34 research outputs found
Formation in the Classroom
No full textWhat is the relationship between the academic knowledge of the guild and the formation of students in the classroom? This Forum gathers four essays originally presented at a Special Topics Session at the 2009 conference of the American Academy of Religion (Atlanta, Georgia), with a brief introductory essay by Fred Glennon explaining the genesis of the panel. Douglas Jacobsen and Rhonda Hustedt Jacobsen clarify some of the issues at stake in undergraduate liberal arts classrooms by distinguishing between four dimensions of what they refer to as the (in)formation teaching matrix: institutional context, course content, faculty roles, and student outcomes. John Thatamanil argues that all learning necessarily presupposes formation. Amanda Porterfield argues against using the word formation because it complicates and undermines her teaching goals to historicize religion and narratives about it through open-ended inquiry. And, finally, Mary Elizabeth Moore explores the interactive processes linking formation, information, reformation, and transformation. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Living the Questions of Learning and Faith
No full text© Oxford University Press, 2013. The task of Christian scholarship involves the exploration of the scholar\u27s own soul as well as the philosophical analysis of the linkages between faith and learning. The ideas of Ernest Boyer and Nancey Murphy illustrate this complex terrain where faith and scholarship overlap and blend together in the scholar\u27s life. This approach to Christian scholarship requires that ethics and aesthetics be taken into account alongside logic and that living the questions of learning and faith take center stage over the merely theoretical discussion of issues
Contours and Contexts of Christian Scholarship
No full text© Oxford University Press, 2013. The intermingling of faith and learning that takes place in Christian scholarship is often unpredictable, usually multi-directional, and always complex. Because of that, Christian scholars, whether Catholic or Protestant, will sometimes find themselves caught between the differing expectations of church and academy. But done well, faith-informed scholarship and academically shaped faith can be a boon to both the churches and the academy
More Than the Integration of Faith and Learning
No full text© Oxford University Press, 2013. An approach to Christian scholarship called the integration of faith and learning has been popular for several decades within evangelical Protestant academic circles. Originally developed by Arthur Holmes and Nicholas Wolterstorff, it has recently been championed in the larger academy by people like George Marsden. With roots in Reformed theology, it stresses the importance of articulating a Christian worldview. This approach has many strengths, but it is not the only way of defining Christian scholarship and other models need to be developed
Scholarship Defined and Embodied
No full text© Oxford University Press, 2013. This chapter proposes a threefold definition of scholarship that includes analytic, strategic, and empathic modes of reflection. It also underscores the place of ethics, academic etiquette, personal motivation, and vocation in the life of any scholar. These multiple dimensions of scholarship need to be understood before one attempts to map the even more complex terrain of Christian scholarship
Talking about Religion
No full text© Oxford University Press, 2014. This chapter provides a three-part definition of religion, including historic religion, personal religion, and public religion, that sets the stage for a clearer and more productive conversation about the place of religion in American higher education in the future. A wide range of current topics under discussion in higher educational circles- religious literacy, the making of meaning, civic engagement-have undeniable links to religious concerns. In a postsecular age, higher education will seek to develop appropriate mechanisms and manners for conversation that includes voices reflective of religious particularity, while still maintaining commitment to rational academic discourse
Why Faculty Find It Difficult to Talk about Religion
No full text© Oxford University Press, 2014. This essay describes the historic ideals of Christian higher education, the complex history of church-related higher education in America, and the diversity of approaches that exist today. Rejecting a simplistic distinction between secular and religious higher education, the Jacobsens discuss the different roles that religious advocacy and religious neutrality can play at schools rooted in different religious traditions. The notion of traditionenhanced learning is used to describe the variety of ways that church-related colleges and universities incorporate religion into their work as educational institutions
