I first heard a version of this paper delivered by President Ryken at the 2016 annual meeting of the Council for Christian College and University presidents. I must confess that my initial reaction was lukewarm at best. It seemed presumptuous and even self-serving that we would compare our roles as presidents to the sacred Biblical…
Introduction and Overview Phil Ryken offers a compelling treatment of Christ’s threefold office for thinking about the work of college and university presidents in our faith-based contexts. In his wonderful, precise style he offers an overview of our current challenges while integrating the most formative literature to extend our understanding. His goal is straightforward: If…
The title A Voice to Be Heard suggests that the voices of Christian entrepreneurs require attention since they have not always been heeded in the past. Perhaps in religious circles the phrase “Christian entrepreneur” has even been scoffed at or ignored. In A Voice to Be Heard: Christian Entrepreneurs Living Out Their Faith, Richard Higginson…
As Christian educators and their institutions feel increasingly overwhelmed by unprecedented challenges yet champion ideal concepts, Daniel J. Treier highlights the neglect of human finitude in theological approaches to education. He briefly maps out the major approaches and sketches the theological history of finitude before exploring the concept in Ecclesiastes. In light of this biblical…
This essay interprets poems by Robert Frost and Richard Wilbur alongside illustrative anecdotes from philosophical works by Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. The four texts have in common the attention they give to the human misperception of phenomena. Considered together, they make the case that occasional misperception is not a defeater for ordinary human confidence…
Both science fiction (SF) and science fiction criticism offer great possibilities for rigorous examination of our ethical assumptions and cultural presuppositions. In his essay, Joshua Matthews argues that Christian literary criticism and pedagogy can benefit from integrating SF into our scholarly activities and our classrooms. Although SF academic criticism tends to downplay religion and theology,…
By and large, the discipline of political science does not take religion seriously. The typical member of this particular scholarly guild sees religious belief and affiliation not as causes of political action, but rather as consequences of political or economic interests. Religion, at most, is a device that savvy elites use to hoodwink gullible masses…
The year 2018 marks two milestone anniversaries: the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of Samuel Huntington’s original “Clash of Civilizations” essay in Foreign Affairs and the seventeenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. After those attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Huntington’s predictions of Muslim-Western clashes appeared vindicated. But his…
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…
Charles Taylor identifies a shift in Western culture in the 18th century around the idea of “authenticity,” a shift toward valuing individual people for their original perspectives, their unique ways of being human.[1] As Western thinking was making this shift, a brother and sister in northern England began packing picnic lunches and wandering around some…
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…
It is hardly possible to examine comprehensively the state of the evangelical mind today without giving careful attention to the impact of digital media. The rise of digital media continues to disrupt and transform communications, education, business, entertainment, politics, forms of social organization, and more. Roughly half the global population today uses the Internet; in…
As we near the twenty-fifth anniversary of Mark Noll’s The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, those who wish to make sense of its legacy confront a rather curious puzzle. If the book aimed to energize a generation of evangelicals to establish themselves in elite universities, to produce credible, meaningful scholarship, and to leave a record…
In the forty-first episode of the second season of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with Philip J. Schubert, President of Abilene Christian University. Reflecting upon his personal experience at Abilene Christian University (ACU) , Schubert opens by exploring the role satirist publications play on college campuses. When the president is the focus, Schubert discusses how such efforts can allow leaders to seem more approachable. He shares how boundaries concerning such forms of humor can be cultivated as well as how satirist publications can help communities differentiate the trivial from the critical. Schubert then shifts to unpacking his calling as an accountant, the variety of previous roles he filled at ACU, and how his underlying rationale for his service as president is focused on creating an environment in which students can flourish in their own ways as he did when an undergraduate. Schubert closes by discussing the relationship ACU shares with the Churches of Christ (or Restoration movement) and how that relationship animates the academic vocation that educators at ACU exercise.
I wish to begin by thanking Christian Scholar’s Review for the opportunity and privilege to comment on the second edition of George Marsden’s Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship. I first read this book as a student at Grove City College in the mid-2000s, where it was assigned in an upper-level history seminar. I have been…
I wish to begin by thanking Christian Scholar’s Review for the opportunity and privilege to comment on the second edition of George Marsden’s Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship. I first read this book as a student at Grove City College in the mid-2000s, where it was assigned in an upper-level history seminar. I have been…
In the thirty-fifth episode of the second season of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with Jon S. Kulaga, President of Indiana Wesleyan University. Kulaga begins by discussing the details of his service during his college years as a campus radio DJ, highlighting which songs from the early 80s he would proudly play in his home today as well as songs from the early 80s he would not play in his own home today. He also talks about the communication skills he developed while serving as a campus radio DJ and how he began to think of that service as being part of the larger educational mission of the university. Kulaga then shares details concerning his calling to serve the Church and, as time passed, how that calling to serve the Church came to focus on leading Church-related universities. Over the course of his career, that leadership included roles in student affairs, academic affairs, advancement, and as a president. A common thread uniting those expressions of service is they took place at institutions that are part of the Wesleyan theological tradition. Reflecting on that experience, Kulaga details the commitments that define Church-related colleges and universities that are part of the Wesleyan theological tradition and, in particular, how those commitments find expression in curricular and co-curricular educational programs. Kulaga then closes the conversation about how those commitments also inform the academic vocation as well as how the Church and the university can work more closely together in the years to come.
In this special episode of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with David A. Hoag, President of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU). Hoag opens by discussing the investments Christian colleges and universities make in fostering relationship between faith and learning and how the CCCU is prepared to increase efforts to resource member institutions in relation to that priority. Those efforts include David’s appointment of John Addleman who will work with an advisory board to oversee the preparation of related programs and materials. Hoag then discusses the influences that mentors such as Dennis F. Kinlaw and authors such as Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C. and Ernest L. Boyer had on his calling to education. That calling and the service Hoag sought to offer compelled him to accept appointments at his alma mater, Asbury University, Greenville University, Trinity International University, and eventually as president of Warner University. Hoag then details his appointment as the CCCU’s president, the ways serving as an association president differs from serving as a university president, and his plans for how the CCCU can be of even greater service in years to come to its institutions. Hoag closes by explaining how he understands the qualities and characteristics of the Christian academic vocation and how the health of that vocation is dependent upon the health of the relationships colleges and universities share with the Church.
It is time to look around the corner As in all other spheres of higher education, religious colleges and universities today are experiencing a transformation. These schools must chart a path forward in a complex environment marred by a growing mistrust of the academy, increased skepticism about the value of a college degree, and a…
In this special episode of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with David A. Hoag, President of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU). Hoag opens by discussing the investments Christian colleges and universities make in fostering relationship between faith and learning and how the CCCU is prepared to increase efforts to resource member institutions in relation to that priority. Those efforts include David’s appointment of John Addleman who will work with an advisory board to oversee the preparation of related programs and materials. Hoag then discusses the influences that mentors such as Dennis F. Kinlaw and authors such as Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C. and Ernest L. Boyer had on his calling to education. That calling and the service Hoag sought to offer compelled him to accept appointments at his alma mater, Asbury University, Greenville University, Trinity International University, and eventually as president of Warner University. Hoag then details his appointment as the CCCU’s president, the ways serving as an association president differs from serving as a university president, and his plans for how the CCCU can be of even greater service in years to come to its institutions. Hoag closes by explaining how he understands the qualities and characteristics of the Christian academic vocation and how the health of that vocation is dependent upon the health of the relationships colleges and universities share with the Church.
