In honor of the 350th anniversary of the death of the great Christian educator John Amos Comenius, David I. Smith and Perry L. Glanzer have authored a series of posts to honor Comenius’ work. Smith’s post appeared yesterday. Our willingness to accept problematic falsehoods from popular pagan authors can have dire consequences. One of the…
Many Christian films released in the last two decades often pitch themselves as a means of evangelizing unbelievers and reassuring the faith of believers. This article uses the film God’s Not Dead as an example of the recent trend in Christian films and argues, using historical parallels, that these films undermine their stated purposes and…
Benjamin B. DeVan teaches at Palm Beach Atlantic University. In the episode “Honor” for AMC’s series The Walking Dead, teenage protagonist Carl Grimes suffers a fatal wound. His family tries to make him comfortable and listen to his last words. Carl recounts a vision beneath a shattered stained glass window with its cross still intact. He foresees a new…
Christian Scholar’s Review is pleased to announce “The Academic Vocation in a Post-2020 World: An Ecumenical Dialogue”—a virtual panel discussion on Saturday, November 14, 2020, from 11:00 AM EST to 12:15 PM EST. Moderated by Margaret Diddams, the recently appointed Editor for Christian Scholar’s Review, panel members include: Nancy Brickhouse – Provost, Baylor University; Gerard…
I’ve been teaching for a hundred years, and this one is the most difficult. Every day I receive marketing emails from textbook and educational service companies; one offered free resources to “help deliver content during this difficult time.” Thanks, but no thanks. I’m not a delivery person (nor a service provider, nor a learning manager)….
Today’s post is an excerpt of a longer talk given by David Lyle Jeffrey in May 2019 at a conference sponsored by the Christian Association for World Languages (CAWL). We are thankful for the opportunity to share Dr. Jeffrey’s wisdom for the benefit of Christian scholars of all disciplines. His commitment to the importance and power…
The earliest universities generally had four different parts. Every student first attended what was called a liberal arts college. In this part, one would learn a wide range of skills with what today are associated with the liberal arts (e.g., mathematics, music, grammar, rhetoric). The other three parts were advanced education in medicine, law and…
Christian Scholar’s Review is pleased to announce the appointment of Margaret Diddams as Editor. As of Monday, August, 17, 2020, Diddams will oversee the print journal’s commitment to serving as a premier outlet for Christian scholarship. Diddams recently retired as Provost of Wheaton College, where she championed faith and learning scholarship. On her retirement,…
Reviewed by David Brodnax Sr., History, Trinity Christian College Alex Gorman of Raleigh, North Carolina, owned both the Spirit of the Age newspaper and the enslaved persons who produced it, and any of them caught reading the text that they helped create were beaten. Among his subscribers may have been Amanda and Betsy Cooley, two sisters in…
Reviewed by Adam Perez, Liturgical Studies, Duke Divinity School To the outsider, North American evangelical Christianity can seem rather opaque. Self-described evangelicals themselves often disagree on what constitutes the term. Monique M. Ingalls’s Singing the Congregation shines a light into the definitional disarray with clarity and ingenuity, describing evangelical Christianity in North America as a…
“Shaping Prophetic Voices for the Public Sphere” discusses the role of the church in the formation of the Christian intellectual’s concern for the common good. It draws on examples from Scripture and formulates the biblical mandate and theological rationale that undergird the need for Christian intellectuals to live out their call in community and for…
Christian Scholar’s Review is pleased to announce the appointment of Perry L. Glanzer as its first Editor-in-Chief. As of June 1, 2020, Perry will oversee the journal’s commitment to continue its role as a premier outlet for Christian scholarship. While the print journal is the foundation of that commitment, Perry will lead CSR’s efforts to…
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…
