The recent publication of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) sixth report reminds us again of the challenges facing humanity in regards to human-caused climate change. Although the challenge has been part of our discourse since at least the seventies, this report echoes concerns regarding humanity’s relation to nature that go back much further….
In a dissertation proposal defense a few years ago, one of my colleagues declared to the nervous student, “Your paper sounds like a good Ed.D. but not a good Ph.D. You’re getting a philosophy degree [in the ancient sense of the word], so you need to make a contribution to theory.” First, I thought, “Do…
In this essay Julie W. Morgan and Richard K. Olsen explore the utility of a dialectical perspective for approaching and engaging in communication as Christians. After defining dialectics from both historical and critical perspectives, the authors then outline generic dialectics imbedded in almost any communication. The authors draw on the works of Leslie Baxter and…
Besides lecturing at the University of Bordeaux, Jacques Ellul opened his own home for seekers of many backgrounds to explore their questions about Scripture, faith, power, and the relation of the kingdom of God to the social and political order. Among those at Ellul’s dining room table was Willem Vanderburg, who, being blind, sought Ellul’s…
Author’s Note: This is a slightly revised version of the Presidential Address delivered to the Classical Association of the Middle West and South, Southern Section, in November 2004. At that time, the iPhone was but a gleam in Steve Jobs’s eye. As we theorize about the many ills facing our nation’s youth (and their possible…
What is college like? In television and film, there seem to exist mainly two kinds of college. The first is a charming, upstate school with lots of sportscoats and wine and cheese mixers. The second is a big state school, with plenty of fraternity parties. The movies set in prestigious institutions are primarily about the…
Here’s an open secret: professors do not go into teaching for the grading. Cliché, I know, but for most of us, grading is the necessary cost of doing what we love: leading lively discussions, preparing thought-provoking lectures, writing ground-breaking books or articles, and mentoring students. Grading, on the other hand, is just, well, grating—at least…
This book is an expanded version of the 2000 Psychology and Christianity: Four Views, edited by Stanton Jones and Eric Johnson. In this new version Stanton Jones has moved from coeditor to author of the integration position chapter, with Eric Johnson assuming the post as sole editor. From the new book title it is obvious…
Author’s note: This two-part post is based on a talk first delivered to Baylor University’s Crane Scholars (2010), a cohort of Christian undergraduates considering careers in academia, and then to undergraduates in Baylor’s Honors Residential College (2015). . . . About the weird title—I had better confess right now that I am not a Facebook…
Michael Sherr’s book, On Becoming a Christian Educator in Social Work, begins with Sherr’s personal story, including his conversion from Conservative Judaism to evangelical Christianity and his reasons for writing the book. Sherr relates that the seeds for this project were planted while he and some colleagues were facilitating a workshop on faith-learning integration in…
God, grant me the serenityTo accept the things I cannot change;Courage to change the things I can;And wisdom to know the difference. This modified version of Reinhold Niebuhr’s “Serenity Prayer” may be the most recognizable prayer in America, with the possible exceptions of the Lord’s Prayer taught by Jesus (Matthew 6:9-13, Luke 11:2-4), the ubiquitous…
It is the perennial discussion topic at Christian university faculty workshops and seminars. It is the seemingly-elusive goal of the Christian college classroom. It is the subject of concern among education policy experts and educational philosophers. Simply stated, the questions raised by those interested in the integration of Christian faith and learning are nowhere near…
I am grateful to Stewart Goetz for his thoughtful engagement of my short article (“The Pursuit of Happiness: C. S. Lewis’ Eudaimonistic Understanding of Ethics,” hereafter, “Pursuit”) within this wide-ranging and insightful account of C. S. Lewis’ ethics. I also thank the editors of this journal for the opportunity to respond, in order, hopefully, to…
In this paper, David Lauber proposes that a Christocentric conception of God’s patience with the world provides needed guidance in a Christian navigation of the darkness of the current secular age. Lauber uses the recent work of philosopher Charles Taylor, who characterizes the dark homelessness of this secular age. He also looks to the poetry…
Written straight from the heart of a parent and with the wisdom of a pastor, Called to be Human addresses big questions on the minds of young adults. Jinkins works hard to do this in a way that does not resort to easy answers or tired clichés. Undoubtedly, at the heart of every Christian parent…
Christian colleges and universities are filled with a diverse body of students and faculty who are dedicated to the great commission (Matt. 28:19-20) and to the greatest commandments (Matt. 22:37-40). Many in this diverse group eventually will find themselves operating in the global marketplace, perhaps the last great frontier of missions. Functioning effectively in this…
Perry L. Glanzer notes that Christian colleges and universities often replicate the disciplinary structures and adopt the student development theories of the academy. However, these structures and theories emerged as a result of higher education’s failed search for a nonsectarian form of humanism. This problematic origin helps explain why these structures and theories exacerbated the…
Stratford Caldecott’s finely-written book, Beauty for Truth’s Sake, advocates a return to (Christian) Pythagoreanism as the founding spirit of liberal arts education. Caldecott understands true education as centered on the liberal arts, which he interprets in the spirit of their classical roots as trivium and quadrivium. He argues that education has been disenchanted, because it…
Scholarship by and about the non-Western Christian world is proliferating in recent years, and the picture that is emerging bears remarkable similarities to Christianity in the West. While the immediate focus of this work by Mark A. Noll, distinguished author and professor of history at Notre Dame, is on Christianity in the United States, ultimately…
Nobel prize-winning social psychologist Daniel Kahneman and his colleague Amos Tverskydiscovered a quirk in the perceived value of everyday items. Referred to as the bias toward “loss aversion,” they found that people tend to see more monetary value in things they already own but are less likely to pay that same amount if they came…
