Review and Response

I thank Professor Howard for his attention to my book. I am seriously considering his objections. My book was written during a time of a COVID-­19 pandemic and other global threats and a great division in the world, and the Catholic Church. Many of those threats seem even more serious now, three years later. I…

When an influential priest (the Czech, Templeton-­award winning author, teacher, and theologian Tomáš Halík) criticizes “ecclesiastical authorities” while seeking to advance the agenda of another ecclesiastical authority (in-deed, the highest of them all: Pope Francis, to whom the book is dedicated), one can’t help but be hopeful for or at least curious about the future…

I appreciate Father Halík’s response to my review of his book. Let me reiterate that it’s an impressive work replete with valuable insights and many nuggets of wisdom and sanity. Despite the criticisms that I offered, his and my analysis of contemporary Christianity/Catholicism overlap considerably. In wondering whether forces extrinsic to the church have caused…

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…