Theos Report on Religious Education

The latest report from Theos has recently been published:

Hannah Rich, Beyond the Classroom: Informal Religion and Worldviews Education in the UK (London: Theos, 2025).

Here’s some brief blurb:

‘We live in divided times where religion is often seen as the problem.

‘But RE properly understood – as lifelong learning that goes beyond the school classroom – could help us heal our fractured society.

Our latest report by Hannah Rich explores the spaces and places where people of all ages can learn about religion outside the classroom.’

More information is available here, and a pdf of the full report is available here.

Evangelical Review of Theology 47, 3 (August 2023)

The latest Evangelical Review of Theology – a special issue primarily on Christian higher education – is now online and available in its entirety as a pdf here.

David S. Dockery

Christian Higher Education and the Global Church

D. A. Carson

A Biblical Theology of Education

John D. Woodbridge

Biblical Authority and Faithful Christian Higher Education

Jennifer Marshall Patterson

Wisdom for Cultural Challenges about Human Flourishing

Nathan A. Finn

Theological Commitments of Distinctively Christ-Centred Higher Education

Bernhard Ott

Shaping the Future of Theological Education: Introducing the ICETE Manifesto II

ICETE Manifesto II: Call and Commitment to the Renewal of Theological Education

Ian Atkinson

‘In the Land of My Captivity’:

Patrick of Ireland’s Use of the Old Latin Jeremiah

Book Reviews

Christian History Magazine on Christianity and Higher Education

The latest issue of Christian History Magazine is devoted to the topic of ‘Hallowed Halls: The Christian Story of the University’.

Here’s the issue blurb:

‘How have Christians pioneered, molded, and interacted with higher education throughout the ages? This issue of Christian History surveys the Christian story of the university, following schools of particular historical interest. Beginning with the development of the first institutions in the Middle Ages – precursors to our own modern universities – and their vision for a classical education centered around theology, we trace what happened to that vision after the Enlightenment when a new kind of university arose. Finally we consider how these visions made their way to America, where today wholly secular universities, explicitly Christian schools, and historically church-related colleges all dot the landscape.’

The whole magazine is available as a 12.6 MB pdf here.

Centre for Public Christianity (June 2020)

Among other items, the Centre for Public Christianity has two ‘Life and Faith’ podcasts, one with historian Tom Holland and one with fiction writer Christos Tsiolkas, both of whom ‘while not believers themselves, have been profoundly influenced by Christianity’.

Tom Holland explores the revolutionary and enduring influence of Christianity here, while Christos Tsiolkas talks about the personal experiences that led him to choose early Christianity and the Apostle Paul as the subject of his latest book Damascus here.

In a further post, they draw attention to a podcast on ‘Ode to Teachers’, here, in which five different teachers share their stories of the highs and lows of the job.

Perichoresis 16, 3 (July 2018) on Teaching Leaders, Leading Teachers

Perichoresis is the ‘Theological Journal of Emanuel University’, an open access journal published twice a year.

The latest issue is devoted to the theme of ‘Teaching Leaders, Leading Teachers: Biblical and Historical Perspectives on Education and Leadership’, with the below essays available in pdf format from here.

Jonathan D. Stuckert

Forgive our Presumption: A Difficult Reading of Matthew 23:1-3

In Matthew 23:1-3, Jesus commands His disciples and the crowd to listen to the scribes and Pharisees even while not imitating their actions. Many modern interpreters have lessened the force of Matthew 23:1-3 by an assumption of irony on the part of Jesus. We presume that God could never ordain this for His people. However, this easier reading may not be the best reading. A more straightforward interpretation, but one that is difficult to hear, suggests that at times we may need to sit under bad leadership as means of receiving God’s Word. Pre-critical and modern interpreters provide an understanding of the words of Jesus that is consistent with a theology of God’s providence in times of transition and bad leadership. In addition, there are instances of His direction in both the Old and New Testaments that reinforce this challenging path. It is through this more faithful stance that we grow and flourish in difficult times.

