This book enters a lively discussion about religious faith and higher education in America that has been going on for a decade or more. During this time many scholars have joined the debate about how best to understand the role of faith in the academy at large and in the special arena of church-related Christian higher education. The notion of faith-informed scholarship has, of course, figured prominently in this conversation. But, argue Douglas and Rhonda Jacobsen, the idea of Christian scholarship itself has been remarkably under-discussed. Most of the literature has assumed a definition of Christian scholarship that is Reformed and evangelical in orientation: a model associated with the phrase "the integration of faith and learning." The authors offer a new definition and analysis of Christian scholarship that respects the insights of different Christian traditions (e.g., Catholic, Lutheran, Anabaptist, Wesleyan, Pentecostal) and that applies to the arts and to professional studies as much as it does to the humanities and the natural and social sciences. The book itself is organized as a conversation. Five chapters by the Jacobsens alternate with four contributed essays that sharpen, illustrate, or complicate the material in the preceding chapters. The goal is both to map the complex terrain of Christian scholarship as it actually exists and to help foster better connections between Christian scholars of differing persuasions and between Christians and the academy as a whole.

In this pathbreaking book, award-winning author Douglas Jacobsen describes global Christianity and provides a framework for understanding the varied experiences of Christians around the world. Focusing on the five big continents of Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America, Jacobsen recounts their differing histories, contemporary experiences, and cultural theologies. In the current era of massive and dynamic global challenges, this accessible and fair-minded volume sets the stage for Christians worldwide to engage the gospel--and each other--more deeply. Global Gospel contains numerous maps, charts, and illustrations that aid comprehension. Accompanying videos can be found on YouTube's "Global Christianity" channel (www.youtube.com/globalchristianity).

Drawing on interviews with hundreds of university professors, co-curricular educators, administrators, and students from public and private colleges and universities across the United States, Douglas and Rhonda Hustedt Jacobsen demonstrate that religion is central to the work of higher education in the twenty-first century. Religion Matters begins with an examination of the history of religion in American society and higher education, from Protestant establishment to secular dominance to the much more complex and pluralistic dynamics of the culture today. The authors define religion carefully, identifying three different modes of faith: historic religion, public religion, and personal religion. The second half of the volume explores six educational topics where religion intersects with the core goals and purposes of college/university education: religious literacy, interfaith etiquette, framing knowledge, civic engagement, convictions, and character and vocation. The authors pose key questions: What should an educated person know about the world's religions? What does it mean to interact appropriately with members of other faiths? What assumptions and rationalities, secular or religious, shape the way we think? What values and practices, secular or religious, guide civic engagement? How do personal beliefs interact with the teaching and learning process? How might colleges and universities point students toward lives of purpose and meaning? This volume shows that by paying careful and nuanced attention to the role of religion, educators can enhance intellectual life in any college or university.

For much of the twentieth century, it was assumed that higher education was and ought to be a secular enterprise, but that approach no longer suffices. The culture has shifted, and contemporary college and university students are increasingly bringing religious and spiritual questions to campus. In response, college and university leaders are exploring anew the relationship between religion and higher education.
The American University in a Postsecular Age grapples with key questions:
--How religious or irreligious are faculty and students today? What level of religious literacy should be expected from students?
--Can religion be allowed into the classroom without being disruptive?
--Should colleges and universities help students reflect on their own faith?
--Is religion antithetical to critical inquiry?
--Can religion have a positive role to play in higher education?
This is a state-of-the-art introduction to the national discussion about religion and higher education. Leading scholars and top educators express a wide spectrum of opinions that reflect the best current thinking. Introductory and concluding essays by the editors describe the postsecular character of our age and propose a comprehensive framework intended to facilitate ongoing conversation.

Pentecostalism has experienced explosive growth over the past century. This reader examines the ideas that launched the movement and fueled its expansion around the world. A general introduction to the book describes the history and theology of the early Pentecostal movement and its significance to the contemporary Christian world. A brief biography introduces each of the 16 influential leaders whose voices are recorded here.

Vivid and lively contributions are included from Fred Francis Bosworth, William Howard Durham, Garfield Thomas Haywood, Esek William Kenyon, Joseph Hillary King, Robert Clarence Lawson, Aimee Semple McPherson, Charles Harrison Mason, David Wesley Myland, Charles Fox Parham, William J. Seymour, Richard G. Spurling, George Floyd Taylor, Ambrose Jessup Tomlinson, Andrew David Ursham, and Maria Beulah Woodworth-Etter. Their works represent the full spectrum of the early Pentecostal
movement.

This book is about the boisterous beginnings of the American Pentecostal movement and the ideas that defined that movement during those formative years. It follows a group of men who rethought the Christian faith in light of their new experience of God. Thinking in the Spirit aims to provide scholars and general readers who know little or nothing about Pentecostalism with an introduction to the ideas of the movement s most articulate early spokespersons, and to provide Pentecostals with a non-judgmental historical source to help them in their theological reflections. Douglas Jacobsen focuses on the individuals who formed the original brain trust of this now gigantic religious movement. In a 25-year burst of creative energy at the beginning of the 20th century, these leaders articulated almost all the basic theological ideas that continue to define the Pentecostal message in the United States and around the world."