Survey Q: How does the Christian faith inform your message about alcohol?Participant: “We don’t really have a message about alcohol, aside from ‘don’t do it’.” When I worked in public policy, I once spoke at a governor’s conference in North Dakota. After my talk, I struck up a conversation with the Lt. Governor. She made…
Every year I offer a sociology of sport course at the conservative Presbyterian college where I teach. As this course takes place in the spring semester, I’ve been able to time a Super Bowl lecture to correspond with the actual event. Much of my lecture centers on identifying and analyzing the roles played by women…
It is a rare event when a scholar makes an argument that garners widespread academic and popular attention—such can become the stuff of legend. In 1993, Samuel Huntington did just that when he penned an article in Foreign Affairs entitled “The Clash of Civilizations?” In it, he posited that the end of the Cold War…
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…
Introduction What is occurring at the interface between religion and science is more important than ever before. There are a number of reasons for this, not the least of which are the ever-escalating culture wars pitting creationists on the one hand against evolutionists on the other. Evangelicals often find themselves caught in the middle, albeit…
Building on Miroslav Volf’s treatise Work in the Spirit, Donald W. Griesinger explores the theology of work as it pertains to the creative activities of Christian scholars, providing a theological grounding for those seeking greater integration in their lives by partnering with Christ in their scholarly work through prayer. Whether directed toward the church, the…
Although undoubtedly there is a strong current of skepticism running through the poetry of Philip Larkin, Don W. King argues that Larkin’s use of sacramental motifs suggests a pattern illustrating an ever-present—though often muted—fascination with transcendent meaning. That is, despite Larkin’s agnosticism, his frequent focus on sacramental motifs belies the idea that he dismisses completely…
American confidence in the “value” of higher education is plummeting. In 2015, 57% of Americans had “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education, but in 2023 that number fell to a mere 36%. What role might academics play in eroding this trust and how might Christian academics help reverse this…
In this essay, Dan Pinkston argues that the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky and the Irish rock band U2 occupy a similar place of importance within their musical worlds, and have a parallel record of artistic achievement and influence. The parallels in their musical and spiritual development are fascinating and, as this paper will show, give…
In January, the Florida Board of Governors removed Principles of Sociology as a general education core course option in all twelve Florida public universities. The verdict came a week after the Florida State Board of Education had already unanimously voted to remove sociology as a core course offering in all twenty-eight Florida public colleges. As…
Don W. King is Professor of English at Montreat College. Twenty-five years ago most books published on C. S. Lewis fell into two broad categories. On the one hand, many books extolled Lewis as a spiritual mentor, praising him for his cerebral engagement with a culture that often dismissed Christians as intellectual lightweights. On the…
Mark A. Peters is professor of music and director of the Center for Teaching and the Good Life at Trinity Christian College. He is president of the Society for Christian Scholarship in Music and book review co-editor for Christian Scholar’s Review. Whatever you learn, remember: the learning must make you more, not less, human.—Elie Wiesel…
In the arts, most of us will be familiar with the notion of a “classic.” If we take a college course in English literature, the history of art, or Western architecture, we will likely be introduced to human artifacts that are widely regarded as so important, so influential in shaping our culture, that a basic…
Business and legal history are not the most likely sources of Christian illumination. In this post, however, I will expose the contrasting viewpoints of God and fallen humanity through the tiny lens of a single legal form of business organization, the partnership. Partnerships, in one form or another, have been around since ancient times. One…
Christ-Animated Learning could occur in plenty of unexpected domains. Consider student conduct codes. As part of a larger research project, I have spent time looking at 366 student conduct codes from Protestant colleges and universities in America. One would think that these codes would be an ideal place for some Christian moral education to occur….
Stephen C. Johnson is Dean, Honors College, at Abilene Christian University. Jason M. Morris is Associate Dean, Honors College, at Abilene Christian University. Kristina M. Davis is Assistant Professor of Honors Studies and Communication at Abilene Christian University. Jeffrey O. Haseltine is Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, and Associate Dean, College of Education…
At first blush, the idea of thinking fast sounds desirable. In our culture, doing things quickly is often more highly valued than taking time. This preference translates into a tendency to give precedence to activities that do not require deep thought. Although it feels strange to have to make this argument, this preference for shallow…
Higher education institutions are encountering an unprecedented confluence of short- and long-term challenges. Despite the turbulent context, institutionally and individually we must perpetually work to sustain our liminal essence, while refusing to be defined by excesses. Because on these campuses, students are transformed into “whole and holy persons,” and equipped to engage in “God’s work…
In 1958, responding to a proposed screenplay of The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien wrote: “The canons of narrative art in any medium cannot be wholly different; and the failure of poor films is often precisely in exaggeration, and in the intrusion of unwarranted matter owing to not perceiving where the core…
Everyone knows that American Protestantism generally divided into fundamentalist and liberal camps in the 1920s. And many people know that fundamentalism derives from The Fundamentals, early-twentieth-century tracts that reduced the rich doctrinal heritage of Christianity down to five points of do-or-die orthodoxy. Neither of these putative facts, however, is true. This paper shows that The…
