“I want it all, I want it now”Queen Your kingdom come.Your will be done,on earth as it is in heaven.Jesus In their song, “I Want It All,” the rock band Queen famously described the outrageous desire to want it all and want it now as characteristic of the cries and dreams of youth. Empirically speaking,…
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….
In the eighteenth episode of the second season of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with André Stephens, President of Fresno Pacific University. Stephens opens by discussing the history of the Fresno Pacific Idea Statement, the revisions it underwent since its inception in the 1960s, and the ways it creates frameworks for conversation and communal identity. In particular, Stephens emphasizes the pivotal role the Idea played as the university sought to emerge from the challenges posed by COVID-19. Ream then asks Stephens to unpack his calling to higher education, the service he provided in admissions and student development at Biola University, and the discernment process which led to his appointment as Fresno Pacific’s president. One of the dimensions of Fresno Pacific’s identity that appealed to Stephens during that discernment process was the university’s commitment to embrace underserved students—many of whom reside near the university in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Stephens addresses the ways he and his colleagues prepare to engage, challenge, and celebrate students. Ream and Stephens then close by discussing the relationship Fresno Pacific shares with the Mennonite Brethren, the ways Stephens has sought to nurture that relationship, and the ways that relationship impacts how faculty and student success is cultivated and recognized.
In the sixteenth episode of the second season of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with Rev. Daniel S. Hendrickson, S.J., President of Creighton University. Hendrickson begins by discussing the unique commitment Creighton makes to prepare health care professionals on its campus in Omaha but also on a campus it recently established in Phoenix. On both campuses, future leaders learn what it means to participate in the healing mission of Jesus Christ and how such a calling extends to the poorest of the poor. Ream and Hendrickson turn to Hendrickson’s own calling to serve as a priest, as a member of the Society of Jesus, and how that calling is expressed in the leadership he seeks to offer the Creighton community as its president. A detailed understanding of that calling is also found in how Hendrickson shared his ideas in Jesuit Higher Education in a Secular Age. Ream and Hendrickson also explore the leadership Hendrickson seeks to exercise as Chair of the Big East Conference’s Board of Directors, the challenges presently being posed to the student-athlete experience, and the ways Creighton and the Big East seek to enhance the education afforded student-athletes amidst these challenges. Finally, Ream and Hendrickson close by discussing the Jesuit charism of magis or greater and how the Church forms people to see more in themselves and in others because of what God sees in them.
With today’s blog, I am pleased to introduce the Winter issue of Christian Scholar’s Review. As I write this, there’s not much winter left in the Pacific Northwest with the crocuses in bloom and hummingbirds fliting across my study’s window. But as has been the case with so much of our cattywampus pandemic lives, the…
In the thirty-eighth episode of the second season of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with Robert D. Kelly, President of the University of Portland. Drawing upon his experience as a curricular and co-curricular educator, Kelly begins by discussing the state of community on college campuses and the ways that declines in its perception are linked to increases in students experiencing psychological duress. Drawn from the charisms of the Congregation of Holy Cross, Kelly goes on to describe how they seek to foster community at the University of Portland as defined by the concept of “residentiality” and an environment in which all community members are seen, known, and loved. Kelly then discusses how the charisms that animated the universities he attended impacted his education and vocational discernment process that led him from residence life to a university president. Kelly discusses his appreciation for the sense of community he found at the University Portland when he arrived and how he has sought to enhance it as president. He then closes the conversation by discussing the ways that institutions such as the University of Portland contribute to the Church’s efforts to fulfill its mission in the world.
In the thirtieth episode of the second season of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with Rev. Emmanuel Katongole, Professor of Theology and Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Katongole opens by discussing how he came to understand reconciliation and that despite the stubbornness of sin, God is at work in the world, inviting all of us to play a role in that larger story of reconciliation. He then shares how he came to be called to the priesthood, the two times he enrolled in seminary, and how the first time he enrolled yielded a sense of purpose that made all the difference the second time he enrolled. Katongole discusses how he understands home, how he values the childhood and the connections he shares with the people of Uganda, but also how anywhere he lived (including Southern Europe, Northern Europe, the American South, the American Midwest) also contributed to how he understands himself and home. Katongole offers details concerning how his books each respectively seek to deepen how audience members understand that larger story of reconciliation. He then concludes by offering how he understands the academic vocation, the two stories that define it, and ways the Church and the university can be of greater service to one another in the years to come.
