University students are shaped by more than just their chosen program: there are other, more invisible forces that shape their lives for good or ill. In a previous blog I explained the overt, phantom, and null curriculums of a university. Here I explain the electronic, hidden, and concomitant curriculums that make up every student’s learning career. … More Choosing Your University: Part II
Is the majority world on the wrong side of history when it comes to sexual ethics? Where harsh laws exist criminalizing homosexual acts, it seems to be true. But Western arrogance in declaring the direction of history could be seen as the vestiges of colonialism. What about the church? Who is having their ethics sullied by their social context? Here I don’t give all the answers, but I do raise some issues and say we can at least start by listening to each other. … More Engaging the Global Polylogue: Why Listen to Christians in the Majority World When it Comes to Sexual Ethics?
This guest blog was written by Global Scholar Dr. Stephen Ney, now serving in Sierra Leone. He maintains that “the neoliberal university encourages students to think about their entitlement and implicitly sanctions their consumeristic goals.” One of Ney’s students in Ghana adds: “One of the key driving forces of the University is money.” … More Go to University and Get Rich: The Temptation to Seek Education as Upward Mobility
Dr. Justin Cooper’s life has been lived as a champion for Christian higher education, and this article offers a biography of that work, focusing on the last 40 years and his journey from an eager student to college President and then to a man whose heart has opened to God’s work around the world. … More Opening Up the World of Higher Education: The Asterisk Legacy of Dr. Justin Cooper
It was refreshing to see an article this week in the Hamilton Spectator entitled “Mixing Faith and Politics Could Be a Good Thing for Canada” written by a former MPP John Milloy advocating for a larger public presence for Canada’s religious communities. It describes a conversation on the topic of faith and politics between three MPs representing three rival political parties. Here is evidence that “faith” can bring people together and help cooperation happen. … More Mixing Faith and Politics in Canada: Not a New Idea
Global Scholar Dr. David Koyzis gives some background to the ideologies that are currently being contested in the upcoming American election. He offers a big picture context to the on-going American drama—and with sharp and deep Christian perspective—that is especially urgent right now. We need to rise above the sound bites, provocative gestures and political manoeuvring and discern carefully the cultural moment. … More Wisdom For a Polarized America: A Pre-Election Long-term Perspective on Two Similar Liberal Ideologies
My guest blogger and American colleague Stan Wallace elaborates on C. S. Lewis’ concept of “Chronological Snobbery.” Lewis was a great 20 century British apologist of the Christian faith who had academic positions at both Oxford and Cambridge. He is also the famous fiction writer of the Narnia Chronicles. … More Guest Blog: The Temptation of Chronological Snobbery
A shorter version of this article appeared in The Christian Courier June 8th 2020. It involves changing faculty requirements at Calvin University, but it has implications for all Christian institutions of higher education: how best to nurture a faithful Christian faculty with a common identity and purpose? How do you navigate between the polar extremes … More Belief and Belonging at Calvin University: How Does a Denominational University stay Vibrantly Christian?
In my last post I explained John Calvin’s contentious claim that everyone is somehow wired for God–a phenomenon he called the sensus divinitatis. But it leaves our modern mind with a number of questions. For one, a logical pushback would be: if everyone is hardwired for God, why are there so many atheists through history … More If we are all wired for God–why is atheism the modern option?
Wolterstorff’s goal: to establish the place of religion in the public university in a liberal democracy. Not its legal or moral place, but its place within the role-ethic of a scholar in such a context. … More Diverse Diversity in the Public University: A Book Review of Wolterstorff’s “Religion in the University”
Sensus Divinitatis 