Category: Education

Gauguin, The Vision After the Sermon (Jacob wrestling with the Angel)

“Wounded and Healed”: A Benediction for Fall 2013 (Sam Mulberry)

December 18, 2013

What follows is as good a summation of what we do in Christian higher education as I know. It’s courtesy of my friend and frequent collaborator Sam Mulberry. Background: yesterday morning we held our semester-ending “synthesizing dialogue” with 140 students in Bethel’s Christianity and Western Culture class. It was my twentieth such conclusion, which still … More “Wounded and Healed”: A Benediction for Fall 2013 (Sam Mulberry)

Dr. Gary R. Cook, president of Dallas Baptist University

How Well Paid Are Christian College Presidents?

December 17, 2013

About six months ago I explored the question, “How Well Paid Are Christian College Faculty?“, and found that “even the best of the evangelical college set can struggle to keep up with their self-defined peers” when it comes to paying professors. Is the same true of our bosses? On Sunday the Chronicle of Higher Education … More How Well Paid Are Christian College Presidents?

Ad for David Williams' talk

Watch the Entire Series of Talks Previewing Our Book on Pietism and Higher Education

December 16, 2013

Last Thursday morning in the Bethel University Library, philosopher David Williams (Azusa Pacific University) returned to his alma mater to give the seventh and final talk in a series previewing chapters from Whole and Holy Persons: A Pietist Approach to Christian Higher Education (forthcoming in late 2014 from InterVarsity Press). In “The Pietist Impulse and … More Watch the Entire Series of Talks Previewing Our Book on Pietism and Higher Education

Screenshot from CWC webisode reviewing the Reformations

Best of The Pietist Schoolman: A Field Report from the Digital Frontier

December 9, 2013

I have larger misgivings about moving more and more of higher ed online (which I’ll explore soon), but this talk given earlier this fall found me beginning to explore its costs and benefits in light of my experience teaching a fully online Western Civ course last summer. This past summer my colleague Sam Mulberry and … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: A Field Report from the Digital Frontier

Cleveland, Disunity in Christ

“Beyond Multiethnic” Church – and Christian Colleges?

December 4, 2013

If we haven’t learned how to be a healing station for the people who are racially similar, then we’re never going to learn how to be a healing station for the people who are racially dissimilar. (Christena Cleveland) Even if it means that I don’t catch up on the reading in European and diplomatic history that I should … More “Beyond Multiethnic” Church – and Christian Colleges?

14th century lecture, as painted by Laurentius de Voltolina

The Value of the “Sage on the Stage”

December 2, 2013

If you want to sound like you’re a serious, forward-thinking educator these days, you’d best master a couple of facile cliches: (1) speak derisively of the “sage on the stage” in order (2) to exhort colleagues to embrace “student-centered, active learning.” To help yourself convey the proper degree of disdain for the lecture, think back … More The Value of the “Sage on the Stage”

Blanchard Hall at Wheaton College

The Challenge of Ranking Christian Colleges

November 26, 2013

It’s about as unlikely as a question as you’re going to see over an article in The Atlantic: “Is it possible to judge a school’s ability to encourage deeper religious faith?” But that’s what appeared this morning above a piece by freelance writer Ruth Graham, who started by confessing that she sometimes wonders whether my … More The Challenge of Ranking Christian Colleges

Nathan Lindquist

In Praise of Colleagues, Learning in “War-Time”

November 15, 2013

Earlier this week my employer announced further results of a prioritization and review process meant to address a serious budgetary shortfall. Previously, this had resulted in the loss of several programs and faculty positions and the closure of Bethel’s arts and media center in New York City. On Monday a number of staff (far more … More In Praise of Colleagues, Learning in “War-Time”

Two Carls, Two Visions of an Evangelical University

November 7, 2013

This morning my colleague Phyllis Alsdurf presented the sixth in a series of eight talks in the Bethel University Library previewing chapters from our forthcoming book, Whole and Holy Persons: A Pietist Approach to Christian Higher Education. The director of Bethel’s Journalism program and an expert on the history of Christianity Today, Phyllis is the … More Two Carls, Two Visions of an Evangelical University

Logo of Converge Worldwide

Are Christian Colleges Poor Spiritual Stewards?

November 5, 2013

One final follow-up to some of the comments on my open letter on churches and Christian higher education. In part two of this mini-series, I took up the argument that churches and denominations might not give as much to Christian colleges because the latter tend to be poor stewards of the former’s funds. Today I … More Are Christian Colleges Poor Spiritual Stewards?