Amy L. Crider

Leaders on ladders: The Power of Story in John’s Gospel

In his Gospel, John reveals this key leadership principle: effective leaders harness the power of narrative to illuminate the metanarrative and connect people to it. John uses narrative techniques to make invisible spiritual realities visible and thus succeeds in connecting people to the metanarrative. John forges a link between people and the metanarrative by showing individuals how their own stories fit into the biblical metanarrative, fulfilling his purpose: ‘These are written that you may believe…’ (20:31). The church is transmitted through the ages by leaders who write. Because the metanarrative is a story and story is accessible to all audiences, the biblical metanarrative is not dependent on culture, time, or context; it transcends the ages, enabling John to lead and write from the present as well as for the future. Thus, John illuminates the metanarrative not only for the infant church but for all Christians to come. Christian leaders today also need to communicate so their people can see their place in the metanarrative of Scripture.

Jeffrey M. Horner

Leading Like a Fool: An Evaluation of Paul’s Foolishness in 2 Corinthians 11:16-12:13

The apostle Paul employed many techniques that demonstrated his leadership. One of the most understated instances of that is in his ‘Fool’s Speech’ in 2 Corinthians 11:16- 12:13. Paul flaunted his rhetorical skills in calling attention to his own shortcomings, in lampooning his opponents, and in revealing the source of his assurance for foolishness. This article evaluates Paul’s rhetorical masterpiece calling the Corinthians to humble submission to his apostleship by synthesizing the work of both Jennifer Glancy and Lawrence Welborn with Don Howell.

Justin L. Glenn

The Intellectual-Theological Leadership of John Amos Comenius

John Amos Comenius was a revolutionary leader in both the church and the academy in 17th century Europe. Born and raised in Moravia and firmly grounded in the doctrine of the United Church of the Brethren, Comenius rose from obscurity in what is now the Czech Republic to become recognized around Europe and beyond as an innovative and transformational leader. He contributed to efforts such as advocating for universal education, authoring classroom textbooks (most notably in Latin education), shepherding local churches and his entire denomination, and working for unity and peace among Christians across Europe. Though for many decades after his death he seemed to be lost to time, there has been a resurgence of scholarly interest in the ideas and methods of Comenius. His life and work can serve as a source of encouragement and inspiration to church and educational leaders today.

Timothy Paul Jones

Prophets, Priests, and Kings Today? Theological and Practical Problems with the Use of the Munus Triplex as a Leadership Typology

It has become widespread, not only among pastors and conference speakers but also among scholars such as Vern Poythress and John Frame, to utilize the threefold offices of Christ as a typology for church leadership. According to this application of the threefold office, different church leaders possess prophetic, priestly, and kingly capacities in differing degrees, and the most appropriate role for each leader depends on which of these capacities happens to be strongest. According to some proponents, the offices of prophet, priest, and king function as leadership personality types, with prophets identified as those leaders who are gifted as teachers, priests as those who care for people’s needs, and kings as planners and organizers. This article undertakes an exploration of these three leadership roles and contends that, though the munus triplex itself is a venerable and biblical structure, the appropriation of prophet, priest, and king as typological categories for church leadership is not. Through examination both of relevant Old Testament texts and of New Testament appropriations of these offices of leadership, it is demonstrated that the typological categorization of leaders as prophets, priests, or kings falls far short when it comes to biblical support. Particularly absent in Scripture is any clear identification of these offices with specific traits that different church leaders possess in differing degrees. Kingship and priesthood in particular are not individualized traits but a communal identity, shared by the whole people of God and grounded in union with Christ.

Nathan H. Gunter

The Shepherd-Leader Motif as a Pastoral Model for a Globalizing Church

The simultaneous globalization and demographic shift of the Church to the Global South has produced an unprecedented climate for theological work. Pastors and theologians are confronted with the task of developing theological systems that are faithful to the authoritative standard of Scripture, tailored to the increasingly complex needs of their local contexts, and sensitive to the ongoing dialogue of other leaders around the globe. In light of the increasing cross-cultural dialogue among scholars and pastors within a globalized church and a corresponding desire to encourage greater ‘diasporadic consciousness’ therein, this article presents the biblical-theological shepherd-leader motif as a primary metaphor for understanding the distinct nature and role of pastoral leadership. This article presents shepherd leadership as a robust metaphor of pastoral leadership by reviewing Scripture’s use of the metaphor and recent significant works on the subject. In the second section of the article, I propose a model profile of the biblical shepherd-leader based upon the insights of the biblical-theological review.

