The Logos Academic Blog
Dougald McLaurin | Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
Last fall a student walked into the library and asked me where the commentaries on the book of Romans were located. He said he needed them for an exegesis paper he was writing. I asked, “How are you going to research your exegesis?” He said he would pull some commentaries and quote the ones he liked best. I might have let out an audible gasp, but this approach to research is common among students.
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Douglas Estes | South University
I am a perfectionist.
While this may seem like a simple admission, it took me many years to self-diagnose and admit that I am, in fact, a perfectionist.
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by Adam Winn | University of Mary Hardin-Baylor
Rome and Rome’s empire have always been recognized as significant pieces of the New Testament’s background. It was a Roman governor who sentenced Jesus to die on a Roman cross. It was a Roman centurion who was the first Gentile convert in Acts. It was on Roman roads that Paul traveled to bring the gospel of a crucified Messiah to the Gentile world. And it was to the Roman government that Paul and Peter demanded Christians give obedience and proper respect.
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Few living theologians can lay claim to founding a theological movement, and John Milbank is one of them. In the 1990s, his work Theology and Social Theory (Basil Blackwell) launched what is today known as radical orthodoxy. How do we reject the errors of modernity and help Christian theology speak in a better way to our world today?
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For decades, Edith M. Humphrey’s scholarly work has gifted both the academy and the church. Her teaching career has included positions at several schools in Canada, but since 2002 she has been part of the faculty of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, where she now serves as the William F. Orr Professor of New Testament. Her publications have covered a variety of subjects, including the pseudepigraphical writing Joseph and Aseneth, rhetoric in the New Testament, the relationship between Scripture and tradition, and C. S. Lewis in relation to Orthodox theology. [Read more…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]