Skip to main content
Blog

The First Artists, Part 2: Contingency and Inevitability

In the first part of this essay, I described how the twenty-first-century discovery of the oldest paintings on earth in Indonesia – including the Sulawesi warty pig – illustrates the main points of Darrel R. Falk’s On the (Divine) Origin of Our Species.Darrel R. Falk. On the (Divine) Origin of Our Species. (Wipf and Stock Publishers,…
October 22, 2024
Blog

The First Artists, Part 1: Consciousness and Imagination

Cave paintings and rusty ochre brushstrokes appear on the cover of Darrel R. Falk’s recently  published book, On the (Divine) Origin of Our Species.Darrel R. Falk. On the (Divine) Origin of Our Species. (Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2023). These earliest examples of art call out to us today. Falk describes the European cave paintings in the…
October 21, 2024
Blog

Intelligent Design’s Evolution

This past year, I have seen headlines flash across the start page of my Microsoft browser’s newsfeed that featured articles about the supposed chemical origin of life. Was it the result of aliens seeding our planet billions of years ago – a theory called Panspermia? Or an asteroid bombardment with trace amino acids and nucleic…
October 18, 2024
Blog

Teaching for the Real World

“Our textbooks today are much more focused on practical things.” The student’s comment, offered in a class on world language pedagogy as we discussed historical examples of language textbooks, stood out as requiring more response than I quite knew how to pack into the moment. It was true and it was false, depending on the…
October 16, 2024
Blog

Blessings from Heaven Above to Earth Below: Celebrating the Internal Karstic Conduits of Mount Hermon

Bright Hermon, with the dayspring on thy brow, and silver streamlets leaping round thy feet,— Shout forth thy ceaseless praise!                                                   —Horatius Bonar, 1881, Hymns of Faith and Hope You would hardly think that observing the hippopotamus in Africa near the southern extent of the Great Rift Valley would somehow be connected to Mount…
October 11, 2024
Blog

Stewarding Our Bodies: A Vision for Christian Student Affairs

Glanzer and Smith’s new book Stewarding Our Bodies: A Vision for Christian Student Affairs opens with a bold claim: “Christian student affairs professionals currently neglect students’ bodies” (11). Reflecting upon disturbing data that suggest as much, Glanzer and Smith argue that Student Affairs Leaders (SALs) should be instrumental in facilitating college students’ development in this…
October 10, 2024
Blog

“Only the Trying”: A Review of Leap of Faith

Today, I want to commend to you a new documentary that was released on October 4 in select cities: Leap of Faith. The movie is directed by Nicolas Ma and produced by Morgan Neville, both of whom were involved in making the wonderful 2018 documentary on Mr Rogers, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (Here I’ll also shout…
October 9, 2024
Blog

The Last Christian – Secularization and the Future

Secularization is inexorable. It is happening right now, all around you. The half-life of faith is getting shorter and shorter. The tipping point is upon us and, when it comes, the end game will play out with astonishing rapidity. Here or there rosy-eyed souls will see a little flutter of faith and call it revival,…
October 4, 2024
Blog

Faith-Based Community Clinical Sites: Creating a Faith-Infused Nursing Practice

In the realm of nursing education, few experiences are as profoundly transformative as clinical rotations in homeless shelters. These settings provide a unique platform for undergraduate nursing students to practice their skills while encountering the complexities of care for individuals experiencing homelessness. Undergraduate students all participate in the care of people experiencing homelessness for at…
Blog

The Reformation as Renewal: Retrieving the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church

Matthew Barrett’s The Reformation as Renewal: Retrieving the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church seeks to retell the story of the Protestant Reformation by focusing on the connection between the Reformation and the theological heritage of the medieval West. Drawing on the historiographical interventions of a previous generation, Barrett sets out to reveal that the…
September 26, 2024
Blog

The Ecumenical Evangelicalism of Isaac Ketler*

A self-identifying evangelical Christian college that welcomed prominent theologically conservative and liberal Protestants scholars and pastors to campus for a Bible conference might defy the expectations of many today. But this happened annually at Grove City College during the tenure of its founding president Isaac Ketler’s annual Bible conference in the late nineteenth and early…
September 20, 2024