How would Jesus do mathematics? He would most likely connect the discipline to his daily experiences (whether in carpentry or in discipleship) and would seek out a community of like-minded individuals rather than work in isolation. I would like to think that he would support the mission of the Association of Christians in the Mathematical…
Has it been long enough yet since Amazon Prime’s series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power concluded its first season? Long enough that I may discuss the finale without spoiling it for latecomers? Long enough that the passions surrounding it have cooled? For make no mistake, gentle reader, passions there have been…
In my role as an Art History professor at Seattle Pacific University, I have accompanied students to Rome, Italy six times. We stay there for about a month, visiting umpteen million churches, in addition to wonderful museums, grand palazzos, and major archaeological sites. Among these sites, the churches are the real treasures – pedagogically, artistically,…
The stock market looks at the world through a peculiar lens, one that people outside the market don’t always understand. Oddly enough, it is similar to the lens through which the Bible views the world, particularly how it views Christians and the church. The church has come under consistent criticism, sometimes well earned, and yet…
“‘God’s Image cut, or carved in Ebony,’ was a phrase first used, we believe by the English Church Historian, [Thomas] Fuller [in 1642]…and assuredly this phrase is among the most striking of the graphic sentences which he stamped so deeply on the republic of letters. There it stands, this beautiful and appropriate piece of imagery,…
Rick Kennedy is the secretary of the Conference on Faith and History and Professor of History at Point Loma Nazarene University. His The First American Evangelical: A Short Life of Cotton Mather is to be published by Eerdmans in the spring of 2015. “Hagiography” is a term that college professors transformed into a pejorative. No…
Secular norms of managerial rationality disregard God’s involvement in organizations. If we acknowledge that God is present and active in social organizing, how do our understandings and practices of entrepreneurship and management change? Such a perspective reconceives organizing as collaborating with the Spirit of God. This article describes the Spirit’s role in organizing social systems…
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…
Part of what has made Japan’s Hayao Miyazaki one of the most loved and influential filmmakers of all time is his attention to environmental concerns. Flowing out of a broad Shintōistic worldview, Miyazaki gives us countless memorable snapshots of a world where nature, man and the gods can prosper when in harmony or wither when…
In the first part of this post, I discussed the pressures academics face with a very literal metaphor: the pressure of the atmosphere all around us, intensified in the spring break (or “spring broken”) times of scarce resources. I also proposed that, in some elusive way, the universe is open to God’s power, perfected in…
Race. Gender. Sexuality. Politics. Theology. Parenting. Vaccines. Mask wearing.All potential conversational landmines. What happens when you not only disagree with a person, but feel at odds with their deepest values? In today’s combative communication climate, is it possible to critique that which is sacred to another person with gentleness and humility? The sacred, notes sociologist…
In my capacity as host of the podcast Faithful Economy, I recently had the opportunity to interview Scott Cunningham, an economist at Baylor, about his work related to markets for prostitution. Albeit a bit reluctantly, Scott made a powerful case for at least partial legalization of prostitution. You can listen to our conversation here. I…
A Christian master teacher can render challenging technical material in understandable, thought-provoking prose, arguing for her thesis in an edifying way that deepens the reader’s understanding, all while sustaining a theologically- and biblically-grounded engagement with her topic. Jenell Williams Paris gives evidence of being such a Christian master teacher in this attractive volume replete with…
From the beginning of time, there were whispers. There was rumor even at the Fall, at the cracking of the world, when the face of God was hidden and the great rifting began. But the rifting was an unfolding – a re-creation by means grinding and strenuous. A seer would later write, “The whole creation…
Since I earned my doctoral degree in communication studies in the 1970s, scholarship addressing the intersection of religion and communication has become a booming enterprise.More recently, researchers have started examining the rise of “new” digital media which enable religious groups to circumvent the mainstream and religious mass media gatekeepers at television and radio networks and…
“Beyond the Mind” by Todd C. Ream Taylor University recently began a new campaign with the motto of “Beyond the Mind.” Billboards brandished these words along with images of students. Atfirst glance I must admit I was somewhat perplexed by this effort. Passing one of these billboards on Interstate 69 in northeastern Indiana I thought,…
“Exvangelicalism” is a relatively new term for a much older phenomenon: those who’ve been raised as evangelicals coming to realize that they no longer identify as such, and intentionally reckoning with the continuing impact of that tradition in their lives. Philosophers have not had much to say about this phenomenon – until now. The Evangelical Philosophical Society sponsored the panel “Exvangelicalism and Evangelical Philosophy”…
“Suffering doesn’t automatically or naturally lead to [spiritual] growth or good outcomes. It must be handled properly.” – Tim Keller “Our fruitfulness comes out of our vulnerability and not just out of our power. It comes out of our powerlessness.” – Henri Nouwen “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the…
In the first essay in this series, we presented the notion that within interdisciplinary work “we each represent our own discipline, but we are all working for the same Kingdom.” This second essay in this three-part series is presented from the disciplines of education and behavior analysis. The unique gift of the education department is…
