Full Description
At the heart of this collection of essays is a central question: how can humanistic education in faith-based institutions contribute to human flourishing within secular societies?
This book explores the implications of Charles Taylor's analysis of secularity for the work of humanities education in Christian institutions of higher learning. It argues that by locating themselves and their scholarship within Taylor's open frame, scholars can draw on the resources of their disciplinary expertise within the various branches of the humanities to overcome the polarizing tendencies of modern life to the benefit of all. The contributors to the volume challenge and encourage scholars in the humanities to call their students into dialogue with Taylorian themes and concepts as good neighbors working for the flourishing of the academy and the wider world. They draw on Taylor's discussion of the parable of the Good Samaritan to develop the theme of neighborliness in higher education.
An enlightening study of religion and secularism, the book will be an essential reading for scholars, researchers, and administrators in the fields of religious higher education, religious studies, and the philosophy of education.
Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Christian Higher Education: A Neighborly Interpretation
A. J. Demoskoff and Matthew Zantingh
Part I: Spinning the Frame Open
Chapter 1: "Who Is My Neighbor?": Reading the Good Samaritan Story with Charles Taylor
Susan J. Wendel
Chapter 2: A Spiritual Task for Christian Education in a Secular Age
Neal DeRoo
Chapter 3: "You Will See Heaven Opened": Reading John's Gospel in a Secular Age
Joshua J. Coutts
Part II: Interrogating Transcendence and Narratives of Progress in a Secular Age
Chapter 4: Teaching Transcendence: Seeking the Other in a Secular Age
Darren E. Dahl
Chapter 5: The Secularist's Progress: Interrogating Taylor's View of Narrative
Robert Piercey
Chapter 6: "A dark and painful chapter in our country's history": Higher Time, Memory, and Canadian History
Ken Draper
Part III: Sites of Malaise: The Study of Islam in Christian Higher Education
Chapter 7: Beyond Taylor's 'Other': Reframing Islamic Studies in Catholic Higher Education
Fachrizal Halim
Chapter 8: Teaching Jewish, Christian and Muslim Scripture in a Secular Age
F. Volker Greifenhagen
Chapter 9: The History of Evangelicals Teaching Islam in an Increasingly Secular Age
Alan M. Guenther
Part IV: Reenchanting the Humanities
Chapter 10: Recovering Language in a Secular Age: Charles Taylor and Paul Ricoeur on the Poetics of Religion
Brian Gregor
Chapter 11: Historians and the Apocalypse: Writing and Teaching in an Open Frame
A. J. Demoskoff
Chapter 12: Contemporary Fiction in the Secular Age: Considering Christian "Postsecular" Alternatives
Doug Sikkema
Afterword
Christian Humanism and Education in a Secular Age: The Challenge of Technology
Jens Zimmermann
References
Index
