On Learnedness: A September Meditation in Light of the Queen’s Reign

Publications, appointments, awards and prizes, scholarships, bursaries and residencies may be the proofs of proficiencies in our worldly academic domains, but the gifts of good judgement, thoughtful restraint, humble presence, the seeking of truth, compromise, self-sacrifice, perseverance and mutual respect in the clamouring – at times, now contentious – hallways of the academy are still the most tangible ways we can share God.  … More On Learnedness: A September Meditation in Light of the Queen’s Reign

Why I Changed My Mind: The Perils of Highway Charisma and the Megachurch

News of pastor Bruxy Cavey’s arrest, which comes after other sad news of his sexual transgressions, prompts me to take a more critical look on the liabilities of megachurch charisma. “Highway charisma” is my new term for the runaway power of personality fostered by megachurches and the technology that built them. … More Why I Changed My Mind: The Perils of Highway Charisma and the Megachurch

Making Space not Safe, but Good: Learning to Listen Hard so we Don’t Shoot

Over the last few decades the term “safe space” has been used to name a physical space, event or conversation that intends to protect people from attitudes, words, and perspectives that may be perceived as hurtful to someone or offensive to their own convictions. I hear it frequently in my church, but this new “safe” initiative has been most prevalent on public university campuses, and usually pertains to discussions of controversial social issues. This practise needs to stop, for our own safety. … More Making Space not Safe, but Good: Learning to Listen Hard so we Don’t Shoot

Exasperated by BS in Higher Education

I stumbled on a diatribe from Christian Smith in The Chronicle Review from January 9, 2018 entitled “Higher Education is Drowning in BS”. It is a prophetic lament for a scholar who sees the “disastrous political condition” of his country directly linked to the failure of its institutions of higher learning. He maintains that universities … More Exasperated by BS in Higher Education

Diverse Diversity in the Public University: A Book Review of Wolterstorff’s “Religion in the University”

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”

Four “Social Imaginaries” Shaping the Modern University

“The contemporary university is hollow at its core.  Not only does it lack a spiritual center, but it is also without any real alternative.” So said George Marsden over two decades ago in The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship (Oxford, 1997) and this was echoed in many ways twenty years later in 2017 through Glanzer, … More Four “Social Imaginaries” Shaping the Modern University

Dialogical Pluralism for Secular Universities

Blog Intro Post #2 Global Scholars has historically focused on sending professors to publicly-funded universities rather than Christian colleges and seminaries. This was not because there were other agencies already pursuing the worldwide establishment and resourcing specifically Christian institutions. There were. But it was a vision for a Christian academic voice within the national research … More Dialogical Pluralism for Secular Universities