Reviewed by Douglas Jacobsen, Church History and Theology, Messiah College I will not keep you in suspense. This is a brilliant book that should be read by everyone who is interested in the global dynamics of contemporary Christianity. The Christian world has changed dramatically in the last two centuries and Jay Riley Case’s goal is…
A pioneer in the academic field of sport and spirituality, Shirl Hoffman has long sought to return sport to its roots in play. In 2010, he published his magnum opus, Good Game: Christianity and the Culture of Sport. While the product of a lifetime of thoughtful, sympathetic engagement with evangelical sports ministries, Hoffman’s Good Game is the most thoroughly sustained…
Amos Yong is J. Rodman Williams Professor of Theology at Regent University School of Divinity in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Evangelical higher education appears to be a booming business in the twenty-first century. Enrollment and expansion have persisted at much higher rates over the last two decades for schools affiliated with the Council for Christian Colleges…
The “integration of faith and learning” has become a touchstone of many Evangelical Protestant higher education institutions in recent decades. Martin Spence argues that modern Evangelical scholars and teachers have intellectual forbears who long ago raised similar questions about the relationship between faith and learning. The author introduces one such individual, the nineteenth-century British Baptist…
Reviewed by Benjamin B. DeVan, Ethics and Theology, Durham University “Of making many books there is no end” (Ecclesiastes 12:12). This aphorism traditionally attributed to King Solomon especially applies to books about sex, which proliferate in print and online faster than the proverbial jackrabbit, and exponentially exceed in number Solomon’s “seven hundred wives of royal…
Reviewed by Edward C. Polson, Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice, Messiah College In Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat examines some of the most significant changes that have occurred in U.S. religious life since the 1950s. He explores the impact that the declining significance of both…
Editor’s Note; In this series on academics and the Fall, I have focused on the consequences of the Fall for Christian scholars in general, Christian scholars’ view of time and liberal arts education, but in this final post, I want to talk about the consequences of the Fall for our academic agendas regarding evil. Christian…
Imagine that you are the CEO of a large business or president of a university. We are at a time where racial animosity and division has moved to the forefront of our nation. As the leader of your organization you may be concerned with dealing with the effects of our country’s atrocious legacy of racism….
It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.Proverbs 25:2 One of the central problems often influences Christian education is an inordinate belief in quick moral or intellectual virtue. Growing up on a diet of conversion stories, evangelical Christians love the idea of lives transformed…
Readers of CSR and these blogs are likely familiar with the American Scientific Affiliation (ASA) and its mission. If not, or if it’s been a while, I’d like to give you an introduction or an update. I have been a member of the ASA since, well…a long time. I am a Fellow, past Executive Council…
Reviewed by Perry L. Glanzer, Educational Foundations, Baylor University Do not let the title of this book fool you. Mike Higton, Academic Co-Director of the Cambridge Inter-faith Programme, and Senior Lecturer in Theology at the University of Exeter, has not written this book for scholars working in Christian colleges and universities. Instead, he penned his…
Reviewed by Kenneth L. Waters, Sr., Theology, Azusa Pacific University As a phenomenon of the African American church, Afro-Pentecostalism is expressive of an African heritage, a Holiness-liberationist perspective, the pivotal leadership of W. J. Seymour, and the enduring legacy of the Azusa Street Revival. Fourteen scholars come together in an edited volume to explore various…
Reviewed by Christine A. Colón, English, Wheaton College Recently, I read a post by a Christian blogger who, in response to harsh criticism, was trying to defend his use of language regarding women’s roles in marriage. He argued that he never meant to victimize women with his words and then tried to defend himself by…
Reviewed by Stephen N. Bretsen, Business and Economics, Wheaton College The cover art on Andrew Skotnicki’s book The Last Judgment: Christian Ethics in a Legal Culture is disconcerting. The simple black and white drawing, called Judge Jesus by Mike Gregg, depicts a hollow-eyed Jesus with a beard and long hair bearing the crown of thorns…
Reviewed by Holly Catterton Allen, Child and Family Studies, John Brown University Justin Barrett’s basic claim in Born Believers is that due to unique features of the developing human mind, children from a very young age are naturally receptive to the idea that there is at least one god—that is, they are “born believers.” Barrett…
Joshua J. Stigall notes that because Chaucer’s Physician’s Tale is generally considered the least interesting tale in the Canterbury Tales it has not received critical engagement on the scale that other tales, like the Wife of Bath and the Knight, have received. Moreover, when the tale is discussed, Chaucer’s characterization of the Physician in the…
Reviewed by Benjamin B. DeVan, Ethics and Theology, Durham University “Of making many books there is no end” (Ecclesiastes 12:12). This aphorism traditionally attributed to King Solomon especially applies to books about sex, which proliferate in print and online faster than the proverbial jackrabbit, and exponentially exceed in number Solomon’s “seven hundred wives of royal…
Reviewed by Edward C. Polson, Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice, Messiah College. In Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat examines some of the most significant changes that have occurred in U.S. religious life since the 1950s. He explores the impact that the declining significance of both…
Editor’s Note: Practical Matters is a new section that will occasionally appear that seeks to highlight how theology is being integrated into the overall rhetoric, conversations, and structure of the Christian college or university outside of the discipline or department of Theology, Christian studies, Religion, and so on. Timothy A. Gabrielson is Assistant Professor of…
In the first installment of this blog series, I established a basic framework for how Christians ought to analyze the place of winning in sports. In the second installment I expanded on that idea by examining how winning in sports is rightly understood as a “third order good.” Here I conclude by examining the biblical and…
