the relationship between faith and learning. The author introduces one such individual, the nineteenth-century British Baptist…
October 15, 2012
Article

Comenius: Dead White Guy for Twenty-first Century Education

Gretchen Schwarz and Jill Martin argue that contemporary Christian evangelicals often perceive American public schools as evil, and many have retrenched into their own private schools. These schools generally offer a highly traditional, narrow, even classical curriculum. In contrast, Comenius, one of the Reformation era’s outstanding scholars and educators, developed a wealth of ideas that…
Article

Recovering the Christian Practice of Dying: A Response to Stanley Hauerwas’ “Finite Care in a World of Infinite Need”

In his 2009 essay, “Finite Care in a World of Infinite Need” (CSR 38.3 : 327-333), Stanley Hauerwas suggests that, given the unlimited health care needs and limited health care resources in the U.S., Christians need to imagine an integrally Christian practice of medicine, which may include refusing potentially life-saving treatments. In this response essay,…
July 15, 2012