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What Librarians Can Teach Us about Christian Teaching

I find myself writing this post from what I perceive to be a rather unique position. After serving as a librarian at a Christian university for nearly five years, I have recently accepted an appointment to teach theology and apologetics in the school of divinity at that same institution. Reflecting on my time as an…
September 15, 2023
BlogBook Review

Redeeming Work: A Guide to Discovering God’s Calling for Your Career

In Redeeming Work, Bryan Dik provides an accessible and data-driven resource for Christians who want to explore the faith-informed career paths that align with their sense of calling. He does an excellent job integrating evidence-based vocational psychology research with scripture, theology, and his own experiences to provide an excellent tool for guiding and exploring multiple…
September 14, 2023
Blog

20 Years of Professing

This year marks 20 years since I became a full-time professor in Christian higher education. As I look back, I recognize two distinct stages in my academic life, not unlike the “two halves of life” described by the Franciscan priest Richard Rohr in his book Falling Upward. The first half of my career involved a…
September 13, 2023
Blog

When My Own Students Microaggress Against Me

For what seemed like hours, I stared in shock at the words on my computer screen. In a course feedback comment, a student had written, using a racial slur, that I was not qualified to teach the course because of my Asian identity. There was also the time that a student openly mocked Asian cultures…
September 12, 2023
Blog

Binocular Vision in Life and Vocation

“As humans we have two eyes to view the world; their combined binocular vision brings depth not available to either eye on its own.” — Sir John T. HoughtonJohn T. Houghton, In the Eye of the Storm ( Oxford: Lion Hudson, 2013.), 264. While curriculum vitae means “course of one’s life” its academic use normally…
September 11, 2023
Blog

Striving for Spiritual Wellness in 2023-2024

Ready or not, a new academic year is here! As soon as the calendar flips to August, my mind shifts from vacation to preparing for fall courses and setting goals for the new year. One goal on my list for 2023-2024 is spiritual wellness. Spiritual wellness is critical for my success as a Christian professor.…
September 6, 2023
Blog

Announcement – Saturdays at Seven: Conversations with Christian Thought Leaders Launches September 9, 2023

As the publisher for Christian Scholar’s Review, I have the privilege of interacting with thought leaders serving in a variety of contexts including colleges and universities, foundations, associations, media outlets, and churches. Despite the challenging times we face in higher education, those conversations provide me with hope about the vocation we hold in trust and—sooner…
September 5, 2023
Blog

Cultivating the Soil of Our Hearts for Charity

Let everyone give as his heart tells him, neither grudgingly nor under compulsion, for God loves the man who gives cheerfully. After all, God can give you everything that you need, so that you may always have sufficient both for yourselves and for giving away to other people. As the scripture says: “He has dispersed…
August 29, 2023
Blog

Ten Commandments for Freshmen Contemplating a Science Major

Classes for the Fall Semester will resume shortly on college campuses. Most of the students I teach are freshmen and their experience with chemistry was most likely sitting at home in front of a computer during COVID. In other words, they have learned next to nothing about chemistry. To help make up for this deficit,…
August 25, 2023
BlogBook Review

The Promise of Social Enterprise: A Theological Exploration of Faithful Economic Practice

One of the leading models for the integration of faith and business is social enterprise and Mark Sampson is among one of its more notable practitioners. Social enterprise, however, is subject to the criticism that it represents an unstable relationship between capitalistic activity and eleemosynary intentions. Modern capitalism has created great efficiency in the economies…
August 24, 2023
Blog

The Surprising Strength of Evangelical Civil Society

In June of 1976 I was one of the speakers at a conference at the University of Dallas. The theme of the conference was “The Laity: A New Direction.” I was initiated there into a group of people who were to meet regularly for the next few years to strategize about promoting the cause of…
August 23, 2023
Blog

The Courage to Begin

One morning in July I sat with some fellow faculty at the tail end of a writing retreat, and the conversation turned to the dawning realization that there is less summer before us than behind us, and a new semester is lumbering in our direction at what feels like increasing pace. Some shared their perennial…
August 22, 2023
Blog

The Reduction of Nursing Care to Disordered Nursing Practice: A Christian Analysis

Historically the nursing profession originated within a rich context of Christian values and beliefs. For example, in the Canadian context where I work and teach early Canadian nursing was managed and conducted by religious denominations, especially by Roman Catholic female orders.Kathy Hardill, “From the Grey Nuns to the Streets: A Critical History of Outreach Nursing…
August 18, 2023
Blog

Helping Your New Faculty with Christ-Animated Learning

Recently, the editor of this blog, Perry Glanzer, asked readers if they had an example of faculty development for Christian mission that has been helpful. Since I have served on the Faculty Development Committee for the College of Arts & Sciences at Regent University for five years, I thought I would share one. Before I…
August 16, 2023
Blog

Why Are Christian Campus Conversations about Alcohol So Anemic? Part II: A Substantive Christian Approach

A friend of mine recently shared that when talking with his daughter about her classes at a Christian university, he found himself repeatedly asking, “Did you discuss any constructive proposals?” Her consistent answer was, “No, we really did not have time.  We had to spend so much time on deconstructing structures of ____________” (with "deconstructing…
August 15, 2023