Evangelical Paideia Overlooking the Pacific Rim: On the Opportunities and Challenges of Globalization for Christian Higher Education Post

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…

Redemptive Rehabilitation: Theological Approaches to Criminal Justice Reform Post

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…

Management and the Gospel: Luke’s Radical Message for the First and Twenty-First Centuries Post

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…

For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio Post

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,…

Christ Centered Higher Education: Memory, Meaning, and Momentum for the Twenty-First Century Post

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…

Every Good and Perfect Gift: Sport and Society in the Twenty- first Century—A Review Essay Post

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…

How the Model Minority Thesis Became a Transcendent Meaning Post

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…

The Christian Century and the Rise of the Protestant Mainline Post

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…

Literature and Theology: New Interdisciplinary Spaces Post

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…

Confessional Mirages and Delusions Post

As a biblical studies professor at a Reformed, liberal arts college, David Crump has observed the tendency for Reformed folk to allow debates over confessional interpretations to stand in place of a robust engagement with Scripture. Crump’s own denomination requires all church leaders, including college faculty, to sign a pledge called the “Covenant for Officebearers,”…

The Global Public Square: Religious Freedom and the Making of a World Safe for Diversity Post

Reviewed by Nicholas Kerton-Johnson, Political Science and International Relations, Taylor University Os Guinness is a prolific writer and commentator and in his latest book he also takes on the mantle of prophet, a point noted by William Inboden in his support for the book. Indeed, Guinness issues a powerful prophetic statement: that the freedom of…

Crossing Boundaries: Christian Higher Education in Africa —A Review Essay Post

Trisha Posey is Director of the Honors Scholars Program and Associate Professor of History at John Brown University. In May 2013, I was part of a group of faculty from John Brown and Cornerstone Universities that visited Uganda Christian University (UCU) in Mukono, Uganda to participate in workshops on the integration of faith, learning, and…

Radical Orthodox Economics Post

Steven McMullen notes that in recent years, a number of theologians and philosophers, following John Milbank, have drawn on continental post-modern philosophy to form a critique of capitalism and modern economics. Often called the “Radical Orthodoxy” movement, these scholars argue that the problems with capitalism lie not with its results, but its underlying metaphysics and…

The Oxford Handbook of Christianity and Economics Post

Reviewed by Steven McMullen, Economics, Management and Accounting, Hope College There are a cluster of interesting questions at the intersection of Christianity and economics, some of which go to the core of the disciplines of economics and theology. What is economic justice? How should Christians approach poverty? What is the role of the Church in…

Spiritual Realities Made Audible and Visible: An Appreciation of the Music of Benjamin Britten Post

Twentieth century English composer Benjamin Britten demonstrated an unusual capacity to evoke transcendent dimensions of reality. In this essay David A. Hoekema argues that certain works for accompanied solo voices and some non-operatic stage works achieve an intensity of musical and emotional expression that seem to encompass both divine and human realms. Examples of this…

Mathematical Knowledge and Divine Mystery: Augustine and his Contemporary Challengers Post

Christians have been active in philosophy of mathematics in recent years, but Steven D. Boyer and Walter B. Huddell III argue that the classical work of Augustine of Hippo in this field has been largely misunderstood or distorted even by its supposed advocates. This essay corrects that distortion and shows how the traditional Augustinian awareness…

Whatever Happened to Nuclear Weapons?—A Review Essay Post

Scott Waalkes is Professor of Political Science at Malone University. Introduction Whatever happened to nuclear weapons? Once a regular feature of popular culture and news coverage, they seem to have disappeared. News junkies born before the mid-1970s will easily recall controversies surrounding the novel On the Beach, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the film Dr. Strangelove,…

Remembering Hiroshima: The Construction of Communal Memory Post

The survivors of the first atomic bomb used in war, which was dropped in Hiroshima, have been telling their survival stories for many decades. Many of them have found that telling their experiences is empowering, as it gives them a purpose to live and allows them to share their knowledge worldwide with people of all…