Reviews

Few readers of Through a Glass Darkly: Suffering, the Sacred, and the Sublime in Literature and Theory will read it from start to finish; instead, most are likely to begin by seeking out sections that align with their teaching and research interests. Certainly, such an approach seems appropriate for a collection of loosely linked conference…

In 1992, a group of Christians at Harvard University started The Veritas Forum, hoping to promote discussion of the “big questions” that they felt were being ignored in the secular academy. The Forum has clearly been a success, staging high-profile events at universities throughout the United States and the world. A Place for Truth contains…

“We’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden” is a theme coming out of the 1960s era that was encapsulated by the popular Crosby, Stills, and Nash song titled “Woodstock.”Joni Mitchell, Woodstock, 1969, MCA Records International, Lain Matthews, MCA 6073-015. The implication is something has gone wrong, and we need to find a way…

Many children grow up wondering what they will become in life. Nonna Harrison invites her readers into her own reflections on these early childhood questions. Frequently she was not satisfied with the types of answers she received regarding her probing quest to understand life’s nature and purpose and how an individual can become a better…

A significant disadvantage attending the hyper-specialized, professionalized nature of so much academic production today is the absence of synthesis. Scholars in diverse fields often treat similar issues (concerning things like identity, society, and the nature of truth)—but from different vantage points and with different vocabularies. They seldom see that they are duplicating each other’s efforts,…

For the past year and a half I have served on the building committee of our Midwestern Lutheran church. Together with our architect we planned and then built a new sanctuary and fellowship hall in a remarkably short period of time. Little from my experience as an architectural historian prepared me for the conversations we…

In God of Liberty, Thomas Kidd presents a thoughtful and well-argued discussion of the role of religion in eighteenth-century America. Beginning with the Great Awakening and continuing through the Election of 1800, Kidd capably discusses ideas about faith and God and how they influenced the changes in America produced by the American Revolu-tion. In doing…

There are many ways for someone to tell her or his life’s story, and at least as many ways of hearing the story that is told. Stanley Hauerwas’s recounting of his life, like the man himself, is intriguing, in no small part because he recognizes the disagreements in meaning and method, together with the potential…

Michael Sherr’s book, On Becoming a Christian Educator in Social Work, begins with Sherr’s personal story, including his conversion from Conservative Judaism to evangelical Christianity and his reasons for writing the book. Sherr relates that the seeds for this project were planted while he and some colleagues were facilitating a workshop on faith-learning integration in…

Writing in the January 2010 issue of Diversity,Ferdinando Boero, “The Study of Species in the Era of Biodiversity: a Tale of Stupidity,” Diversity 2 (2010): 115-126. Ferdinando Boero declared that, “...the study of biological diversity is a mission from God.” I must admit that on first reading, this declaration and Boero’s use of quotes from…

God, grant me the serenityTo accept the things I cannot change;Courage to change the things I can;And wisdom to know the difference. This modified version of Reinhold Niebuhr’s “Serenity Prayer” may be the most recognizable prayer in America, with the possible exceptions of the Lord’s Prayer taught by Jesus (Matthew 6:9-13, Luke 11:2-4), the ubiquitous…

Challenging modern theologians and Christian ethicists who they believe have ignored the theological importance of everyday eating, David Grumett and Rachel Muers state in their preface to Theology on the Menu: Asceticism, Meat, and Christian Diet, “Food issues are not just about healthy eating, but about how humans live under God” (x). Their book provides…

American Protestants have taken part in presenting the Gospel in diverse cultural areas for over 250 years. Many Protestants have tried to be true to the biblical vision of many cultures, people groups, and languages united in their worship of God. Many also assume that within their own institutions of higher education this diversity would…

Since I earned my doctoral degree in communication studies in the 1970s, scholarship addressing the intersection of religion and communication has become a booming enterprise.More recently, researchers have started examining the rise of “new” digital media which enable religious groups to circumvent the mainstream and religious mass media gatekeepers at television and radio networks and…

The old adage states that you should not judge a book by its cover. In this case, it would be applicable to amend this saying slightly to state that you should not judge a book by its title. The title does the book a disservice in that it implies a superficial treatment of the highly…

When I arrived at Cornell University for graduate school, I sensed rather quickly thatscience and religion had a strained relationship on campus. The university’s founding president, Andrew Dickson White, had framed the relationship in 1896 with a two-volume work entitled A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom, and the university’s luminaries…

It is the perennial discussion topic at Christian university faculty workshops and seminars. It is the seemingly-elusive goal of the Christian college classroom. It is the subject of concern among education policy experts and educational philosophers. Simply stated, the questions raised by those interested in the integration of Christian faith and learning are nowhere near…

Guy Stroumsa’s new book is not so much about religion, or even the study of religion, as it is about the history of the comparative study of religion since the Enlightenment. More specifically, Stroumsa bases his research on the primary sources of the published works of the missionaries and scholars who were involved firsthand with…

Diana Garland, Dean of the School of Social Work at Baylor University, is well known for her contributions to family ministry, having engaged in numerous important research projects and having accumulated a bevy of valuable publications on family, faith, and ministry. In Inside Out Families: Living the Faith Together, Garland examines faith as it is…

It is refreshing to read a deeply philosophical book rooted in the author’s passion for social ministry. Ethna Regan has provided an argument for the proper manner in which to understand the language of human rights in the context of theological discussions about social justice, an argument seated in her years of work with street…