Matt Thomas

The Indispensable Mark of Christian Leadership: Implications from Christ’s Methods of Leadership Development in Mark’s Gospel

What is successful Christian leadership? How should leadership be developed within a Christian context? This article encourages Christian leaders to seek to identify with Jesus’ mission and paradigm in developing leaders by examining the Scriptural passage in Mark 3:13-19. Jesus’ example in leadership development was based on succession of leadership primarily accomplished through personally shaping his disciples in close, mentoring relationships. This article, in particularly examines Jesus’ practice of having his disciples near him in order that they might best accomplish the task he had purposed for them. Currently, this pattern of leadership development has been given diverse definitions from servant-based leadership to transformational leadership, but to Jesus, developing leaders was best accomplished through simple mentoring. Jesus’ desired goals for his disciples were realized through an intentional nearness to the lives of the twelve. For Christian leadership to be healthy, its success depends on close relationships being developed between the mentor and the mentee. The indispensable mark of Christian leadership is the combined effort of action and agenda while purposing to influence others.

Grit and Grace

I contributed this week’s ‘Connecting with Culture’, a weekly email service provided by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.

‘I firmly believe character education prepares our young people for life in modern Britain, regardless of their background or where they grew up.’ So said Education Secretary Nicky Morgan in a recent speech, reinforcing calls for schools to help children develop ‘grit’ – confidence, perseverance, resilience – in order to equip them to meet the challenges of future life.

How this is to be done, and whether or not it places an unrealistic demand on educators are moot points. Also debatable is the identification of what counts as ‘character’, whether ‘grit’ is still about those qualities which make academic success more likely, rather than traits such as selflessness, humility, and generosity.

It reminds me of the distinction David Brooks makes in his book, The Road to Character, between ‘résumé virtues’ (the skills you bring to the marketplace) and ‘eulogy virtues’ (the ones that are talked about at your funeral).

According to Brooks, we live in the culture of ‘the Big Me’, where success is achieved through competition with others, where the rules of life are those we make for ourselves, where the self is defined by tasks and accomplishments. Instead, he says, painting an alternative ‘moral ecology’, those to be admired are honest about their weaknesses (whether selfishness, pride or cowardice), but their character is built precisely through confronting weakness. They are humble, self-aware, other-centered, and ‘become more disciplined, considerate, and loving through a thousand small acts of self-control, sharing, service, and refined enjoyment’.

Brooks calls this the ‘crooked timber’ school of humanity, the recognition that we are richly endowed yet deeply flawed. He writes as a cultural and political commentator, not a theologian, but his unashamed use of words like ‘sin’, ‘righteousness’, and ‘redemption’ resonate with a Christian perspective, as does his declaration towards the end of the book that ‘we are all ultimately saved by grace’.

Whether or not he speaks more than he knows at this point, this is the ultimate answer to the issue of character and its formation – the need for a rescue that comes from elsewhere, outside our own capacity to make something of ourselves. Christianity is not alone in producing people of moral character, but it is alone in offering the good news of free grace. And it’s that grace which not only brings about a new standing in Christ, but the empowerment to become people who reflect in our own character something of him.

Julian Rivers on Christian Service in the Secular University

The latest Cambridge Paper from the Jubilee Centre is available online, this one by Julian Rivers:

Julian Rivers, ‘The Exile of the Mind: Christian Service in the Secular University’, Cambridge Papers 24, 1 (March 2015).

Here is the summary:

‘British higher education is increasingly secular in outlook. This paper identifies three aspects of that secularity: specialisation, instrumentalisation and globalisation. As Christians, we can respond by observing the intellectual, moral and theological inadequacy of the university life this generates. But we are also called to take practical beneficial steps to address its weaknesses as well. We can prevent slippage into hostile forms of secularism by promoting Christianity as an object and framework of study, as well as resisting petty forms of oppression. We can improve the quality of our common life by promoting intellectual virtue, scholarly community and the pursuit of public goods. This may not always sit comfortably with current criteria of scholarly “success”, but by promoting such qualities, we can hope to make even the modern secular academy serviceable to Christ.’

