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Christian Higher Education:

A Global Reconnaissance

Edited by Joel Carpenter, Perry Glanzer, and Nicholas S. Lantinga

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Hardcover: 360 pages
Publisher: Eerdmans
Publish Date: March 7, 2014
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0802871054
ISBN-13: 978-0802871053

This book offers a fresh report and interpretation of what is happening at the intersection of two great contemporary movements: the rapid growth of higher education worldwide and the rise of world Christianity. It features on-site, evaluative studies by scholars from Africa, Asia, North America, and South America.

Christian Higher Education: A Global Reconnaissance visits some of the hotspots of Christian university development, such as South Korea, Kenya, and Nigeria, and compares what is happening there to places in Canada, the United States, and Europe, where Christian higher education has a longer history. Very little research until now has examined the scope and direction of Christian higher education throughout the world, so this volume fills a real gap.

Editors

Joel Carpenter is professor of history and director of the Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity at Calvin College.

Perry L. Glanzer is professor of educational foundations at Baylor University and a resident scholar with Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion.

Nicholas S. Lantinga is a professor at Handong Global University in South Korea and former director of the International Association for the Promotion of Christian Higher Education.

Reviews

What an incredible resource! This book does for our understanding of the worldwide resurgence of Christian higher education what North American scholars have been doing to understand the North American renaissance of the past several decades. It offers informative accounts of the expansion of Christian higher education — with all its challenges and opportunities — in major countries on nearly every continent. As a bonus, some of our best scholars in this field introduce and conclude the studies with illuminative assessments of the whole worldwide project.

— Robert Benne
Roanoke College

This insightful and richly textured collection of essays will bring much encouragement to those who have sought to keep alive both serious scholarship and living faith in higher education. . . . What an exhilarating global story unfolds through these pages!

— Gerald Pillay
Liverpool Hope University

At a time when Christian universities and colleges especially in North America and Europe have been in decline, this volume provides a refreshing look at the expansion and ingenuity of Christian institutions around the world. . . . The contributors tell a story of hope, passion, and commitment. . . . Anyone interested in global Christian education will be well served by reading this book.

— Mwenda Ntarangwi
International Association for the Promotion of Christian Higher Education

Given the rapid numerical expansion and dynamic intellectual growth of new Christian universities outside North America, this is an exciting moment for Christ-centered higher education worldwide. . . . The mosaic of international perspectives in this wide-ranging volume demonstrates how much all of us can learn as every part of the higher education body of Christ shares its gifts and opportunities.

— Philip G. Ryken
Wheaton College

This book shows what we at Handong Global University have long felt: God is at work renewing and inspiriting new institutions not only here in Korea but all over the world. Here we read of similar struggles and inspiring responses to God’s call by our colleagues in Christian higher education. Praise to the Lord as he continuously works in each and every campus throughout the world!

— Young-Gil Kim
Handong Global University

This is a welcome addition to an interesting but rarely studied segment of higher education globally.

— Daniel C. Levy
State University of New York at Albany

The editors recruited an exceptionally diverse group of contributors, several of whom have academic positions in non-Western universities. The volume accordingly does not re-tread familiar terrain but uses its contributors’ on-the-ground knowledge to present a wealth of new information and analysis.

— Books & Culture

The case studies in this book examine the upsurge of new institutions in the Global South and offer instructive comparisons with the older Christian world.

— Christian Century

Through its writing style, organized structure and continuity, as well as its comprehensive approach, this text offers readers a pioneer study of Christian higher education research within the robust field of international and comparative higher education. . . . An invaluable resource.

— Intégrité

Would be a valuable resource for a faculty reading group, particularly an interdisciplinary one.

— Christian Scholar’s Review