Justin Ariel Bailey is assistant professor of theology at Dordt University. His research explores the intersections of Christian theology, culture, and ministry, and his forthcoming book is entitled Reimagining Apologetics: The Beauty of Faith in a Secular Age (IVP Academic, 2020). Every semester, I teach a Bible survey course, mostly to freshmen undergraduates. Early in…
Jeremy Norwood is Professor of Sociology at Spring Arbor University and serves as Chair of the Department of Sociology, Global Studies, and Criminal Justice. One of the most widely circulated phrases regarding armed conflict in East Africa is the adage that “when two elephants fight, it is the grass that gets trampled.” The phrase refers…
Reviewed by Timothy Larsen, Biblical and Theological Studies, Wheaton College To quote Tammy Wynette, “Sometimes it’s hard to be a woman.” It is especially difficult if the man to whom you are giving all your loving is a megachurch pastor, and even more so if you are pursuing a high-profile evangelical ministry without the help…
Mark A. Peters is professor of music and director of the Center for Teaching and the Good Life at Trinity Christian College. He is president of the Society for Christian Scholarship in Music and book review co-editor for Christian Scholar’s Review. Whatever you learn, remember: the learning must make you more, not less, human.—Elie Wiesel…
Policies regarding plagiarism and academic integrity are among the most common liturgies in American higher education, yet Christian teachers and scholars have given minimal attention to the ways such liturgies shape students’ assumptions about the ownership of words and ideas. While analyzing handbooks, honor codes, and academic policies, Rachel B. Griffis considers concepts of plagiarism…
Writings in theological discussions of beauty evince certain problematic tendencies with respect to “spirit” language. Whether it is the paucity of such language or an idiosyncratic usage of it, “spirit” language is often evacuated of specifically pneumatological content. In this essay W. David O. Taylor attempts to re-conceptualize the Holy Spirit’s role with respect to…
Reviewed by W. Brian Shelton, Historical Theology, Toccoa Falls College Unbeknownst to many, a liberal arts curriculum consisting of the trivium and the quadrivium did not exist in antiquity. This was instead a medieval development, owing its pedigree to antiquity and in large part to Augustine, who set out immediately after his conversion to solidify…
Reviewed by Bernadette Waterman Ward, Literature, University of Dallas Susan Colón’s concise, clear book argues that Victorian realism is particularly fertile ground for parables and thus undercuts many common presumptions in literary studies. Her opening chapters are theoretical, dealing first with creating a working definition of parables and secondly with dismantling some illusions about the…
Reviewed by Crystal Downing, English and Film Studies, Messiah College Several years ago I began a book review with these words: “Movies can elicit profound, sometimes dismaying, reflections about the reciprocal influence between religion and society, faith and culture, belief and behavior. Rarely, however, do filmgoers consider the influence of religion on the production of…
Stephen C. Johnson is Dean, Honors College, at Abilene Christian University. Jason M. Morris is Associate Dean, Honors College, at Abilene Christian University. Kristina M. Davis is Assistant Professor of Honors Studies and Communication at Abilene Christian University. Jeffrey O. Haseltine is Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, and Associate Dean, College of Education…
What does it mean to do Christian higher education in global context? More specifically, what does this entail for specifically evangelical projects in higher education? Part of the answer to this question involves engaging in dialogue with non-Western traditions of education. This essay by Amos Yong is motivated by the challenges and possibilities attending such…
In this article, we will attempt to build a multi-dimensional vision of rehabilitation, based in Christian understandings of human nature, redemption, and community. By first exploring what rehabilitation means and why it is important, we will then survey three models of restoration and rehabilitation which can be instituted as programs offered within the incarceration system…
Reviewed by Craig Hinnenkamp, Global Commerce and Management, Whitworth University An increasing number of writers in both Christian and secular journals are calling for a fundamental change in the basic orientation and purpose of business. Articulated from a faith-based perspective, J. Van Duzer et al. proposes the purpose of business is to serve God through…
Reviewed by Thomas Trzyna, English, Seattle Pacific University Christian Scholar’s Review is a generalist journal, so the purpose of this review, above all, should be to recommend the poetry of one of the twentieth century’s most talented poets, W. H. Auden. Auden had the musical and compositional skills of Robert Frost and W. B. Yeats,…
Reviewed by Kimberly Carmichael Thornbury, Senior Vice President for Student Services and Dean of Students, Union University Higher education faces ongoing major challenges including student access and affordability, massive budget constraints, and a race to find innovative ways to deliver educational products through online platforms. Christian higher education faces additional attacks, primarily issues of religious…
Eric Miller is Professor of History and Humanities at Geneva College. The penultimate track of the CD that accompanies Ken Burns’ 1994 film Baseball features the actor Amy Madigan reading a quotation from The Sporting News. “Great is baseball,” she intones. “The national tonic. The revival of hope. The restorer of confidence.” Madigan starred opposite…
Despite nearly fifty years since structural changes predicated the “model minority thesis” and “culture of poverty” arguments, these beliefs continue to be employed as cultural abstractions. Henry H. Kim elucidates how these concepts emerged in the 1960s and re- emerged in the twenty-first century and critiques these beliefs via historical sociology. A modified version of…
Reviewed by Philip D. Byers, Graduate Student in History, Washington University in St. Louis For the latter half of the twentieth century, the ubiquity of the word “evangelical” in common parlance bore little correlation to the degree to which social commentators and water-cooler politicos actually understood the movement. Thankfully, diligent work by a generation of…
Reviewed by Rachel Pietka, English, Baylor University Literature and Theology: New Interdisciplinary Spaces takes its place among other similar projects that have been published in the last few years: Finding a Common Thread: Understanding Great Texts from Homer to O’Connor (2013), Hard Sayings: The Rhetoric of Christian Orthodoxy in Late Modern Fiction (2013), Between Truth…
Jeffrey P. Bouman is the Director of the Service-Learning Center at Calvin College. My neighbor Don strolled by my house one early evening last June while I was out front in my urban neighborhood, reading the newspaper. We shot the breeze, talked about meeting new neighbors, the weather, the ethics of drone strikes, and Don’s…
