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“Elite culture” is a dubious thing. It can often feel like a harmful construct designed to keep control of those who already have it. If this view is correct, then there’s nothing excellent, or even especially better, about elite culture - it’s only a code deployed by those “in the know” to exclude others. Not…

Recently, especially after Elon Musk passed the trillionaire mark, many people posted online about the ways Musk’s money could help the poor. Others, including famous politicians, then chimed in about what could be done with lots of billionaires' money. Unsurprisingly, no one posted about what they were currently doing with their money or other possessions…

A rabbi friend was leading a series of evening discussions about the Sinai commandments for folks in his synagogue, and he invited me to join him in the session dealing with coveting. Some business scandals were much in the news at the time, so we did give some attention to the topic of greed in…

For many Christian scholars, disability studies rarely come to mind when they think about the future of theological and missiological discourse. Yet it should. Globally, individuals with disabilities are among the largest unreached groups, with an estimated 90–95% never having encountered the gospel. In the United States, almost 59% do attend a religious service (2).…

A student I knew well confided in me last year, reporting that she was experiencing emotional distress related to trauma from her early childhood and needed an extension on an assignment. I did not doubt the veracity of the student’s report, nor did I feel it was my role to probe further into her struggles.…

As mentioned in a post last month, one thing I have noticed over my twenty-four years of graduate teaching at a Christian university is this: Undergraduates from secular universities come into our programs focused on figuring out how to be a Christian in the world, since that has been their experience and pressing need. Indeed,…

Jonathan Haidt has called this generation of students “The Anxious Generation.” That’s an interesting choice of words. Kierkegaard thought that anxiety is what we feel when we become aware that we are, despite everything we can point to as an excuse, fundamentally free, and therefore fundamentally responsible. We feel anxiety because we know we’re free;…

What will our resurrected bodies look like? Ample ink has been spilled upon such a question. Augustine, for example, believed our bodies would be redeemed as if they were in the prime of life. He further mused upon the gender, height, weight, and even the length of hair and nails of our resurrected forms. So,…

One Sunday in the 1950s, when I was in my teens, my uncle and aunt had joined my parents for refreshments after our Sunday evening church service. Before the delicacies were ready, my dad guided my uncle downstairs to my basement aviary and aquarium room to see my nesting parakeets and tropical fish. As they…

May my spoken words and unspoken thoughts be pleasing even to you, O Lord my Rock and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:14 TLB I could take a whole lot of words to talk about the need to pray for my students and colleagues and their families. Yet, I’ve found the more time and effort I put…

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer. Psalm 19:14 KJV Daily (if not multiple times a day!), I pray Psalm 19:14 for myself. As a professor, writer, and speaker, I spend a lot of my day, every day, occupied…

This issue’s book review section contains two review essays, each of which examines multiple books on a common theme, and four reviews of individual books. The first review essay, “Rest and Sabbath: A Review Essay,” is written by Amy Davis Abdallah, who teaches practical theology at Ashland Theological Seminary. Abdallah’s essay examines three recent books…

With today’s blog, I’m pleased to introduce the summer issue of Christian Scholar’s Review. Our Spring issue was sadly delayed, largely due to printing schedules, so I am delighted to have this issue in hand (or on screen) for many just as the academic year begins. With decades of the rhythms of the academic year much more real…

In a fascinating conversation published in Advance magazine a few years ago, Shirley Hoogstra interviewed Anne Snyder and David Brooks about their impressions of the kind of Christian education happening on our CCCU campuses.  Are we doing enough, Shirley asked, to be a “leaven” in the larger academy, helping “to transform things for the better?”…

In Part 1 of this series, we shared the story of how the Leading with Character Fellowship was built: a six-week community of practice scaffolded around the Leading with Character online course, designed to bring relational accountability, weekly small groups, and shared formation to what might otherwise have been a solo online experience. Two of…

About a year ago, the two of us were power walking in Seattle when the conversation turned to a free online course called Leading with Character — one that JoAnn, along with an incredible group of global scholars, had recently designed. The course was about to launch, and the anticipation was palpable. As someone new…

Like 82% of Christian higher education institutions, Baylor does not require students to be Christians. So this past month, with the help of my colleague Kevin Dougherty, I decided to drill down into our 2026 Senior Baylor Faith and Character data to find out about the experiences of non-religious students at Baylor. What are their…

As mentioned yesterday, one of the great things about many Christian students entering Christian colleges is that they often have a purpose, and for over a third of them, that purpose is a God-focused one and not simply to be happy, obtain comfort and security, or focus on themselves in some other way. For instance,…

Editor’s Note: This post is the first in a three-part series addressing how we deal with purpose and the good life in Christian higher education.  I remember having a conversation some time ago with the leader of one of the large Christian college partnerships. In the midst of the conversation, I found it surprising that…

Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” – Mark 6:31 It has been nearly ten years since I resigned my position in industry as the CEO…