To Tell the Truth

I contributed this week’s ‘Connecting with Culture’, a weekly email service provided by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.

News has been dominated this week by the ramifications of the European parliamentary elections. Discussions have largely centred around the implications for the main parties and their leaders now that, in Nigel Farage’s words, ‘the UKIP fox is in the Westminster henhouse’.

Not so widely reported was the accusation by some of bias on the part of the BBC in its coverage of the elections. As one online campaign alleges, ‘much of the broadcasting... on radio and on television has provided a disproportionate focus on UKIP which is not justified by the level of support in the country for that party’. The complaint is that this ‘can have consequences for the way people vote’, and that ‘there is an onus on the BBC to report election processes fairly in ways that the impact on how people vote is minimised’.

Then came news that Education Secretary Michael Gove had ‘banned’ from the GCSE English Literature syllabus classics of American literature, including Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. Gove himself responded to the subsequent Twitterstorm by clarifying what later reports have reinforced: ‘I have not banned anything. Nor has anyone else. All we are doing is asking exam boards to broaden – not narrow – the books young people study for GCSE.’ To be sure, the net effect of the changes is likely to make it difficult for teachers to include the American works. Even so, one doesn’t need to be a fan of Gove to sense the backlash he suffered was, in this case, something of an injustice.

In a world where it sometimes seems that relativism rules, it’s heartening to see the desire expressed to get to the ‘truth’ of a matter – seen, not least this week, in the furore surrounding the Chilcot Inquiry.

Christians have a vested interest in being mouthpieces for truth and justice, for they are qualities that reflect the character of God. Indeed, signs of God’s grace can be seen in every instance of truth-telling and honest reporting which serves the welfare of others. Beyond this, as Tom Wright points out in Creation, Power and Truth: The Gospel in a World of Cultural Confusion (SPCK), knowing the truth is a public activity. Rather than being the secret, hidden knowledge of the gnostic, it ‘offers itself in testimony before the watching and evaluating world’, where the Spirit of truth equips the church not just to enjoy ‘spiritual’ experiences, but to know, speak, and live out the truth.

Catalyst 6 (Autumn 2013)

Catalyst is a twice-yearly magazine, published by CARE, highlighting ministries ‘making a Christian difference’ as well as giving the latest CARE news.

According to CARE, this issue includes a ‘moving interview with Professor John Wyatt on human dignity, a profile of TLG Education charity, a lively account of an evaluate presentation, a tour round the Parliaments and Assemblies, and much more’.

The issue is available for browsing here, or downloadable as a pdf here.

Theos Report on Faith Schools

Elizabeth Oldfield, Liane Hartnett and Emma Bailey, More than an Educated Guess: Assessing the Evidence on Faith Schools (London: Theos, 2013).

Theos have published the above report.

Here’s the opening paragraph from the Executive Summary:

‘Around one in three maintained (i.e. state funded) schools in England have a religious character. This reflects the substantial historic contribution of the churches in providing public education. More than an Educated Guess: Assessing the evidence on faith schools summarises research around maintained schools with a religious character, with a view to informing debate around their place in a plural society and their effect on students.’

More information is available here, and the full report is available for download here.

Evangelical Alliance on Education

The latest report in the 21st Century Evangelicals Series from the Evangelical Alliance UK highlights research about education.

The full report – Do We Value Education? – is available as a pdf here.

This is what the EA says:

‘This research looks at how evangelical Christians are involved in education, what motivates them to learn, and their values and priorities for both their own learning and that of the next generation. It also explores what influences evangelicals when choosing schools for their children, and their views on the place of Christianity in schools, and the practices and politics of education in the UK today. It shows how churches are already involved in schools and examines the challenges and opportunities for Christians to make a difference in the sphere of education.’

PowerPoint presentation and discussion questions for churches are linked to from this page.

Ben Witherington III on Everyday Life from a Kingdom Perspective

Christianity Today carries an interview with Ben Witherington III about his latest book, The Rest of Life: Rest, Play, Eating, Studying, Sex from a Kingdom Perspective (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012). There is also a review of it on the EerdWord blog, along with a brief summary post from Witherington himself.

