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higher education

Needed: A Good Dose of Self-Awareness

In a recent post,  I took a swing at the problem of using the rhetoric of critical thinking without actually employing it ourselves in higher education.  So, let me try to explain a little more of what I mean by

Stephen Rankin December 6, 2011 Christian Life, Doctrine/Theology, Higher and Theological Education, Religion No Comments Read more

The Cost of Failing to Think

A news item about Shorter University, a Baptist school associated with the Georgia Baptist Convention, has given me another opportunity to worry about the way we talk to one another about contentious matters.  The school apparently has made a policy

Stephen Rankin December 2, 2011 Higher and Theological Education, Religion, The Church, United Methodism No Comments Read more

What Greensburg Teaches Me

In this virtual world that is the Internet, physical location often seems increasingly irrelevant.  Today, however, on this day after Thanksgiving, 2011, my physical location is significant.  It offers a poignant context for my thoughts. I’m sitting in a coffee shop,

Stephen Rankin November 25, 2011 Christian Life, Ministry, United Methodism No Comments Read more

A Tragic Failure in Higher Education

I recently had an encounter with a student who expressed irritation with “judgmental Christians” who tell people they are going to hell.  This attitude is  common on college campuses.  Therefore, our brief conversation nicely illustrates how we are largely failing to grow

Stephen Rankin November 14, 2011 Emerging adults, Higher and Theological Education 7 Comments Read more

Academic Moral Equivalency and Christian Perfection

I have been seriously pondering John Wesley’s doctrine of Christian perfection for several years.  Have we his heirs advanced or retreated in our understanding of Methodism’s “grand depositum” as he put it?  I don’t know.  We certainly don’t like the

Stephen Rankin December 7, 2009 Christian Life, Doctrine/Theology, Higher and Theological Education, Religion 2 Comments Read more
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Meet Steve

I serve as Executive Director of the Spiritual Maturity Project, a ministry some of us have recently started.  For 25 years I worked in higher education as a professor and chaplain and before that as a pastor.  I love to help people grapple with big and basic questions to grow into real ,grown-up Christian discipleship.

I ruminate on all manner of theological, biblical, historical, and cultural topics. I believe followers of Jesus need to be more like members of Issachar’s tribe, able to read the times. Read more

 

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