In the twelfth episode of the second season of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with Karen An-hwei Lee, Professor of English and Provost at Wheaton College. Lee opens by discussing the importance of the Christian imagination, how such an imagination is fostered by a liberal arts education, and how such an imagination is critical to the faithful exercise of professions such as medicine, law, business, and ministry. Lee explores how poetry became foundational to her calling as an educator, the ways poetry fires the Christian imagination, and how poetic structures express ways the image of God is present in the lives of the people she encounters. Ream then asks Lee to explore the ways various poets and teachers nurtured her calling and helped her to see more in the world than that which materially resides before us. They close their conversation by exploring Lee’s understanding of the academic vocation and her hopes in the months and years to come in terms of the understanding of the academic vocation that unites educators serving the Wheaton community.
In the eighteenth episode of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with Deana Porterfield, President of Seattle Pacific University. Porterfield opens by discussing the discernment process in which she participated when considering whether to embrace the calling to serve as a university president and, in particular the calling to serve as the president of Roberts Wesleyan University for nine years and, as of the 2023-2024 academic year, as the president of Seattle Pacific University. Porterfield then offers advice for younger administrators concerning what practices could help them discern a comparable calling and, should it emerge, prepared them to embrace it. She then discusses the ways the Free Methodist Church and Seattle Pacific relate to one another and enhance one another’s missions. Ream and Porterfield then close their conversation by discussing the theological qualities that define the Wesleyan tradition and in what ways those qualities inform curricular and co-curricular programming on campuses such Seattle Pacific University.
In the thirty-fourth episode of the second season of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with Jonathan J. Sanford, Professor of Philosophy and President of the University of Dallas. Sanford opens by sharing about the University of Dallas’s history which includes support from the Archdiocese of Dallas as well as support from several religious orders. That combination of support converges at Dallas in a charism that fosters a unique academic culture as well as an array of opportunities for spiritual formation. For example, Sanford discuses how that charism is present in the two-year core curriculum which all Dallas students encounter as well as opportunities Dallas students have to experience Mass with the Dominicans at St. Albert the Great Priory and Novitiate and the Cistercians at Our Lady of Dallas Abbey. Sanford then discusses his own journey of vocational discernment that included his formation as a philosopher. Shortly after his appointment to the faculty at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Sanford was appointed chair of the philosophy department which fostered his commitment to serve as an educational leader. Sanford’s initial appointment as an educational leader at Dallas was as a dean but led to his appointment as provost and now as president. Regardless, Sanford continues to teach each semester, believing that doing so allows him to maintain an experientially grounded understanding of the educational experiences that define the Dallas community. Sanford then closes by detailing the commitments that define the academic vocation as exercised at Dallas as well as intellectual and moral virtues that make such an exercise possible.
Click here to listen to the episode on Spotify In the sixth episode of the second season of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with Kimberly Battle-Walters Denu, Provost and Dean of the Faculty at Westmont College. Denu begins by assessing the state of conversations concerning diversity, equity, and inclusion on college…
The primary goal of a liberal arts education is to aid students in developing practical wisdom. By introducing students to foundational knowledge from a wide array of academic fields and exposing them to multiple ways of interpreting that knowledge, a liberal arts education guides students toward becoming critical and nuanced thinkers who can gather, reflect…
Editor’s Note: The William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company releases an updated edition of Mark A. Noll’s The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind today. Reflecting upon that book’s longstanding influence, Indiana Wesleyan University’s President David Wright offers this morning’s post, focusing on the impact Noll’s book had since its original release in 1994, his hopes for…
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.