The book effectively provides a final a volume in his ‘Kingdom Perspectives’ series, having previously published on worship, work, and the kingdom of God. In this one, Witherington offers theological reflection on aspects of ordinary, everyday life. 

As he summarises:

‘What we are, and what we do in life, is tremendously important to God, to the kingdom of God, and to ourselves. When we think about our Christian faith and how we spend our work week, faith should not be something that we do on Sunday, but something that shapes our worldview and how we live.’

Alan Jacobs on How to Read a Book

An excerpt from a new book – Jeffry C. Davis and Philip G. Ryken, Liberal  Arts  for  the  Christian Life (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012) – contains a short essay by Alan Jacobs on ‘How to Read a Book’.

He kicks off with the wise counsel of Francis Bacon:

‘Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.’

Jacobs himself takes in discernment, attentiveness, responsiveness, charity, and whim (‘reading for the sheer delight of it’).

Mark A. Noll on Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind

Mark A. Noll, Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2011), 196pp., ISBN ISBN 9780802866370.

Having benefited from reading Mark Noll’s seminal The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (1994) when it first came out, I was interested to see this follow-up of sorts. Eerdmans make available the table of contents and introduction here.

Noll writes: ‘My contention in this book is that coming to know Christ provides the most basic possible motive for pursuing the tasks of human learning’ (ix-x).

More fully:

‘The message in this book for my fellow evangelicals can be put simply: if what we claim about Jesus Christ is true, then evangelicals should be among the most active, most serious, and most open-minded advocates of general human learning. Evangelical hesitation about scholarship in general or about pursuing learning wholeheartedly is, in other words, antithetical to the Christ-centered basis of evangelical faith’ (x).

I’ll be interested to see how Noll plays out these contentions...

Some 2009 lectures on the book’s material are available for download from ‘Thinking Matters’ here.

Equip to Disciple Issue One (2011)

The first 2011 issue of Equip to Disciple is online here (4.6 MB pdf), carrying its usual assortment of brief articles and reviews (in amongst a load of adverts). The lead piece, by Dennis G. Bennett, is devoted to Christian education.

Charles Dunahoo notes in the Editorial that ‘Christian education is basic to all the church’s ministry, be it mercy ministry, missions, evangelism, or whatever the church does’ (4).

The Centre for Social Justice on the First Year of the Coalition

The Centre for Social Justice has published a ‘report card’ for the first year of the Coalition Government – Building a Social Recovery? A First Year Report Card on the Coalition Government.

Gavin Poole, CSJ Executive Director, writes:

‘Our report card reveals that the Government’s first year of action has been mixed. Pioneering progress in pursuing welfare reform and an encouraging new direction for drug and alcohol policy have been undermined by poor implementation of bold education plans, and compromise-driven inaction in tackling our devastating culture of family breakdown... Ministers have made a promising start in key areas, but other important commitments risk proving nothing more than rhetoric. If the Coalition is serious about building a social recovery alongside an economic one, there is much more to be done next year.’

They score the Government on the five key areas identified as pathways to poverty: family breakdown, economic dependency, serious personal debt, drug and alcohol addiction, and educational failure.

Here are the marks they award:

Family breakdown – 2/10

Economic dependency – 8/10

Educational failure – 6/10

Addiction – 7/10

Serious personal debt – 6/10

CALM Online

CALM Online is Christian Adult Education and Lifelong Christian Learning Resources. It is sponsored by Bible Reading Fellowship (BRF), and provides basic details about Christian courses and resources available and where to find further information.

Trevor Cooling on Doing God in Education

The latest newsletter from Theos, the Public Theology think tank, links to a new report entitled Doing God in Education, by Professor Trevor Cooling, the Director of the National Institute for Christian Education Research at Canterbury Christ Church University.

Here’s the blurb:

‘It argues that all education – whether religious or ‘secular’ is value-based, and is shaped by the beliefs and commitments of those who lead schools. To pretend that teaching is somehow just a matter of transmitting neutral ideas is profoundly misleading. The values and beliefs of teachers cannot simply be left at the school gate.

