The publisher and editors of the Christian Scholar’s Review are pleased to announce the recipient of its annual award for best article. The winner of the Charles J. Miller Christian Scholar’s Award for volume 41 is Jim Halverson, professor and chair of History and Intercultural Studies at Judson University. His article, “Restored Through Learning: Hugh of St. Victor’s Vision for Higher Education,” CSR 41:1 (Fall 2011) pages 35-50, was selected by a panel of jurors who carefully and thoughtfully read each article published in volume 41; in their estimation “Restored Through Learning” best achieved the goals of Christian scholarship set by CSR.
Jim Halverson received his B.A. in Religion and Ph.D. in History from the University of Iowa. For the last sixteen years, he has served at Judson University; among other responsibilities, he does his best to follow Hugh of St. Victor’s example while teaching the required world history surveys and the freshman cornerstone course, Questions of Life: Entering the Judson Conversation. He is the author of Peter Aureol on Predestination: A Challenge to Late Medieval Thought (Brill 1998), and the editor (with Oliver Johnson) of Sources of World Civilization (Pearson 2004, Chinese edition: Peking University Press 2010) and Contesting Christendom: Readings in Medieval Religion and Culture (Rowman and Littlefield 2007).
In his award-winning essay Mr. Halverson notes that the evangelical academy has devoted a good deal of attention to the “Christian scholar” and “Christian scholarship.” While these discussions have born considerable fruit, they lack the scope to cast a vision for Christian higher education in general. He argues that the Christian academy needs to articulate a vision for Christian learning that encompasses all members of and stakeholders in Christian instructions of higher education. Since this is not the first time the Christian academy has confronted such a task, Halverson urges us to look at the educational theories of Hugh of St. Victor, a twelfth century scholar and teacher, as a suggestive template upon which to build such a vision. In offering an evaluation of Halverson’s essay one juror writes: “Halverson is to be applauded for calling to our attention a historical church figure—one who is not Augustine!—significant for a Christian philosophy of education . . . I think one of the values of his essay is that it allows for an alternative genealogy for the ‘creation-fall-redemption’ framework for those not belonging to Reformed circles. This essay also makes a good argument for relevance to the particular educational challenges of today, finding some middle ground between those who push for the traditional liberal arts model and those who embrace pre-professional programs.”
We commend Mr. Halverson for an article that is a model of insightful, interdisciplinary Christian scholarship. CSR thanks this year’s jurors, Carissa Smith (Charleston Southern University), Eric Jones (Regent University), and Darin Davis (Baylor University).
