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Anti-Intellectualism and the Integration of Faith and Learning

How have evangelical faculties fared in their efforts to move beyond the scandal Mark Noll so sharply exposed nearly a quarter of a century ago? This is the question I take up in this essay, writing as a mid-career faculty member of a Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) institution. What follows are historical…
July 15, 2018
Article

The Parachurch Down Under: A Case Study

A Scottish clergyman once described Australia as the “most godless place under heaven.”James Denney, as cited in Thomas R. Frame, Anglicans in Australia (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2007), 125. Although his comment was ill-informed, as a provocative statement it clues us in to something of a popular sentiment regarding the religiosity of…
July 15, 2018
Article

Addressing the Evangelical Mind-Body Problem: The Local Church as Learning Organization

are those who have become lifelong learners and lovers of others. … We have entered the story of another people, Israel, and we entered as learners.—Willie James Jennings, “The Place of Redemption: Putting the Church on the Ground”Willie James Jennings, “A Place of Redemption: Putting Church on the Ground” (lecture, Slow Church conference, Englewood Christian…
July 15, 2018
Article

What is the State of the Evangelical Mind on Christian College Campuses?

Does Mark Noll’s The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind still have relevance today, more than two decades after its publication in 1994?1Mark Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994). As a historian who has spent 16 years in a Christian college affiliated with the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU)…
July 15, 2018
Article

Psychological Contributions to Understanding Prejudice and the Evangelical Mind

Much has been written about evangelicalism and the scandalous or otherwise state of the evangelical mind from historical and theological perspectives.See, for example, Harriet A. Harris, Fundamentalism and Evangelicals, Oxford Theological Monographs (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998); George Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture: The Shaping of Twentieth Century Evangelicalism, 1870–1925 (New York: Oxford University Press,…
July 15, 2018
Article

Having Kids: Assessing Differences in Fertility Desires between Religious and Nonreligious Individuals

Although it is empirically established that traditional religion enhances fertility, how it increases childbearing is not clear. This paper is an exploratory qualitative study investigating how religion influences decisions about intended fertility and family size. Most specifically, Michael Emerson and George Yancey ask how, if at all, do the religious understand children and family differently.…
April 15, 2018
Article

A Christian Perspective on Belonging: A Case Example of a Gentrifying Urban Neighborhood

When neighborhoods gentrify, residents can be physically displaced as well as psychologically displaced. This psychological displacement can occur even if the resident is not physically displaced. In this article, Keith E. Starkenburg and Mackenzi Huyser explore the significant impact that neighborhood changes have on one’s attachment to place as expressed through the concept of Christian…
April 15, 2018
Article

The Security of the Self: The Bazaar Versus Contemplation

This paper by Dennis L. Sansom examines and compares the ideas about the nature of the self in the twelfth-century theologian St. Peter of Damaskos and the twenty-first-century philosopher Richard Rorty. Peter understands the self as a flexible reality defined by a person’s ability to orient intentions, desires, and beliefs toward ever increasingly important ontological…
April 15, 2018
Article

Response to Dr. Ryken’s Essay on a Christ-Centered Presidency

I first heard Dr. Ryken present the substance of this essay at a conference of Christian college and university presidents. Resonance filled the room. Heads nodded with empathy and affirmation. I have also had opportunities to see the ways in which Dr. Ryken integrates the roles of prophet, priest and king as he leads Wheaton…
William Robinson
January 15, 2018
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Christ-Centered Presidency: The Threefold Office of Christ as a Theological Paradigm for Leading a Christian College

Colleges and universities look for great leadership from their presidents—now more than ever. Economic turmoil, technological innovation, rapid globalization, increased government regulation, media scrutiny, public skepticism about the mission of higher education, student unrest, the volatile climate of social media, and the sheer complexity of campus life in the twenty-first century all require exceptional management,…
Philip Ryken
January 15, 2018
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Response to Dr. Phil Ryken’s CSR Article on Christ’s Threefold Office as the Paradigm for Presidential Leadership

Introduction and Overview Phil Ryken offers a compelling treatment of Christ’s threefold office for thinking about the work of college and university presidents in our faith-based contexts. In his wonderful, precise style he offers an overview of our current challenges while integrating the most formative literature to extend our understanding. His goal is straightforward: If…
Gayle D. Beebe
January 15, 2018
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Response to Christ-Centered Presidency: The Threefold Office of Christ as a Theological Paradigm for Leading a Christian College

I first heard a version of this paper delivered by President Ryken at the 2016 annual meeting of the Council for Christian College and University presidents. I must confess that my initial reaction was lukewarm at best. It seemed presumptuous and even self-serving that we would compare our roles as presidents to the sacred Biblical…
Shirley A. Mullen
January 15, 2018
Article

Christian Perspectives on Learning

David A. Hoekema is Professor of Philosophy at Calvin College. George Marsden was a professor of History at Calvin College (1965–1986), Duke Divinity School (1986–1992), and The University of Notre Dame (1992–2008). His publications include The Soul of the American University (1994) and Jonathan Edwards: A Life (2003), winner of the Bancroft Prize. Richard Mouw…
George MarsdenRichard MouwNicholas WolterstorffAlvin Plantinga
November 15, 2017
Article

Doers of the Word: Shakespeare, Macbeth, and the Epistle of James

William Shakespeare’s references to biblical material have been much written about, but little attention has been given to a connection between Macbeth and the New Testament Epistle of James. James addresses issues common to secular and sacred literature—issues such as the nature of wisdom, the conditions of unity, the difference between appearance and reality, a…
Judith Anderson
July 15, 2017
Article

What is an Evangelical? And Does It Matter?

It is an understatement to say that confusion abounds over the words “evangelical” and “evangelicalism.”This is a shortened and revised version of a paper first given at the Henry Symposium on Religion and Politics, Calvin College, April, 2015. I would like to thank George Marsden and Corwin Smidt for reading an early draft of this…
Stephen V. Monsma
July 15, 2017