Rhonda Hustedt Jacobsen – författare

Douglas and Rhonda Jacobsen argue that, while there has recently been a lively discussion about religious faith and higher education in America, 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 opens the way for dialogue between evangelicals and Catholics and Protestants from a variety of church traditions. 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.

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 Universityin 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 ofopinions 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 facilitateongoing conversation.

America has entered a new intellectual era in which personal identity is assumed to play a significant role in how every person thinks. Today's academy acknowledges that who we are shapes how we view ourselves and the world, which unavoidably injects religion, spirituality, secularity, and faith-a person's deepest convictions, commitment, hopes, fears, and loyalties-into the thinking process. The new emphasis on individual identity has made academic methodologies broader and more multifaceted, enlarging the pursuit of truth but sometimes leading to unsupported and false claims about reality.Christianity and Intellectual Inquiry focuses specifically on how American Christians are trying to negotiate this new terrain. The first section of the book recounts the long, complex, and diverse history of Christian reflection on the connections between faith and learning. The second section analyses the past 150 years of American thinking, tracing the changing intellectual paradigms that governed how all Americans reflect on reality and describing how Christians made their ways through the evolving landscape. The third and final section proposes a new way of understanding intellectual inquiry that is relevant for thinkers of all religious and secular persuasions and minimizes the potential for identity-informed thinking to go astray: thinking as pilgrimage. Pilgrimage thinking recognizes that faith of some kind plays a role in how everyone tries to understand and make sense of reality while also insisting that religious convictions and markers of personal identity are not beyond critique. Thinking as pilgrimage is not dependent on one all-encompassing cognitive orientation but instead encourages a range of approaches to reality. Four specific intellectual pathways are discussed in detail: attentiveness, contemplation, proclamation, and compassion. Both American higher education and Christianity use all four cognitive pathways, and each path is a shared space where people who are seeking a better understanding of reality can challenge and learn from each other.

America has entered a new intellectual era in which personal identity is assumed to play a significant role in how every person thinks. Today's academy acknowledges that who we are shapes how we view ourselves and the world, which unavoidably injects religion, spirituality, secularity, and faith-a person's deepest convictions, commitment, hopes, fears, and loyalties-into the thinking process. The new emphasis on individual identity has made academic methodologies broader and more multifaceted, enlarging the pursuit of truth but sometimes leading to unsupported and false claims about reality. Christianity and Intellectual Inquiry focuses specifically on how American Christians are trying to negotiate this new terrain. The first section of the book recounts the long, complex, and diverse history of Christian reflection on the connections between faith and learning. The second section analyses the past 150 years of American thinking, tracing the changing intellectual paradigms that governed how all Americans reflect on reality and describing how Christians made their ways through the evolving landscape. The third and final section proposes a new way of understanding intellectual inquiry that is relevant for thinkers of all religious and secular persuasions and minimizes the potential for identity-informed thinking to go astray: thinking as pilgrimage. Pilgrimage thinking recognizes that faith of some kind plays a role in how everyone tries to understand and make sense of reality while also insisting that religious convictions and markers of personal identity are not beyond critique. Thinking as pilgrimage is not dependent on one all-encompassing cognitive orientation but instead encourages a range of approaches to reality. Four specific intellectual pathways are discussed in detail: attentiveness, contemplation, proclamation, and compassion. Both American higher education and Christianity use all four cognitive pathways, and each path is a shared space where people who are seeking a better understanding of reality can challenge and learn from each other.

America has entered a new intellectual era in which personal identity is assumed to play a significant role in how every person thinks. Today's academy acknowledges that who we are shapes how we view ourselves and the world, which unavoidably injects religion, spirituality, secularity, and faith-a person's deepest convictions, commitment, hopes, fears, and loyalties-into the thinking process. The new emphasis on individual identity has made academic methodologies broader and more multifaceted, enlarging the pursuit of truth but sometimes leading to unsupported and false claims about reality. Christianity and Intellectual Inquiry focuses specifically on how American Christians are trying to negotiate this new terrain. The first section of the book recounts the long, complex, and diverse history of Christian reflection on the connections between faith and learning. The second section analyses the past 150 years of American thinking, tracing the changing intellectual paradigms that governed how all Americans reflect on reality and describing how Christians made their ways through the evolving landscape. The third and final section proposes a new way of understanding intellectual inquiry that is relevant for thinkers of all religious and secular persuasions and minimizes the potential for identity-informed thinking to go astray: thinking as pilgrimage. Pilgrimage thinking recognizes that faith of some kind plays a role in how everyone tries to understand and make sense of reality while also insisting that religious convictions and markers of personal identity are not beyond critique. Thinking as pilgrimage is not dependent on one all-encompassing cognitive orientation but instead encourages a range of approaches to reality. Four specific intellectual pathways are discussed in detail: attentiveness, contemplation, proclamation, and compassion. Both American higher education and Christianity use all four cognitive pathways, and each path is a shared space where people who are seeking a better understanding of reality can challenge and learn from each other.

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.

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.

Winner of a 2013 American Educational Studies Association Critics'' Choice AwardDrawing on conversations with hundreds of professors, co-curricular educators, administrators, and students from institutions spanning the entire spectrum of American colleges and universities, the Jacobsens illustrate how religion is constructively intertwined with the work of higher education in the twenty-first century. No Longer Invisible documents how, after decades when religion was marginalized, colleges and universities are re-engaging matters of faith-an educational development that is both positive and necessary. Religion in contemporary American life is now incredibly complex, with religious pluralism on the rise and the categories of "religious" and "secular" often blending together in a dizzying array of lifestyles and beliefs. Using the categories of historic religion, public religion, and personal religion, No Longer Invisible offers a new framework for understanding this emerging religious terrain, a framework that can help colleges and universities-and the students who attend them-interact with religion more effectively. The stakes are high: Faced with escalating pressures to focus solely on job training, American higher education may find that paying more careful and nuanced attention to religion is a prerequisite for preserving American higher education''s longstanding commitment to personal, social, and civic learning.

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.