Mark Noll

In the 1990s, Christian colleges and universities experienced a record boom in students and employees. However, less than twenty years later Christian institutions experienced new challenges spurred on by four major changes: first, the "Great Recession" of 2008 and widespread debt; second, declining birthrates in certain regions of the United States; third, the passing of the Affordable Care Act, which raised the question of whether Christian institutes were required to cover contraceptives; and fourth, the Supreme Court's decision to legalize gay marriage, which brought issues of employment to the forefront at certain Evangelical institutions. Yet despite mounting challenges, most Christian colleges and universities are still stronger now than at any point in their respective histories by almost any measure.With The Anxious Middle, Todd C. Ream and Jerry Pattengale engage the work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a model for navigating our tumultuous times. The authors argue that if the present age is defined by what Bonhoeffer calls in Creation and Fall the "anxious middle"—somewhere between Eden and the Apocalypse—the challenges faced by Christian higher education must be recognized as both existential and practical. To confront them while still embracing any opportunities afforded by occasional cross breezes, Christian colleges and universities would be wise to employ a fourfold approach to planning informed by Bonhoeffer's work as well as historic and contemporary examples: institutions should be articulate about their missions, imaginative in advancing them, collaborative in deploying them, and strategic in sharing them. Trustees, administrators, faculty members, and others concerned with the future of Christian colleges and universities will find in The Anxious Middle a planning process applicable to organizational levels ranging from the campus-wide to the departmental or the programmatic. The result is an understanding of Christian higher education not merely focused on surviving but thriving between Eden and the Apocalypse.

SERIES EDITORS: DAVID W. BEBBINGTON AND MARK A. NOLL This series presents, for the first time, a connected history of evangelical movements throughout the English-speaking world, from the 1730s to the 1990s. The five volumes are united by their use of a common definition of evangelicalism that stresses conversion, reliance on Scripture, activism (especially in evangelism) and the centrality of the cross of Christ. The series offers provocative interpretations as well as factual details, provides extensive bibliographical references and is accessible to a wide readership. THE RISE OF EVANGELICALISM: THE AGE OF EDWARDS, WHITEFIELD AND THE WESLEYS This volume provides a coherent, multi-national narrative of the origins, development and rapid diffusion of evangelical movements in their first two generations, from the 1730s to the 1790s. The primary focus is on Britain and North America; historical links to Europe and then connections to Africa, Australia and beyond are also important. Much of the discussion is devoted to landmark individuals, events and organizations, and contains many biographical sketches of the era's best-known leaders - Jonathan Edwards, John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, John Newton, Hannah More - along with many lesser-known figures.

2015 Book Award for Excellence in Missiology, American Society of MissiologyNamed an Outstanding Mission Book of 2015, International Bulletin of Mission ResearchIn 1900 many assumed the twentieth century would be a Christian century because Western "Christian empires" ruled most of the world. What happened instead is that Christianity in the West declined dramatically, the empires collapsed, and Christianity's center moved to Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Pacific. How did this happen so quickly? Respected scholar and teacher Scott Sunquist surveys the most recent century of Christian history, highlighting epochal changes in global Christianity. He also suggests lessons we can learn from this remarkable global Christian reversal. Ideal for an introduction to Christianity or a church history course, this book includes a foreword by Mark Noll.

This series presents, for the first time, a connected history of evangelical movements throughout the English-speaking world, from the 1730s to the 1990s. The five volumes are united by their use of a common definition of evangelicalism that stresses conversion, reliance on Scripture, activism (especially in evangelism) and the centrality of the cross of Christ. The series offers provocative interpretations as well as factual details, provides extensive bibliographical references and is accessible to a wide readership. This volume provides a coherent, multi-national narrative of the origins, development and rapid diffusion of evangelical movements in their first two generations, from the 1730s to the 1790s. The primary focus is on Britain and North America; historical links to Europe and then connections to Africa, Australia and beyond are also important. Much of the discussion is devoted to landmark individuals, events and organizations, and contains many biographical sketches of the era's best-known leaders - Jonathan Edwards, John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, John Newton, Hannah More - along with many lesser-known figures.