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Some colleagues and I recently undertook a national study of Christian faculty development programs at Christian colleges and universities. Although I will share a link to the academic publication containing the results when published, I want to share one of our conclusions. We realized in the end that Christian institutions need some fresh ideas in…

Prior to and throughout the recent Tokyo Olympics, we heard story after story about the sacrifice, determination, perseverance, and relentless pursuit of mastery and excellence characterizing various selected athletes. This is to be expected—networks strive to generate deep interest and, principally, maximize revenues through meticulously crafted, compelling narratives. Getting viewers to care will get viewers…

Knowles Memorial Chapel, a Neo-Renaissance structure designed by renowned architect Ralph Adams Cram and dedicated in 1932, is justly recognized as one of the nation’s most beautiful college chapels. Whether you are a member of Rollins community or a visitor to the campus, the Chapel is well worth a few minutes of exploration. I have a…

When we think about play, we often think about leisure pursuits. We play tennis or Scrabble. We play the saxophone or video games. We play with words. We play with others. We watch plays. Such pursuits often engage us deeply, even if we only see them as diversions. Educator, author, and toymaker Frank Caplan said…

This post originally appeared in Current.  Princeton University's Classics Department made national headlines this spring for its decision to add an additional track to its BA degree. While curricular reviews and changes rarely attract attention, in this case the new track proved controversial: It allows students to complete a BA in classics without taking any…

An earlier version of this post appeared as part of the editor’s introduction to the Fall 2020 issue of Faith & Economics. In my work as an economist over the last couple of years, but particularly at the last national academic economics conference I attended, I was struck by the wide disagreements that Christians have…

In a recent essay in First Things, Mark Bauerlein offered an account of the last half century (or more) of literary studies that is dazzling (in both its breadth and depth) and devastating (in its accuracy). While the history described in the article, “Truth, Reading, Decadence,” centers on developments in the field of English, the…

One of the problems Christians face in engaging today’s environmental challenges is appreciating the depth and breadth of our heritage. I’ll confess to a gap in my teaching. In the past, when I was assigning supplemental readings for environmental studies courses, I tended to stick to titles, like A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold, that are…

Liberal arts:  the term designated for the education proper to a free person (Latin liber, “free”) as opposed to a slave. (Merriam-Webster dictionary) “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:34-36 Although the concept of a liberal arts education has existed for over fifteen hundred years, the way scholars…

Established in 1935, the Wheaton College Science Station in the South Dakota Black Hills hosts the longest running off-campus program at the Illinois-based college and represents a pioneering effort for offering summer programs in field science for Christian higher education. Picture how different things were culturally and politically those 86 years ago. The year 1935…

“I need 2 more points, so tell me your favorite science/chemistry joke. All answers will earn 2 points.” It has become a tradition of mine to make this the last question of the final test in my freshman nursing chemistry class each fall. I have found that many students enter the course afraid of chemistry,…

In Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series, the character Lucien keeps a library of “every story that has ever been dreamed … novels their authors never wrote, or never finished, except in dreams.”Gaiman, Neil. "Season of Mists, Vol. 4." The Sandman (1992), p. 40. One shelf, presumably that of British authors, holds The Return of Edwin Drood by Charles…

Whatever rises must fall. Birds return to the forests of their birth, and salmon to the place of their spawning. Elephants (mythically) and humans, too, try to go home to die. Much of Creation is departure and return – but return in a different light. It is return, perhaps, with new maturity. Or return with…

Some years ago, I was sitting in my campus office minding my own business when the phone rang. It turned out to be Matt, a student who had been in a sequence of required core German courses that I had taught a few years earlier. He seemed breathless with excitement. It quickly emerged that he…

This article initially appeared in Current. I was on a train heading from Alexandria to Cairo. Next to me sat my friend Grace, a fellow student in the American master’s program we were just finishing. She was a Kenyan who had a radiant smile and a prominent accent that sent her English dancing and curling…

Our students are often our best teachers. Their actions often expose the ungodly perspectives and habits that have accumulated on us like barnacles on a ship. I encountered two stories while coding interviews from Baylor students that reminded me that I have some barnacles from difficult experiences about loving the unlovable.   If I had been…

Herman Bavinck was a late 19th and early 20th century theologian whose work has been attracting renewed attention by Christian scholars. A 2020 book published by Baker Academic about his life titled Bavinck: A Critical Biography, was written by James Eglinton, the Meldrum Senior Lecturer in Reformed Theology at the University of Edinburgh. What follows…

As many of us return to physical campuses this fall, mostly without masks, we are following the advice of classic sociologists: humans need proximity. It’s worth the trouble to regain this aspect of pre-pandemic life. As for me, I anticipate seeing students again with joy, but being on campus also brings the strong possibility of…

Editor's Note: Due to an early morning link problem with the e-mail sent Thursday, we are resending Katie Kressar's post Friday, July 23rd as well.  In addition, the Christ Animating Learning Blog will take a one week vacation next week. We will return on August 2nd.  Thanks, PLG Like many academics, I’m a small-town kid…

Universities, including Christian ones, have become quite comfortable with what some might describe as the “virtue” of honor. Although we may instinctively classify it as a favorable trait, honor—as it exists on college campuses today—has a troubled backstory. What is more, today’s faculty and administrators who esteem honor may not know about its contentious history.…