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 the thirty-second episode of the second season of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with Anna Bonta Moreland, The Anne Quinn Welsh Chair, Director of the Honors Program, and Professor of Humanities at Villanova University. Moreland begins by expanding upon the details of the opening keynote address she offered at the 2024 Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities conference. In particular, Moreland argued that Jesuit colleges and universities (as with all Church-related colleges and universities) are the Church. While the Church and Church-related universities have their own missions and modes of operation, Church-related universities derive their identity from the Church and, in turn derive their missions and modes of operation from the Church. Moreland recounts the details of her formation as a graduate student in systematic theology at Boston College and how she understands the service she offers students at Villanova as a debt of gratitude. Another dimension of that gratitude is also expressed in books she authored which have their origins in classes she teaches. Moreland then closes by identifying the academic vocation as the love of the question even more than the answer—a love that demands a relentless commitment to honesty. Doing so, as Moreland describes, demands humility and a willingness to confront pride in whatever form it may take.
On August 31, 1837, Ralph Waldo Emerson greeted the newest members of Harvard University’s Phi Beta Kappa chapter with an address titled “The American Scholar.” Emerson had abandoned Christian orthodoxy and even Unitarianism for Transcendentalism. However, he had yet to emerge as the leading figure of the intellectual collective who eventually congregated out in Concord….
In the forty-fifth episode of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with John Witte, Jr., the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Law, McDonald Distinguished Professor, and Faculty Director of Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. Witte begins by discussing how the 3 Fs – faith, freedom, and family or the things for which people would die – serve as the connective threads between his otherwise diverse expressions of the academic vocation. He then unpacks how those threads are woven into a sample of his books including From Sacrament to Contract, Law and Protestantism, and The Reformation of Rights. Ream and Witte talk about Witte’s education at Calvin College and Harvard University along with texts and mentors who left a great impact upon him. Those influences then found another form of confirmation in the invitation Witte recently received to serve as a bicentenary Gifford lecturer, delivering “A New Calvinist Reformation of Rights.” Ream and Witte then close their conversation by discussing Witte’s appreciation for the academic vocation, the virtues which make the expression of such a vocation possible, and the vices against which legal scholars must guard.
In the forty-second episode of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with Cyrus Chestnut, Master Instructor of Jazz Piano and Improvisation at Howard University. Chestnut opens by talking about the process he experiences when composing. While still writing notes on a page, Chestnut contends that neither composition nor performance follow predictable patterns. The Holy Spirit is in the process and, in particular, becomes evident in improvisation. The process of composition and performance will always lead somewhere but, according to Chestnut, one must always be willing to follow where the Spirit may lead. Ream and Chestnut then talk about the teachers who led Chestnut to love the piano and the balm of healing such a love can offer people. While grateful for the teachers with whom he studied at Peabody Preparatory and Berklee College of Music, Chestnut’s father remains Chestnut’s first and most influential teacher. Ream and Chestnut then conclude their conversation by discussing the discernible presence of the Spirit in the structure of musical notes as well as in the beauty afforded by human collaboration such as Chestnut’s recent performance with the Cecilia Chorus and Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
In the thirty-eighth episode of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with Gregory E. Sterling, the Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament and the Henry L. Slack Dean at Yale University Divinity School. Sterling begins by talking about the role Yale Divinity School and the scholars who have served on its faculty played in American religious life. Sterling, in particular, talks about the ways the institution’s role has changed over the course of its 200-year history and, as is the case for leaders of many divinity schools and seminaries, his awareness that the Church and the culture are changing once again. The challenge that Sterling notes, however, is the course of the present changes remains uncertain. Ream and Sterling then talk about Sterling’s calling to the ministry and to serve as a New Testament scholar. They discuss Sterling’s most recent book, Shaping the Past to Define the Present, as well as the editorial leadership Sterling offers for a commentary series concerning Philo. Ream and Sterling discuss the inspiration and vision for Yale Divinity School’s Living Village Project and then close by discussing how Sterling discerns when to exercise his role as a public intellectual committed to the well-being of the Church, the university, and the relationship the Church and the university share.
