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Wisdom from Experience – Thoughts from Stevick Award Winners
Full text linkAccording to the website of the Christian English Language Educators Association (CELEA), which also publishes this journal: “The Earl W. Stevick Award honors members of the English language teaching profession who embody some of the characteristics of Dr. Stevick in their teaching, mentoring of teachers, scholarship, service to the profession, and living out the life of Christ in this profession.” To date, from 2017–2022 there have been six winners of this prestigious award. Given the collective wisdom they represent, we asked them to share with our readers key lessons they have learned over the course of their careers. Five of the six winners were able to contribute to this invited Forum, which we present in chronological order of receiving the award
Exposing the Roots of Constructivism: Nominalism and the Ontology of Knowledge
No full textConstructivism dominates over other theories of knowledge in much of western academia, especially the humanities and social sciences. In Exposing the Roots of Constructivism: Nominalism and the Ontology of Knowledge, R. Scott Smith argues that constructivism is linked to the embrace of nominalism, the theory that everything is particular and located in space and time. Indeed, nominalism is sufficient for a view to be constructivist.
However, the natural sciences still enjoy great prestige from the “fact-value split.” They are often perceived as giving us knowledge of the facts of reality, and not merely our constructs. In contrast, ethics and religion, which also have been greatly influenced by nominalism, usually are perceived as giving us just our constructs and opinions.
Yet, even the natural sciences have embraced nominalism, and Smith shows that this will undermine knowledge in those disciplines as well. Indeed, the author demonstrates that, at best, nominalism leaves us with only interpretations, but at worst, it undermines all knowledge whatsoever. However, there are many clear examples of knowledge we do have in the many different disciplines, and therefore those must be due to a different ontology of properties. Thus, nominalism should be rejected. In its place, the author defends a kind of Platonic realism about properties.https://digitalcommons.biola.edu/faculty-books/1642/thumbnail.jp
Mental Health, Substance Use, and the Importance of Religion during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Full text linkCOVID-19 impacted multiple facets of life, with implications on physical, mental, and societal health. Specifically, long COVID and related losses have exacerbated complex and prolonged grief responses and mental disorders including depression and anxiety. These mental health concerns are in turn associated with increased detrimental coping strategies including substance use disorders (SUD). The social and interpersonal implications of SUD are varied. Secondary data analyses from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) collected during the COVID-19 pandemic revealed an increase in substance use behaviors and mental health problems. Self-reported religious activities had a positive meditating effect on reducing substance use behaviors. Accordingly, we explored the importance of one\u27s religion and faith in coping with stress, grief, and mental health challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the impact of religion and faith in bringing hope and purpose during periods of loss, grief, mental health challenges, and SUD
Atonement and Sin
No full textChapter 6
What is Christian Doctrine? This Companion guides students and scholars through the key issues in the contemporary practice of Christian theology. Including twenty-one essays, specially commissioned from an international team of leading theologians, the volume outlines the central features of Christian doctrinal claims and examines leading methods and theological movements. The first part of the book explores the ten most important topics in Christian doctrine, offering a nuanced historical analysis, as well as charting pathways for further development. In the second part, essays address the most significant movements that are reshaping approaches to multiple topics across disciplinary, as well as denominational and ecclesiastical, borders. Incorporating cutting-edge biblical and historical scholarship in theological argument, this Companion serves as an accessible and engaging introduction to the main themes of Christian doctrine. It will also guide theologians through a growing literature that is increasingly diverse and pluriform
Generation Z and the COVID-19 Crisis
No full textIn November 2019, members of Generation Z in the United States were laying the foundation for their adult future. While the majority of this emerging generational cohort was still in high school and college, an increasing number of recent college graduates were making their way into the workforce. On the other side of the world, a 55-year-old individual from Hubei province in China would be the first person identified with a SARS-like illness caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Unbeknownst to the world, this coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) would become a global crisis infecting over 235 million people and killing 4.8 million worldwide by October 2021. The United States alone had suffered 700 thousand deaths and reported 43 million COVID-19 cumulative cases within that time frame. COVID-19 had suddenly disrupted the world and the emerging generational cohort in the United States.
With a year that included natural disasters, the death of Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna, soaring unemployment rates, the Black Lives Matter movement, the rise of anti-Asian violence, and a fierce presidential election, COVID-19 remained present amid these significant events and continued to shape and mold Generation Z’s values and behavioral systems in extraordinary fashion. This formative event demanded a clear and focused examination of its goliath impact on the emerging generation. Utilizing an updated model of strategic analysis (PHEESTLE Model), the authors examine the political, health, economic, educational, sociocultural, technological, legal, environmental, and ecological implications of COVID-19 on Generation Z..
Generation Z and the COVID-19 Crisis has been used as a text for courses in management, human resources, organizational behavior, and leadership. The conversational tone and practical approach will prepare readers to be effective both professionally and personally.https://digitalcommons.biola.edu/faculty-books/1593/thumbnail.jp
Pro-life from Womb to Tomb
No full textRecent years have brought a deluge of “deconstruction” stories in which people like Berghoef purport to dismantle the narrow-minded confines of conservative Christianity. Common threads run through these deconstruction stories, including a desire to breathe fresh air beyond the stifling judgmentalism, the aversion to nuance, presuming the worst of others’ motives, conflating one’s view with the only conceivably true view, and so on.
Let us attempt an exercise in deconstructing such deconstructions of faith
The Rise and Fall of the Imago Dei? Assessing Evangelical Theology and Practice
No full textEvangelicals all agree that human identity and vocation are rooted in the creation accounts of Genesis, but the particulars are often a matter of debate. I’ll consider the recent work of several evangelical scholars on the imago Dei—Ryan Peterson, John Kilner, Catherine McDowell, and Richard Middleton—each of whom has clarified Old Testament teaching in profound ways. Building on their work, I will reassess the priorities of the contemporary evangelical church and suggest ways of embodying practices that align with Scripture’s clear teaching on the imago Dei
The culture portfolio : Assessing growth toward intercultural competence
No full textChapter 8
Culture learning in the language classroom has long been a recognized benefit to studying language (American Council of Trustees and Alumni [ACTA], 2017). The National Standards in Foreign Language Education Project (NSLEP) states that “only the study of world language empowers learners to engage successfully in meaningful interaction, both orally and in writing, with members of other cultures” (NSLEP, 2015, p. 79). This idea was challenged, however, when Wright (2000) completed a study showing that not only do language students not progress in intercultural competence (IC) when culture is presented as cultural facts but that students even regressed in their ability to be open-minded and flexible to culturally different others. However, when culture learning was approached as a reflective process of discovery, students, even at the beginning levels of language learning, made significant gains in IC. Since this study was conducted, much has changed in the field of foreign language instruction..
Church
No full textJonathan Edwards and Karl Barth are widely considered to be the greatest North American and Swiss theologians, respectively. Though situated in vastly different contexts and separated by nearly two hundred years, they shared intriguing similarities. Both employed exegesis, theology, and philosophy with ease. Both reasoned with unique quality, depth, and timelessness. Both resisted liberal shifts of their day while remaining creative thinkers. And both were Reformed without uncritically assuming the tradition.
Each chapter brings these theologians into conversation on classic theological categories, such as the doctrine of God, atonement, and ecclesiology, as well as topics of particular interest to both, such as aesthetics and philosophy. As with all great theologians, Edwards and Barth continue to illuminate Christian doctrine. Readers will appreciate their rigor of thought and devotion to Christ