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Toward a Hermeneutic of Gravitas

This article briefly summarizes some recent psychosocial research that describes the posture of grievance from which many young adults operate today. It then recounts three stories of classroom encounters that illustrate how this posture affects the way young adults read classic Christian texts. Next, it analyzes this “hermeneutic of grievance” itself, showing how this reading…
February 28, 2022
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Fifty Years On: The History of the Christian Scholar’s Review

The academic year 2020-2021 marked the 50th anniversary of Christian Scholar’s Review (CSR), one of the leading interdisciplinary Christian academic journals. This paper examines the history of CSR, including its precursor The Gordon Review, and highlights some key leaders and important themes in the journal’s work. It also describes the journal’s ability to evolve along…
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Response to Comments on The Soul of the American University Revisited

George Marsden has taught at Calvin College, Duke University Divinity School, and the University of Notre Dame. His principal books include works on American evangelicalism, Jonathan Edwards, and on Christianity and higher education. He was a founding editor of Christian Scholar’s Review. I am truly grateful to Christian Scholar’s Review for sponsoring this symposium and…
George Marsden
October 27, 2021
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The Soul of the American University Revisited: A Review

Susan M. Felch is Emerita Professor of English at Calvin University and the former director of the Calvin Center for Christian Scholarship. She was the Executive Editor of the Calvin Shorts series and is the author or editor of numerous books including The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Religion (Cambridge University Press, 2016); Teaching and…
October 27, 2021
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The Soul of the American University Refreshed

Philip Ryken is the President of Wheaton College, where he has served since 2010. The author or editor of more than fifty Bible commentaries and other books, Dr. Ryken provides leadership on the boards of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) and the National Assocation of Evangelicals (NAE). He was recently appointed as…
October 27, 2021
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Playing Straight into God’s Hands: A Comparative Study of the Hindu and Christian Understandings of Play

Comparatively studying the Hindu theologies of lila and the Christian theologies of play can provide a common ground for interreligious dialogue on divine delight, divine presence, and human flourishing. In doing so, Christians can aim to build a robust and embodied theology of play that affirms similarities and identifies differences with other faith traditions while…
August 22, 2021
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Shame, Guilt, and the Practice of Repentance: An Intersection of Modern Psychology with the Wisdom of Calvin

Shame and guilt are important concepts within Christian theology. In much of the literature, however, these two concepts are lumped together, offering little if any distinction between them. By contrast, evidence-based psychological research on the topics of shame and guilt has flourished over the past 30 years, offering a careful and important distinction between shame…
June 1, 2021
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Transformative Learning Theory as a Hermeneutic for Understanding Tensions within Scripture

This article proposes that Transformative Learning Theory (TLT), particularly in light of recent advances in cognitive linguistics, is a fruitful means of teaching and interpreting tensions within Scripture. One of the key distinctions of TLT is that deep learning involves a crucial change in the learner, often induced by a crisis or a “disorienting dilemma”…
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Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen: Another Look

Creative individuals in every era have produced works that inspire and provoke their fellow citizens, challenging them to both confront distorted realities and reimagine better lives. Artifacts that have stood the test of time and critical reception usually elicit multiple interpretations among contemporaries and are reinterpreted by future generations. Ulti-mately, said works were eventually embraced…
May 10, 2021
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The Promise of Mimetic Theory as an Interdisciplinary Paradigm for Christian Scholars

This introduction gives an overview of mimetic theory’s three core ideas as first formulated in the work of René Girard, its general reception in the academy, and its close connection to Christianity. It surveys applications of the theory across the disciplines of the social sciences and humanities (as developed more fully by other articles in this theme issue)…
January 15, 2021
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Between the Gospel and Myth: The Biblical Critique of Persecution in Cane, Sanctuary, and Beloved

The Bible, in René Girard’s reading, reveals the violent foundations of social order and critiques the scapegoat mechanism used to transform the conflictual mimesis of human culture into unanimous arbitrary victimage. Girard classifies as myth all those conventional narratives that have been used to justify foundational violence, concealing the guilt of the persecutors and the…
January 15, 2021