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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…

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…

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.…

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…

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…

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…

Modern discussion of the liberal arts has emphasized the development of the individual critical thinker and not the art of thinking socially. Rick Kennedy summarizes the four-step craft of social thinking that was long taught in the pre-modern tradition of liberal arts. This intellectual craft was not specifically named by the ancients but is evident…

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…

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…

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,…

While it would seem that Pietism and Postmodernism share little to no common ground, Roger E. Olson notes that in fact there are several points where they are congenial with each other. Pietism was a movement for church renewal among German Lutherans in the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries. Its ethos of conversional piety eventually became…

In the 1980s the idea emerged that psychological problems are often caused by unremembered sexual abuse, and that healing requires retrieval of memory. While much of main-stream psychology later questioned the validity and/or reliability of such memories, many evangelical therapists and ministry leaders have continued to be “carriers” of recovered memory approaches. Using case study…

In this essay David W. Aiken argues that Bernard Lonergan’s contribution to recent Christian thought continues to be undervalued despite its depth, integrative scope, and relevance to contemporary issues. One such issue concerns whether methodological naturalism in the natural sciences warrants a reductionistic metaphysics, anthropology and epistemology. Lonergan’s holistic account of human intelligence and its…

Theologians have long explored the meaning of the biblical notion of the imago dei for our understanding of the complexities of human personhood. In recent years the focus has often been on the “functional-relational,” as opposed to an “ontological,” account of the imago. Richard J. Mouw reflects here on the ways in which these biblical-theological…

In this article, Yvonne S. Smith, Sharon G. Johnson, and Erik M. Hiller explore a theological view of competition. Competition is engrained in Western economic and social systems and Christians are conflicted about it. Is the God of love also the God of the competitive atmosphere of sports, business, or law? Or does God hate…

In this paper, Jack Mulder, Jr. argues that those who hold 1) the major Christological and Trinitarian tenets of the historic Christian faith and 2) the view that original sin and its psychological consequences are in some way inherited and not learned (which includes a wide swath of leading figures in the historic Christian tradition)…

In this essay Julie W. Morgan and Richard K. Olsen explore the utility of a dialectical perspective for approaching and engaging in communication as Christians. After defining dialectics from both historical and critical perspectives, the authors then outline generic dialectics imbedded in almost any communication. The authors draw on the works of Leslie Baxter and…

In this essay, Dan Pinkston argues that the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky and the Irish rock band U2 occupy a similar place of importance within their musical worlds, and have a parallel record of artistic achievement and influence. The parallels in their musical and spiritual development are fascinating and, as this paper will show, give…

Mary Quinn, Laura Foote, and Michele Williams argue that the growth in online learning and in the number of adult students provides opportunities for Christian colleges and universities to reach a larger segment of this population. The authors note that with this opportunity, care must be taken to keep the integration of faith and learning…

Walker Percy (1916-1990) was a Catholic writer whose six novels picture central characters who embark on searches for divine meaning. Rich Gray shows how Percy’s protagonists reject glib secular beliefs and quest toward Christian beliefs. In interviews and essays Percy articulated a theory of the Christian novelist in an agnostic culture, in which the novelist…