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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…
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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
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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
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The Faun Beneath the Lamppost: When Christian Scholars Talk About the Enlightenment

A wide range of contemporary Christian scholarship claims that a history of Enlightenment ethical thought, social science and epistemology is the first step to exposing the inadequacies of modern accounts of the good life. Michael Kugler argues instead that their attempts at critical historical analysis and explanation are unconvincing. Their narrative arguments are built on…
Michael Kugler
July 15, 2017
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Why Protestant Christians Should Not Believe in Mary’s Immaculate Conception: A Response to Mulder

E. Jerome Van Kuiken is an Associate Professor of Ministry and Christian Thought at Oklahoma Wesleyan University. Did God force pregnancy on Mary of Nazareth? The Winter 2012 issue of Christian Scholar’s Review presented Jack Mulder Jr.’s argument that non-Catholic Christians risk this startling implication by not accepting the Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Conception,…
April 15, 2017
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Organizing with the Spirit

Secular norms of managerial rationality disregard God’s involvement in organizations. If we acknowledge that God is present and active in social organizing, how do our understandings and practices of entrepreneurship and management change? Such a perspective reconceives organizing as collaborating with the Spirit of God. This article describes the Spirit’s role in organizing social systems…
April 15, 2017
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Wisława Szymborska, Adolf Hitler, and Boredom in the Classroom; or, How Yawning Leads to Genocide

Contemporary attitudes toward student boredom have varied greatly. Whereas some have viewed it as a relatively trivial, even inevitable fact of classroom life, others have sought remediation through improved engagement techniques. Lost in many of these discussions, however, is a clear sense of the moral stakes associated with boredom. Drawing upon the work of Polish…
January 15, 2017
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Narrative and Neighborliness

When challenged in Luke 10 by a cheeky expert in Mosaic law who asked what he must do to inherit eternal life, Jesus turns the question back on his interlocutor and inquires what the Jewish scriptures say. The scholar can easily rehearse the formula found in the Torah: love God, and love your neighbor as…
Susan VanZanten
October 15, 2016
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Human Embryo Metaphysics and the New Biotechnologies

Much of Christian scholarship has defended the Conception View of personhood, the idea that human beings have intrinsic value that begins at conception. However, modern reproductive technologies have led to new scientific insights into human embryology, without a matching increase in our metaphysical and moral understandings. A rigorous formulation of human nature and personhood is…
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A Self-effacing Gardener: The Unity of God’s Activity in Nature and Grace in the Theology of Austin Farrer

Jeffrey Vogel contends that Austin Farrer’s profound wrestling with the question of how best to speak about the divine-world relationship has ongoing relevance for contemporary theology. Though Farrer ultimately denies our ability to grasp the precise manner of God’s activity in the world, his idea that there is a unity between God’s activity in nature…
April 15, 2016
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Julian against Christian Educators: Julian and Basil on a Proper Education

In this article Benjamin D. Wayman examines two representative approaches to education in late antiquity—one by the pagan emperor Julian, the other by the Christian bishop Basil—and brings these approaches to bear on Christian higher education today. Engaging the work of Arthur Holmes, Wayman suggests that contemporary Christian liberal arts institutions exemplify Basil’s view of…
Benjamin D. Wayman
April 15, 2016