Liberal arts: the term designated for the education proper to a free person (Latin liber, “free”) as opposed to a slave. (Merriam-Webster dictionary) “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:34-36 Although the concept of a liberal arts education has existed for over fifteen hundred years, the way scholars…
Steven D. Smith’s The Disenchantment of Secular Discourse is an important book. I will be offering a point or two of criticism. That, however, takes nothing away from my judgment that Smith’s book is an intellectually imaginative and compelling analysis of an important public issue. The issue is this: it is said in many quarters…
I stood in the student-led chapel service singing along with a worship song that proclaimed, “Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending reckless love of God. Oh, it chases me down, fights till I’m found, leaves the ninety-nine.” Though drawing on the familiar imagery of the Parable of the Lost Sheep (Matthew 18:10-14; Luke 15:4-7), the words of…
I remember seeing the headlines and reading the stories while visiting relatives in Canada. In June of 2021, Sarah Beaulieu, an anthropologist who teaches at the University of the Fraser Valley, claimed to have found the graves of 215 Indigenous children at the site of a former Indigenous school in Kamloops British Columbia (later revised…
Feelings of tremendous pride well up when I hear about alums who are ascending career ladders on Wall Street, in Silicon Valley, or at locally based tech companies like Amazon. Then, I start to wonder if some of these grads are moving up because they are just good at helping their employers “make money,” but…
Feelings of tremendous pride well up when I hear about alums who are ascending career ladders on Wall Street, in Silicon Valley, or at locally based tech companies like Amazon. Then, I start to wonder if some of these grads are moving up because they are just good at helping their employers “make money,” but…
In his 2009 essay, “Finite Care in a World of Infinite Need” (CSR 38.3 [Spring 2009]: 327-333), Stanley Hauerwas suggests that, given the unlimited health care needs and limited health care resources in the U.S., Christians need to imagine an integrally Christian practice of medicine, which may include refusing potentially life-saving treatments. In this response…
Introduction Entering into the cathedral of Notre Dame for the first time, with its towering arches, brilliant stained glass windows, and intricate architecture, a sense of awe and wonder rush through the eyes, evoking contemplation of the cathedral’s magnificence. The flood of emotions can be overwhelming. These emotions are no less present when standing at…
Arnold’s Influence on Hartshorne In his intellectual autobiography, titled The Darkness and the Light (a title that is an allusion to a famous line from William Wordsworth’s poem “The Simplon Pass”), Hartshorne tells us that he grew up in a religious household; his father was an Episcopal minister. The seeds of his difficulties with orthodox…
Theologians have long explored the meaning of the biblical notion of the imago dei for our understanding of the complexities of human personhood. In recent years the focus has often been on the “functional-relational,” as opposed to an “ontological,” account of the imago. Richard J. Mouw reflects here on the ways in which these biblical-theological…
Mackenzi Huyser serves as Executive Director of Chicago Semester. What is the Cost of Segregation in Chicago? This question was explored in a March 2017 report released by the Urban Institute in partnership with the Metropolitan Planning Council. One of the three important findings in this research was that “Chicago continues to struggle as a…
Michael Vander Weele is Professor of English Emeritus at Trinity Christian College. If you looked up this review, chances are good that you will want to read this collection of essays for yourself—unless you have not read anything by Marilynne Robinson yet, in which case do that first. When I read page 128, part of…
Debates rage over the best direction for American conservatism, particularly in the wake of Donald Trump’s disruptive presidency. The three books reviewed here provide distinct diagnoses and prescriptions for American politics. Only one book, Yoram Hazony’s Conservatism: A Rediscovery, is primarily intended as a blueprint for American conservatism. Francis Fukuyama’s Liberalism and Its Discontents assesses…
George Marsden has taught at Calvin College, Duke University Divinity School, and the University of Notre Dame. His principal books include works on American evangelicalism, Jonathan Edwards, and on Christianity and higher education. He was a founding editor of Christian Scholar’s Review. I am truly grateful to Christian Scholar’s Review for sponsoring this symposium and…
Is the discipline of urban planning a religiously neutral affair? If the English Garden City movement is to serve as a worthy example of this discipline, certainly not. After noting its considerable influence on American New Urbanism, Lee Hardy explores in this essay the religious motivation of the Garden City movement through the figure of…
I became aware of The Shack by William Young (Windblown Media, 2007) the way I learn about many new books that I would probably never hear about otherwise: the father of one of my students sent me the novel via his daughter along with a request for an evaluation of its contents. It had not…
Nicholas Wolterstorff’s perceptive commentary on neo-Calvinist contributions to political activity is a welcome addition to discussions of Christian political engagement. Christian foundations of political thought are important and worthy of discussion, but in the current moment when fear and anger animate so much of American politics, Wolterstorff’s particular emphasis on political activity is especially prescient….
North American evangelicals display a growing concern to engage the public square with wisdom. This essay explores how the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers might contribute to a more robust understanding of public theology. It makes an argument in three movements: 1) it clarifies terms; 2) explores three public theologians as exemplars (Drs….
One of the most enduring and persistent images ancient Greco-Roman philosophers used to depict the struggle of the good life was the metaphor of life as a race. Writers as diverse as Epictetus and Cicero illustrated the moral struggle through the metaphor of a run or a marathon. There is a start, there are difficulties…
Universities, including Christian ones, have become quite comfortable with what some might describe as the “virtue” of honor. Although we may instinctively classify it as a favorable trait, honor—as it exists on college campuses today—has a troubled backstory. What is more, today’s faculty and administrators who esteem honor may not know about its contentious history….
