Mark A. Peters is a professor of music at Trinity Christian College. In recent years, there has been an extended, and surprising, debate in this journal’s pages over Christian belief in the Immaculate Conception of Mary. While I have appreciated perspectives from both sides of the debate and am always heartened by civil and thoughtful…
Over the past two decades, there has been a surprising resurgence of interest in, and appreciation for, the relevance of vocational exploration in higher education. Indeed, helping students see themselves as people who are called, and helping them discern how they might be called, seems increasingly timely, even urgent. This essay argues that vocational exploration…
What role should faith play in Christian education? This philosophical question regularly results in divisive dialogue in certain scholarly circles and—for newly minted faculty—instills a degree of confusion around the gravity of the issue. Under the weight of the school year, it grows easier to jettison this all-important question as pursuing the right funding, pedagogy,…
By and large, the discipline of political science does not take religion seriously. The typical member of this particular scholarly guild sees religious belief and affiliation not as causes of political action, but rather as consequences of political or economic interests. Religion, at most, is a device that savvy elites use to hoodwink gullible masses…
Advances in DNA sequencing technologies are revolutionizing our understanding of microbial populations on and within human beings. The goal of this article is to evaluate some of these discoveries in light of the story of scripture. The early chapters of Genesis make clear the relational nature of human being in regards to our connections to…
You’ve heard the story. Advanced technology is created, turns deviant, and coldly proceeds to supplant humanity. It is one of the more enduring science fiction tropes. From the cautionary imagery of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to Tom Cruise battling Artificial Intelligence in the latest Mission Impossible blockbuster, the robots going rogue theme consistently occupies our imaginative…
In spite of the apparent benefits of recent and predicted advances in medical science which promise to enhance human well-being and extend life, many people experience a vague uneasiness about a brave new world where disease, suffering, and finitude in general might be vanquished. If we can replace limbs, repair organs, cure cancers, and even…
I. Introduction Although mountains reaching over 13,000 feet beckon in the distance, little to nothing is immediately present that can halt the advance of a wind that punishes all who dare to cross this isolated though immortalized swath of land. An occasional scrub tree is all that stands in defiance of this wind that serves…
This article proposes that Transformative Learning Theory (TLT), particularly in light of recent advances in cognitive linguistics, is a fruitful means of teaching and interpreting tensions within Scripture. One of the key distinctions of TLT is that deep learning involves a crucial change in the learner, often induced by a crisis or a “disorienting dilemma”…
In the ninth episode of the second season of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with David Quigley, Professor of History, Provost, and Dean of Faculties at Boston College. As the chief academic officer, Quigley opens by exploring how he seeks to foster cultures reflective of the unique foci held by a myriad of academic units at Boston College while also striving to foster a culture across those units reflective of the charisms of the founding order, the Society of Jesus or the Jesuits. As an example, he discusses Boston College’s commitment to formative education and how such a process is expressed in the reform and advancement of the core curriculum. Ream and Quigley then discuss Quigley’s calling to history, the teachers and scholars who nurtured it, and the ways Quigley seeks to express that calling through teaching, writing, and service. One way Quigley has sought to express that vocation is by exploring the riches in his childhood hometown of New York City, his present hometowns of Boston and Cambridge, and the creation of means on and beyond the Boston College campus for various publics to appreciate those riches. Some of those recent means include walking tours of Boston for new members of the Boston College faculty and for undergraduate students enrolled in the courses Quigley teaches in the core curriculum. Quigley then discusses the discernment process that led him from service as a full-time faculty member to a full-time administrator along with his commitment to continue to teach at least one course a year. Ream and Quigley close their conversation by exploring Quigley’s vision for the academic vocation, his vision for the academic vocation for Boston College’s faculty, and the relationship those visions share with the Society of Jesus and the Archdiocese of Boston.
In recent years significant advances have occurred in both fields of neuroscience and cognitive psychology which have provided further comprehension regarding the biological structures underlying intentionality and decision making. In this essay, Tobias A. Mattei reviews the insights such empirical data might provide to the classical theological debate about human will and responsibility. After analyzing the positions of John…
My thanks to Benjamin B. DeVan for his review. I have to protest, however, that he has not laid out the continuous philosophical case that the book advances. I can only assume that past experience misled him into conflating my claims with others he had previously encountered, with the result that he missed the larger “narrative…
For many years, Christian’s Scholar’s Review has proclaimed that “its primary objective is the publication of peer-reviewed scholarship and research, within and across the disciplines, that advances the integration of faith and learning…” Despite the historic use of “integration” language, we have decided to instead focus on “Christ-Animating learning.” Why do we now propose a…
In the thirty-seventh episode of the second season of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with Kimo Ah Yun, President of Marquette University. As a communication scholar, Ah Yun opens by discussing how he designs messages and leverages platforms in ways that reach various internal and external constituents, emphasizing the ways those efforts also had to change as he accepted appointments as a dean, provost, and president. He then discusses how he came to serve as a communication scholar, the teachers who invested in him, and the ways he seeks to invest in students. After serving on the faculty at Cal State Sacramento for twenty years, Ah Yun describes how the core of Marquette’s mission of service “for and with others” led him and his family to move to Milwaukee. That move then allowed Ah Yun to integrate the life he was leading at Church with the life he was leading at the university in ways that advanced Marquette’s mission as a Jesuit Catholic university. Ah Yun offers insights concerning the discernment process that also led him to accept appointments as Marquette’s provost and president while also offering advice for other laypersons considering appointments as presidents at Church-related colleges and universities with long histories of clerical leadership. Drawing from insights gained through long-standing service as a scholar, teacher, and educational leader, Ah Yun concludes by offering insights concerning his understanding of the academic vocation and how he seeks to draw upon Marquette’s mission as a means of helping all members of the community flourish.
Not far from our home in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, is one of southern Ontario’s premier universities, McMaster, known internationally as a centre for advanced scientific and medical research. What few remember is that the university once had a connection with the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Québec, the only remnant of which is the presence…
