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The primary claims of the first edition of George Marsden’s book, The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship, remain as salient and persuasive as they were thirty years ago: First, Christian academics may—I will argue should—be doing their scholarship from a Christian point of view (more shortly on what that might mean in practice), and second,…

The first edition of George Marsden’s book The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship appeared the same year I completed my doctorate. I eagerly read it and it immediately became a touchstone book for my early career. And so, it was with great enthusiasm that I began reading the second edition. How have the ideas aged?…

I remember teaching a weekend course on American Christian history in the late 1990s. Since it was a weekend course for working adults, I used several videos in those late Saturday afternoon hours when eyes glazed and heads nodded. I found some great videos about the history of American Catholicism and African American Christianity, but…

Christian scholars interested in Christ-animated learning have long observed that one major danger to such scholarship is reductionism. George Marsden helpfully summarized the problem in his book, The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship, “Once we have a convincing explanation at the level of empirically researched connections we are inclined to think we have a complete…

When George Marsden published The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship in 1997, I was a couple years away from completing my PhD in English. I was a young Christian studying at a state university in exactly the kind of academic environment hostile to religious faith that Marsden addresses in his book. Having been educated entirely…

“In the one Christ, we are one.”                                          -motto of Pope Leo XIV The Catholic Church has recently elected a new pope, not quite three weeks after the death of Pope Francis on Easter Monday. Meanwhile, I have been thinking about Christian education in the city of Seattle, where I teach at a Protestant university…

The standard format for each issue of Christian Scholar’s Review over the past fifty years has typically begun with three or four peer-reviewed articles, followed by book reviews and occasionally article-length extended reviews. In this issue, we are altering our traditional format to begin with a book review forum curated by our new book review…

Editor's note: What follows is a letter that the author wrote to his daughter at the outset of her college search. Dear Madeleine, As you continue to prepare for college, I want to share a bit of my mind and heart, not for the particular university you attend, but for the kind of university you…

In "The Anxious Generation: A Christian Educator’s Reflection," I explored insights from Jonathan Haidt's book from a Christian perspective. I specifically paralleled the rise of anxiety among young people with the concepts of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration, demonstrating how these themes could enrich Haidt’s analysis. In his book, Haidt offers a way to reverse…

Note: This post is part 2 in a two-part series. Part 1 provided a general introduction to the importance of deep learning dispositions not just to students' growth in subject-matter competence but to spiritual growth. This was followed by an exploration of how two (of five) dispositions explicitly facilitate spiritual formation when applied. Today's post…

Note: This post is part 1 in a two-part series. Today's post provides a general introduction to the importance of deep learning dispositions not just to the growth of subject-matter competence but to spiritual growth. This is followed by an exploration of how two (of five) dispositions explicitly facilitate spiritual formation when applied. This call…

“companion” (n.)c. 1300, "one who accompanies or associates with another," from Old French compagnon "fellow, mate, friend, partner" (12c.), from Late Latin companionem (nominative companio), literally "bread fellow, messmate," from Latin com "with, together" (see com-) + panis "bread."Online Etymological Dictionary, “Companion,” (Etymonline.com, 2024), http://www.etymonline.com/search?q=companion. Enrollment in world language courses has seen a sharp decline in recent years.Kingson, Jennifer A. “College Students Bid…

“Certainty is the great enemy of unity. Certainty is the deadly enemy of tolerance... If there was only certainty and no doubt , there would be no mystery and therefore no need for faith. Let us pray that God will grant us a Pope that doubts.” So implores Cardinal Thomas Lawrence, compellingly played by Ralph…

In my Counseling Theory & Practice class for undergraduate psychology students, the first skills practice session focuses on the reflection of feelings. As such, many of the guidelines for this session spotlight what to say and how to say it. For example, I provide students with a list of “feeling” words to add to their…

It comes as no surprise to anyone working at an institution of higher education today that the hiring of adjunct faculty by U.S. colleges and universities has been on an upward trend. Since the 1970s, continuing economic pressures (including sharp increases in the cost of higher education and the impact of the 2020 COVID pandemic,…

Religious institutions of higher education often distinguish themselves from their secular counterparts in terms of something called “purpose.” Sometimes the idea is that the two kinds have different purposes; sometimes it’s that one is purposeful in a way that the other is not (as in the argument that “secular” means trying to be “neutral” between…

The Bible is silent about the existence of life on other worlds. With the exception of the angelic host—both good and evil—nowhere in Scripture is it explicitly stated that there are other races of beings anywhere in the universe that might give rise to UFOs. Genesis simply states God created celestial objects, "to divide the…