FEATURED PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLE

Filter

Intellectual Pilgrimage: Christians in the Contemporary Academy

May 19, 2025
The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship became an instant classic when it was released by Oxford University Press in 1997, but I must admit that I always disliked the title. While it is an effective attention-­grabber, the text itself is far more nuanced and polite than the title presages. Additionally, the word “outrageous” conveys neither…

LATEST BLOG ARTICLE

Blog

Addressing Reductionistic “Nothing but” Scholarship: The Conversation around a New Definition of “Evangelical,” Part 2

I remember teaching a weekend course on American Christian history in the late 1990s. Since it was a weekend course for working adults, I used several videos in those late Saturday afternoon hours when eyes glazed and heads nodded. I found some great videos about the history of American Catholicism and African American Christianity, but…

LATEST EPISODE

Saturdays at Seven Conversation Series

“Bridge to the Church” ft. Lipscomb University’s Candice McQueen I Saturdays at Seven – Season Two, Episode Thirty-Six

In the thirty-sixth episode of the second season of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with Candice McQueen, President of Lipscomb University. With extensive service in both K-12 and higher education settings, McQueen starts by discussing the educational benefits that emerge when greater integration between grade levels or years in school occurs.…
Article
May 19, 2025

Mending the Christian Imagination: Place, Race, and Calling in Christian Higher Education

By the middle of spring semester, talk with graduating seniors in my department often include the question: what will you be doing next year? That question reflects the fact that a career is an important aspect of vocation. American Christians often pray about questions of calling such as what work they will do, or who…
Article
May 19, 2025

All Quiet with Darwin: Animal Suffering and Divine Benevolence in Historical Perspective

For many centuries, the belief in God as the Creator and Sustainer of the universe was undisputed in the Western world.For this article, I will use the following definitions: Christians are those who believe that there is someone who created the universe and has been maintaining it ever since; atheists are those who do not…
Article
May 19, 2025

Making Sense of Christian Learning

Introduction Christian higher education finds itself at a significant crossroads. Cultural upheaval, significant shifts in college enrollment, concerns around the enduring value of a college degree, the impact of artificial intelligence, and many other factors swirl about amidst ongoing financial pressures.Michael Smith, “The Public is Giving Up on Higher Ed,” Chronicle of Higher Education, October…
Article
March 11, 2025

Theologically Navigating Cinematic Multiverses with C. S. Lewis

The term “multiverse” has gained popularity in the last decade as a storytelling trope exploring alternate timelines based on different choices characters do, or could, make. Yet, while the term may have found popularity in recent years, particularly due to the popularity of the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this existential thought process is…
Article
March 11, 2025

Disability as a Fundamental Anthropological Situation: Shi Tiesheng’s Christian-­Philosophical Reflection

Motivation and Introduction “When we see this man, first of all, the basis of what we know of him is his wheelchair.” This is how he was described by Pipi 皮皮,Pipi 皮皮, “Canque 残缺 ,” in Wozhiwu 我之舞 , ed. Shi Tiesheng 史铁生 (Cheng Chung Book Company, 2004), 254. Pipi 皮皮, formerly known as Feng…
Article
March 11, 2025

Toward a More Responsible Spirituality of Culture: Where Is God at Work?

One of the unnoticed losses resulting from the increasing polarization of American culture over the last decade is thoughtful—that is reasoned and biblical—conversation about God’s presence in what is going on. In fact, I want to argue in this article that, in the heat of battles over this or that ethical issue, this Presence has…

Latest from The Christ Animated Learning Blog

The CSR blog is published daily with contributions from over 30 experienced scholars and practitioners discuss how Christ animates learning across a broad range of fields. The CSR blog provides a forum that both creates and curates interdisciplinary conversations about faith and learning in a way that draws and informs leading Christian scholars and practitioners from around the world.

Blog
May 28, 2025

Addressing Reductionistic “Nothing but” Scholarship: The Conversation around a New Definition of “Evangelical,” Part 2

I remember teaching a weekend course on American Christian history in the late 1990s. Since it was a weekend course for working adults, I used several videos in those late Saturday afternoon hours when eyes glazed and heads nodded. I found some great videos about the history of American Catholicism and African American Christianity, but…
Blog
May 27, 2025

Addressing Reductionistic “Nothing but” Scholarship: The Conversation around a New Definition of “Evangelical,” Part 1

Christian scholars interested in Christ-animated learning have long observed that one major danger to such scholarship is reductionism. George Marsden helpfully summarized the problem in his book, The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship, “Once we have a convincing explanation at the level of empirically researched connections we are inclined to think we have a complete…
Blog
May 23, 2025

Still Navigating Between the Scylla of Secularism and the Charybdis of Fundamentalism

When George Marsden published The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship in 1997, I was a couple years away from completing my PhD in English. I was a young Christian studying at a state university in exactly the kind of academic environment hostile to religious faith that Marsden addresses in his book. Having been educated entirely…
Blog
May 22, 2025

Intellectual Pilgrimage: Christians in the Contemporary Academy

The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship became an instant classic when it was released by Oxford University Press in 1997, but I must admit that I always disliked the title. While it is an effective attention-­grabber, the text itself is far more nuanced and polite than the title presages. Additionally, the word “outrageous” conveys neither…
Blog
May 21, 2025

Catholic vs. Protestant

“In the one Christ, we are one.”                                          -motto of Pope Leo XIV The Catholic Church has recently elected a new pope, not quite three weeks after the death of Pope Francis on Easter Monday. Meanwhile, I have been thinking about Christian education in the city of Seattle, where I teach at a Protestant university…
Blog
May 20, 2025

Introducing the Spring 2025 Issue of Christian Scholar’s Review

The standard format for each issue of Christian Scholar’s Review over the past fifty years has typically begun with three or four peer-reviewed articles, followed by book reviews and occasionally article-length extended reviews. In this issue, we are altering our traditional format to begin with a book review forum curated by our new book review…

Subscribe

for new content notifications, access to video and audio conversations with our writers, and invitations to our events.

Explore The Christian Scholar’s Review

Established in 1970, Christian Scholar’s Review is a medium for communication among Christians who have been called to an academic vocation. Its primary objective is the publication of peer-reviewed scholarship and research, within and across the disciplines, that advances the integration of faith and learning and contributes to a broader and more unified understanding of the nature of creation, culture, and vocation and the responsibilities of those whom God has created. It also provides a forum for discussion of pedagogical and theoretical issues related to Christian higher education. It invites contributions from Christian scholars of all historic traditions, and from others sympathetic to the task of religiously-informed scholarship, that advance the work of Christian academic communities and enhance mutual understanding with other religious and academic communities.

Read the Current Issue