Blog

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…

“They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, ‘Do you see anything?’ He looked up and…

Outside the friendly confines of the CSR blogosphere, society is fragmenting (or perhaps you could say it is fragmented). Truth itself seems increasingly privatized and tribal, adrift in a sea of relativism, subjective interpretations, and bold-faced lies. Political debates have intensified into existential wars, revealing a culture that feels not merely divided, but antagonistic, hateful,…

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres - Mademoiselle Caroline Rivière - WGA11837 - Mademoiselle Caroline Rivière - Wikipedia The French painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was a beautiful embalmer of royalty. His paintings of emperors and aristocrats are as ravishing as they are uncanny, with their rubbery limbs, elongated necks and bovine eyes. His portrait of Mademoiselle Caroline Riviere,…

In the fundamentalist churches of my childhood, propositional truths were weapons of spiritual warfare, wielded to help your friends and harm your enemies. Propositional truths held the community together, and they held the world at bay. Disagreements about propositional truths split all three of the churches my family attended before I went off to college.…

In this special episode of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with David A. Hoag, President of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU). Hoag opens by discussing the investments Christian colleges and universities make in fostering relationship between faith and learning and how the CCCU is prepared to increase efforts…

As the editor of this blog for the past five years, I have never responded directly to other blog posts, but in the case of Dennis Hiebert’s recent three-part post, I realized I had such a deep disagreement with his core argument that I have decided to do so. I also hope this response may…

The first post in this series pondered problematic modern Christian conceptions of truth, and the second pondered prescribed classic Christian practices of love, arguing for its priority. The focus in both was not on compelling truths about God, nor virtuous love of God or nature. Instead, the conundrum was what Christians believe to be true…

Yesterday’s post unpacked the problematic character of modern positivist Christian conceptualization and prioritization of truth. Though truth undoubtably matters enormously, it was proposed that absolute truth about metaphysical matters is not attainable, that assertions of propositional truth claims are prone to exercising power and producing interpersonal alienation, and that in profound experiential (not necessarily epistemological)…