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Should there be a distinctively Christian approach to engineering? If so, is it possible? After all, Christians and non-Christians seem to agree on all the technical details in engineering, like integration, derivation, Fourier transforms, and finite element analysis. So why do we take a distinctly Christian approach to engineering? The first and foremost reason that…

Dear Non-Believing Colleagues: My open letter is divided into two parts. The first one opens with a parable of sorts. An atheist professor once approached a colleague with a sensitive question. The latter was a religiously devout academic from a distant foreign country who appeared to hold traditional views. “In your view,” she asked, “is…

The following excerpt from Nadya Williams, Christians Reading Classics, is published with permission from Zondervan Academic. *** Sometime in the mid-fourth century BC, a young man, Ariston, was walking home one evening from the shrine of Persephone in Athens. Suddenly, a middle-aged man named Konon along with his son and a couple of other associates…

In my class on disabilities, I recently experienced one of those sacred moments when I could see how Christ animates learning—not through curriculum or lesson structure, but through the hearts of students. From the very first day, I sensed something different about this group. Their responses, their willingness to listen, and their genuine care for…

One intriguing question that has puzzled scholars in the study of history has been: why did science as we know it today develop in the West and not the East? After all, one could argue that Asian cultures had empirical interests and cultural humility that could have fostered a similar sort of study. In the…

Over the past twenty years, the needs of university students have changed significantly. As Jonathan Haidt adeptly chronicles in his Anxious Generation, mental health and loneliness, depression, and anxiety are rampant among today’s youth. COVID only exacerbated this. Recognizing these challenges, two Whitworth professors from disparate disciplines set out to craft a course to address…

It’s common to observe that digital technology has undermined the assumption that institutions are trustworthy. Some people lament it, and others celebrate it, but everybody sees it. Thanks to the Internet, institutions have lost much of their authority to shape common knowledge. This certainly includes institutions of higher education, Christian and otherwise. It’s less common…

In the present university world, we talk a lot about impact. Our research is measured by its impact on our academic discipline, according to how often it is cited and by whom. Woe to the professor whose research always winds up in journals with a low JIF. The leading accreditor in the field of business,…

Hunter’s overall point is well taken, though: new efforts at undergirding democracy became more focused on reason (internally derived ideas) or on natural law (externally derived absolutes), and less so an amalgamation of the two, feeding eventually into a culture war. For instance, John Dewey had great faith in our capacity to reason our way…

Hunter’s overall point is well taken, though: new efforts at undergirding democracy became more focused on reason (internally derived ideas) or on natural law (externally derived absolutes), and less so an amalgamation of the two, feeding eventually into a culture war. For instance, John Dewey had great faith in our capacity to reason our way…

James Davison Hunter wants us to know things look bad because they are bad and have been so for quite some time: the United States is not only facing stark polarizations in our time, but, he argues, these polarizations are a result of the longstanding fault lines within our foundations for democracy. In this long-awaited…

Editor's note: Images Courtesy of St. Michael's College School “Why speak of muscular Christianity?” asked an academic to a presenting colleague at a sports history conference I recently attended. The questioner made it clear that, in his opinion, sport historians have no need for religion in their field of study. The statement sounded sensible, as…

I am late for class. More precisely, I arrive in the classroom too close to the start time for my liking. I frantically go through the pre-class ritual: log into the podium computer, open my PowerPoint file, lay out lecture notes, grab a few whiteboard markers, find the attendance sheet, and take a big sip…

Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and other streaming services can provide an insightful international education if you want one. With movies and television shows from any country with enough money to trot them out, one can get a good idea about what appeals to the popular passions of numerous different cultures. As an American viewer, what…

In yesterday’s post, I pointed out how Dante’s Paradise helps one see the primacy of love. The arete of love is eternal, while all of the records, championships, trophies and praise in sport will pass away. In this final post, I will address the implications that the eternal love of God, to which Dante points…

In yesterday’s post, I argued that a broader measure of athletic excellence is necessary. Philosophic reflection and theological insight both suggest that an accurate assessment of arete must be done against an eternal horizon. Dante’s Paradise is particularly valuable in revealing that horizon. In short, in light of eternity, our loves – both inside sport…

These posts conclude a series – done over several years – which examines how Dante’s Divine Comedy sheds light on the world of sport. The first post used the Inferno to illuminate the nature and place of courage in sport. The second post used Dante to examine the doctrine of Purgatory and the implications it…

This excerpt from (Excerpted from the concluding chapter of Ron Highfield, The Christian University & The Academic Establishment. Sulis Academic Press, 2025, pp. 195-203. Reprinted with the permission of the author and publisher. To download the full chapter and read the Table of Contents, go to the publisher page for The Christian University.)Book Excerpt from…

Christian universities and colleges that accept non-Christian students, which is the majority of Christian universities, always face the challenge of loving our non-Christian neighbors sacrificially while remaining faithful to our love for God (and by extension the institution’s Christian mission). The reason why doing both is so difficult stems from a common human reality: We…