Review and Response

By the power of the Holy Spirit, my maternal grandmother used to pick up rattlesnakes without harm. The church I have been a member of for decades now is affiliated with the Assemblies of God (though you might need a court order to find that out). This connects me to Amos Yong, an author of…

We wish to thank Timothy Larsen for his generous and critical engagement with our book. As a fellow heir of the Pentecostal and academic heritage represented in our book, he is uniquely situated to discern its potential contributions and shortcomings. He rightly notes our desire to develop a Pentecost vision of higher education that asks…

I tried to summarize faithfully The Holy Spirit and Higher Education, but as it is a co-authored, content-rich, 320-page treatise, that was a daunting task. Coulter and Yong have wonderfully provided their own summary—one that brings into focus aspects that I did not find a place for. Their reply deftly presents both the book’s tone…

The title of this book parallels George Marsden’s The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship,George M. Marsden, The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998). and the emphasis on Christian teaching is a welcome supplement to Marsden’s focus on Christian scholarship. Indeed, Marsden writes the foreword. This book is a significant complement to…

Since Elmer John Thiessen is one of the foremost philosophical thinkers in Christian education, we are grateful for his review. Furthermore, considering Thiessen’s contributions and his extensive teaching experience in pluralistic contexts we are similarly grateful for his claim that we “make a significant contribution to providing a more nuanced answer to the question as…

I will limit my response to the heart of our exchange, which has focused on how a Christian teacher’s personal convictions can be shared in a secular and pluralistic university classroom. Of special significance here is the fact that while G&A and I agree on their practical rules of transparency, we continue to disagree about…

T. M. Moore’s assessment of Pagans & Christians in the City is what any author hopes for—a review that is laudatory and charitable, but also comprehending and insightful. In this response, therefore, I might just say “Thank you” and stop there. However, Moore does call attention to some contestable choices in the book that in…

If there is, in the corpus of Jesus’ teaching, what might be considered a defining parable, my vote goes to the parable of the wheat and the tares (Matt. 13.24-30, 36-43). Here Jesus provides a framework for history and a template for thinking about the progress of the Kingdom of God. The parable covers the…

For those who teach at a Christian school, whether in grades K-12 or at the post-secondary level, there is an expectation that one’s faith is integrally connected with one’s teaching. For many, this takes the form of a philosophical or theological analysis of the academic content, often focusing on controversial issues or a more general…

A review of one’s work, especially a fair and kind one, is a gift. An invitation to address the matter further in response is another. In the present case, there is little cause for a response of the crossing swords variety, since Dave Klanderman apparently liked On Christian Teaching: Practicing Faith in the Classroom and…

Jack Mulder Jr. is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Hope College. In Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis writes the following about controversies surrounding the Blessed Virgin Mary: ...there is no controversy between Christians which needs to be so delicately touched as this. The Roman Catholic beliefs on that subject…

We are grateful for Ben DeVan’s review. He offers two major critiques of Paul Behaving Badly and three smaller, more granular critiques. We will begin with the simplest issues and work up to the more complex. Early in the essay, DeVan notes that the series could be improved by—or at least would benefit from—contributions by…

I want to thank Ben DeVan for his review of the “Behaving Badly” series. Iron sharpens iron, and any constructive critique is welcome. I also appreciate the opportunity to respond to his review. I found Jesus Behaving Badly particularly challenging to write for a variety of reasons. For one thing, a certain standard had already…

Ironically, for many Christians, the IVP “Behaving Badly” trilogy focuses on what is essentially their “trinity”: God, Jesus, and Paul. As much as I love Paul, I would never put him on the same level as the God of the Old Testament (YHWH), or the God of the New (Jesus). But perhaps the fact that…