Christian Scholars Review Monthly Newsletter - Issue #1

This month we are introducing a new feature–the CSR newsletter. In the newsletter, we hope to highlight the top blogs, print features, new resources, and upcoming conferences. Our goal is to keep you up to date on the latest happenings in how Christ animates learning.

If you have not read any of the essays in the new volume of CSR yet, I would encourage you to read Curtis Gruenler’s opening essay, “The Promise of Mimetic Theory as an Interdisciplinary Paradigm for Christian Scholars.” As George Marsden noted decades ago, Christian scholars have not developed a robust paradigm of thinking similar to Feminist Theory or Marxist critical thought. Part of moving forward in this area is finding and utilizing theories that one could argue come the closest to being Christian theories. Mimetic theory is one of those. He notes of the originator of mimetic theory René Girard, “one of the boldest of Girard’s many bold claims is that the rise of modern scientific thinking itself results from the gradual coming to light, mostly through the influence of the Bible and Christian witness, of ideas mimetic theory makes more explicit.“ Gruenler and his fellow contributors provide extensive insight into how a synthesis of mimetic theory and Christian thinking can shed further theoretical light on multiple dimensions of the academic world. 

Last year before I took the job of Editor-in-Chief at CSR, I was talking with a higher level administrator at a thriving Christian university. As the person in charge of faculty development in the area of faith and learning, he lamented the fact that he did not have a list of books that he could give new faculty that could help them understand the current faith-learning conversation in their field. Part of the reason I took the position here at CSR is that I thought we were positioned to provide those kinds of resources to Christian administrators and faculty, especially young faculty or graduate students looking for guidance regarding faith-learning conversations. 

That’s why I asked Christ-Animated Learning subscribers and the Christ-Animated Learning blog team to put together a list of the top-faith learning books in their discipline. The result is the creation of our new list of top faith-animating learning books.

The list starts with a few general works related to the academic life in general as well as teaching. The rest of the books focus on faith and learning in a particular discipline. Usually these works can help give the novice an orientation regarding the faith-learning conversation in the particular field. The list purposely left out the fields of Biblical Studies, Theology, and Church History apart from a general list of some classic texts since those will be heavily influenced by theological tradition.

This list is not necessarily a list of books that might exemplify excellent scholarship by Christians in a field (e.g., George Marsden’s biography of Jonathan Edwards). Perhaps in the future we will create such a list. Right now, this list is meant to be a resource for faculty development or Christian graduate students trying to familiarize themselves with the faith-learning conversation in general or the one taking place in their field or discipline. Please feel free to send me further suggestions.

Christian Scholar’s Review is pleased to announce the celebration of its 50th anniversary. The celebration will take place on October 29-30, 2021, at Baylor University in conjunction with the Symposium on Faith and Culture. Joel Carpenter, Senior Research Fellow with the Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity and former Provost of Calvin University, will deliver the keynote address.

The Symposium is an annual event hosted by Baylor’s Institute for Faith and Learning. Issue 51:1 will be released at a celebratory lecture and reception. Other events will include a reception during which prospective authors can meet with editors along with the annual editorial board meeting. For further details concerning the symposium, please visit https://www.baylor.edu/ifl/index.php?id=967086. 

If you have not already, I would encourage you to check out CSR’s new website. Made possible through the wonderful creative expertise of John Hwang, founder and CEO of Lanio, you will find a completely new design that results in easier access to recent blog posts, articles, book reviews, as well as other additional features, such as “Around the Web.” Speaking of the blog, I am thankful to all of you who have subscribed and supported the Christ Animated Learning Blog and to our Blog Contributors. For those of you interested in contributing, you can find our guidelines and the submission portal here. We encourage all of you to continue the conversations started by the blog in the comments section.

Also, for those looking to place a longer and more substantive article regarding faith and learning, we encourage you to consider submitting your manuscript to the print journal of Christian Scholar’s Review. You can find our guidelines and the submission portal here.