‘The report, which has important implications for the presence and role of Christian education, argues that God belongs in school not simply because it is a ‘right’ that comes with living in a liberal society, but because the Christian contribution to education is positive and constructive, contributing powerfully to the common good.’

The report is available in full here.

Intégrité

Intégrité: A Faith and Learning Journal is published twice a year by the Faith & Learning Committee and the Humanities Division of Missouri Baptist University.

The journal examines historical, philosophical, theological, cultural, and pedagogical issues related to the integration of Christian faith and higher learning. They note that ‘intégrité’ is a French word translated into English as ‘totality’, ‘integrity’, ‘honesty’, commenting that John Calvin considered ‘intégrité’ as whole-hearted or integrated commitment to God.

It’s not clear whether the journal has ceased publication, since the most recent volume appears to be 8, 1 (Spring 2009), available here, but previous issues are available on the same page.

As an indication of content, articles in 8, 1 (Spring 2009) are as follows:

James F. West
Quae res Excelentia? Virtus, Veritas, Excelentia


Cordell P. Schulten
Imago Dei: Made in God’s Image to be Lords, Stewards or Servants of Creation?

Mary C. Bagley and Craig Bodenschatz
Dusty Books and the Talking Fawns Who Tell Their Tales: The Enigma of C.S. Lewis

John J. Han
Departing the Corporeal World: O’Connor’s Neoplatonic Idea of Redemption in ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find,’ ‘The River,’ and ‘The Displaced Person’

C. Clark Triplett
‘The Perverse Core of Christianity’: A Review of Two Recent Works on the Radical Materialist Theology of Slovaj Žižek

Book Reviews

David K. Naugle on Solomon the Scholar

David K. Naugle, ‘Solomon the Scholar’ (DBU Scholars’ Luncheon, 7 April 2009).

In an address to Christian scholars, Naugle begins with the question, What would you ask the Lord to do for you if you could ask Him for anything at all?

He takes his cue from 1 Kings 4:29-34…

29. Now God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of mind, like the sand that is on the seashore. 30. Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. 31. For he was wiser than all men, than Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was known in all the surrounding nations. 32. He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. 33. He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that grows on the wall; he spoke also of animals and birds and creeping things and fish. 34. Men came from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

He highlights what he sees as several pertinent features…

1. Solomon the scholar’s wisdom, discernment and breadth of mind/heart were God-given gifts (1 Kings 4:29)
Not just the accumulation of data, but the ‘capacity to understand all aspects of life in its mysterious, depth dimension from God’s point of view’ (4). Our intellectual capacities are gifts of God’s grace, and we must be faithful stewards of them, work hard to develop them, as well as recognise that God gifts others, believers or not.

2. Solomon the scholar’s superior intellect and wisdom (1 Kings 4:30-31)
The leading scholar of the day ‘was a religious man, a Jew, an Israelite, a man of God’ (5), whose wisdom was greater than the leading lights and centres of learning of his era.

3. Solomon the scholar’s encyclopedic knowledge and his work as a writer and composer (1 Kings 4:32-33)
Solomon committed his research, knowledge and wisdom to writing – in wise sayings and songs. In addition to dendrology and botany, the second part of verse 33 indicates he was a student of the four principal families of the animal kingdom. According to Naugle all this presupposes ‘the original and ongoing importance of the cultural mandate that God gave to the human race…, the continuation of the original Adamic vocation of naming and explaining the animal kingdom…, the communal nature and institutional character of Solomon’s scholarship, for it is highly unlikely he undertook this kind of vast research alone…’, and that the wisdom had shalom as its goal (as 4:25 indicates, with everyone living in safety, ‘every man under his vine and fig tree’) (8-9).

4. Solomon the scholar’s fame and appeal (1 Kings 4:31b, 34)
Internationally famous for his knowledge and wisdom.

5. Someone greater than Solomon the scholar has come (Matthew 12:42)
Even in his great wisdom, discernment and breadth of mind and heart, Solomon is ‘a type, a foreshadowing, an anticipation of Jesus Christ’ (10-11), and ‘He is the One we serve as Christian scholars through our contributions to the broader arena of knowledge’ (12).