theLAB

The Logos Academic Blog

Teaching Outside Your Tradition: Four Suggestions Toward Transformational Pedagogy

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by Amy L. Balogh | University of Denver

As a professor who teaches Hebrew Bible and Judaic studies courses across Colorado’s Front Range while also working at the University of Denver’s Center for Judaic Studies, my non-Jewish identity is a topic of conversation more often than one might expect. These exchanges, as awkward as they are, also provide priceless opportunities to reflect on the pedagogical and ethical responsibilities that are specific to teaching and supporting a religious tradition other than the Christianity with which I was raised. [Read more…]

Am I an Imperialistic Grader?

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by Scott McClelland | South University

Students take grades very seriously. Many times, they stick their personality out there, as well as any content, for professors to examine. In response, we place a quantitative score on a qualitative essay which comes from deep in the student’s heart. So we invented rubrics in the hope that we could justify our quantitative scoring. Rubrics, at least, provide a foundation to guide (and keep in check?) our qualitative responses to a student’s work. But are they enough? [Read more…]

Integrating Christian Faith in a Religiously Diverse Classroom

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Image source: https://www.northpark.edu/faculty-staff-directory/bradley-nassif/

by Brad Nassif | North Park University

North Park is a city-centered university in Chicago that warmly welcomes students of all backgrounds: Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, agnostics, atheists, LGBTQ or none of the above. Our core values are “urban, inter-cultural, and Christian.” We belong to the Evangelical Covenant Church, whose university board has recently asked our faculty to partner with the church by “making disciples” of students without, of course, imposing the faith on anyone. This raises the question: How might a dedicated Christian teach the faith in the context of a religiously diverse population of students? [Read more…]

Don’t Call it “Retro”: Retrieval Theologians are Looking Back to Move Forward

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by Kevin J. Vanhoozer  | Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

There’s a word for describing the latest cultural fad of bringing back styles, fashions, or designs from the recent past: “retro.” Vinyl records are popular once again despite the superior digital technology. Retro restaurants stake their business on the appeal to a new generation of, say, self-consciously identifying with everything 1980s. As sociocultural commentators point out, however, such retro homage is “half-longing, half-ironic.”1 [Read more…]

Online Pedagogy: Being Present at a Distance

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by David Stark  | Faulkner University

One of the most significant features of online education is its ability to deliver education to students who live away from their institutions—and, frequently, also away from each other. Significant investments in travel or relocation to study at an institution are not always viable for prospective students, especially when they intend to self-fund their educations. The risks of giving up a current job and perhaps a tuition reimbursement program can introduce meaningful downsides to traveling or relocating for school. [Read more…]

Astrobiology and Other Strange New Things

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by Hans Madueme  | Covenant College

Extraterrestrial life is standard fare in ­science-fiction literature. Michel Faber’s The Book of Strange New Things is a fine example, a tale about a Christian missionary who journeys to another planet in order to evangelize an alien species.1 The Three-Body trilogy by Cixin Liu is an even better example of intergalactic drama; it is remarkably good Chinese storytelling than which none greater can be conceived.2 Beyond fiction, the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has programs funded by NASA, public universities, and private donors. As astronomers discover thousands of “exoplanets”—planets that orbit a sun beyond our solar system—the cultural plausibility of alien life is strong. But whether such speculations have any theological plausibility is a different question ­entirely. [Read more…]

Writing in the Gaps

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by Tremper Longman III  | Westmont College

Professors and aspiring writers who know I have authored or co-authored over thirty books and many smaller pieces often ask me, “How do you do it?” I am always glad to share my thoughts on this subject, particularly with those who are struggling to get their career started at a time when they are preparing new course materials and doing committee work—often in the context of a young family. To them (as it was to me at the ­beginning of my career in the late 1970s and early 80s), it seems like an impossible task. On some days, it’s difficult to find time to eat and sleep. [Read more…]

Personae non Gratae? The Precarious Adjunct Life

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By Ryan Jackson | Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

As a student, I always suspected adjunct professors were personae non gratae among the serious academic community. This perception, I now believe, is the impression of a sophomoric imagination. [Read more…]

Was there a “Septuagint Canon”?

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By John D. Meade

In biblical and theological instruction and writing, it is common to refer to “the LXX” or “the Septuagint.” Old Testament / Hebrew Bible scholars refer to the LXX as the oldest translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, and scholars in New Testament and early Christian studies refer to the Septuagint as the text which the New Testament authors and early church fathers cited. How can professors in broader theological fields be expected to use the term any differently in their teaching and writing? [Read more…]

Redeeming the Time

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by Craig L. Blomberg

When I was a college student, I attended several time-management seminars. Invariably, someone would start off with the solemn declaration, “We all have twenty-four hours in a day. The only difference is how we choose to use them.” Each time I heard this, I wanted to shout, “No we don’t! Some people don’t need as much sleep as I do!” More than once, I had tried cutting back on sleep, and every time I got sick. [Read more…]