Todd C. Ream

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.

Many colleges and universities informally highlight the value of mentoring among academic professionals. Yet scholars often lack clear definitions, goals, practices, and commitments that help them actually reap the benefits mentoring offers. As new faculty members from younger generations continue to face evolving challenges while also reshaping institutions, their ability to connect with more experienced mentors is critical to their vocations—and to the future of higher education. In Cultivating Mentors, a distinguished group of contributors explores the practice of mentoring in Christian higher education. Drawing on traditional theological understandings of the mentee-mentor relationship, they consider what goals should define such relationships and what practices make their cultivation possible among educators. With special attention to generational dynamics, they discuss how mentoring can help institutions navigate generational faculty transitions and cultivate rising leaders. Contributors include: David KinnamanTim ClydesdaleMargaret DiddamsEdgardo Colón-EmericRebecca C. HongTim ElmoreBeck A. TaylorStacy A. Hammons This book offers valuable insights and practical recommendations for faculty members, administrators, and policy makers. Whether pursuing their vocation in Christian or secular institutions, Christian scholars will benefit from the sharing of wisdom mapped out in Cultivating Mentors.

Evangelical Christians are active across all spheres of intellectual and public life today. But a disconnect remains: the work they produce too often fails to inform their broader communities. In the midst of a divisive culture and a related crisis within evangelicalism, public intellectuals speaking from an evangelical perspective have a critical role to play—within the church and beyond. What does it look like to embrace such a vocation out of a commitment to the common good? Public Intellectuals and the Common Good draws together world-class scholars and practitioners to cast a vision for intellectuals who promote human flourishing. Representing various roles in the church, higher education, journalism, and the nonprofit sector, contributors reflect theologically on their work and assess current challenges and opportunities. What historically well-defined qualities of public intellectuals should be adopted now? What qualities should be jettisoned or reimagined? Public intellectuals are mediators—understanding and then articulating truth amid the complex realities of our world. The conversations represented in this book celebrate and provide guidance for those who through careful thinking, writing, speaking, and innovation cultivate the good of their communities. Contributors: Miroslav VolfAmos YongLinda A. LivingstoneHeather Templeton DillKatelyn BeatyEmmanuel KatongoleJohn M. Perkins and David Wright

In 1990, under the direction of Ernest Boyer, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching published a classic report on the loss of a meaningful basis for true community on college campuses—and in the nation. Now this expanded edition of Campus Life: In Search of Community reintroduces educational leaders to the Boyer report's proposals while offering up-to-date analysis and recommendations for Christian campuses today. Editors Drew Moser and Todd C. Ream have assembled pairs of academic and student-development leaders from top Christian colleges to offer a hopeful update on the practical contributions of Christian higher education to the practice of community. This volume includes new chapters, the long out-of-print Boyer report in its entirety, and a discussion guide to facilitate team conversations. Higher education now stands at a critical point, yet the contributors to this expanded edition of Campus Life see current challenges as an opportunity to revive Boyer’s commitment to its formative power. Contributors include: Mark L. Sargent and Edee Schulze of Westmont CollegeRandall Basinger and Kris Hansen-Kieffer of Messiah CollegeBrad Lau and Linda Samek of George Fox UniversityStephen T. Beers and Edward Ericson III of John Brown UniversityPaul O. Chelsen and Margaret Diddams of Wheaton CollegeDoretha O'Quinn and Tim Young of Vanguard University Christian higher education now stands at a critical point, yet the contributors to this expanded edition of Campus Life see current challenges as an opportunity to revive Boyer's commitment to understanding the formative power of Christian higher education.

Two decades on from Mark Noll's Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, could we now be on the threshold of another crisis of intellectual maturity in Christianity? Or are the opportunities for faithful intellectual engagement and witness even greater now than before? These essays invite readers to a virtual "summit meeting" on the current state of the evangelical mind. The insights of national leaders in their fields will aid readers to reflect on the past contributions of evangelical institutions for the life of the mind as well as prospects for the future. Contributors include: Richard J. MouwMark A. NollJo Anne LyonDavid C. Mahan and C. Donald SmedleyTimothy LarsenLauren WinnerJames K. A. SmithMark Galli The State of the Evangelical Mind frames the resources needed for churches, universities, seminaries, and parachurch organizations to chart their course for the future, both separately and together, and provides readers an opportunity to participate in a timely conversation as they consider what institutional and individual role they might play. This is not a book to define or diagnose evangelicalism broadly, and there's no fear-mongering or demonizing here, but rather a call to attend to the evangelical mind and the role played by interlocking institutions in its intellectual formation and ongoing vitality. It will encourage—and challenge—those who want to be part of the solution in a time of need.

Christianity Today's 2018 Book of the Year Award of Merit - Politics/Public Life Has the American university gained the whole world but lost its soul? In terms of money, prestige, power, and freedom, American universities appear to have gained the academic world. But at what cost? We live in the age of the fragmented multiversity that has no unifying soul or mission. The multiversity in a post-Christian culture is characterized instead by curricular division, the professionalization of the disciplines, the expansion of administration, the loss of community, and the idolization of athletics. The situation is not hopeless. According to Perry L. Glanzer, Nathan F. Alleman, and Todd C. Ream, Christian universities can recover their soul—but to do so will require reimagining excellence in a time of exile, placing the liberating arts before the liberal arts, and focusing on the worship, love, and knowledge of God as central to the university. Restoring the Soul of the University is a pioneering work that charts the history of the university and casts an inspiring vision for the future of higher education.

Shifting faculty roles in a changing landscape Ernest L. Boyer's landmark book Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate challenged the publish-or-perish status quo that dominated the academic landscape for generations. His powerful and enduring argument for a new approach to faculty roles and rewards continues to play a significant part of the national conversation on scholarship in the academy. Though steeped in tradition, the role of faculty in the academic world has shifted significantly in recent decades. The rise of the non-tenure-track class of professors is well documented. If the historic rule of promotion and tenure is waning, what role can scholarship play in a fragmented, unbundled academy? Boyer offers a still much-needed approach. He calls for a broadened view of scholarship, audaciously refocusing its gaze from the tenure file and to a wider community. This expanded edition offers, in addition to the original text, a critical introduction that explores the impact of Boyer's views, a call to action for applying Boyer's message to the changing nature of faculty work, and a discussion guide to help readers start a new conversation about how Scholarship Reconsidered applies today.