Frameworks: Interdisciplinary Studies for Faith and Learning
We affirm the value of a Christian liberal arts education. We believe that lifelong development of a Christian worldview makes us more fully human. We attest that engagement in the liberal arts contributes to the process of integrating Christian spirituality with a broad range of disciplinary studies. This integrative process requires that we explore and reflect upon biblical and theological studies while learning effective communication, pursuing healthy relationships, and engaging our diverse global community. We believe that the convergence of academic disciplines opens the door to the good life with enlarged promise for worship of the living God, development of deeper communities, and preparation for service and witness.
Our contributors are dedicated to the integration of faith, life, and learning. We celebrate exposure to God’s truth at work in the world not only through preachers, missionaries, and theologians, but also through the likes of poets, artists, musicians, lawyers, physicians, and scientists. We seek to explore issues of faith, increase self-awareness, foster diversity, cultivate societal engagement, explore the natural world, and encourage holistic service and witness. We offer these studies not only as our personal act of worship, but as liturgies to prepare readers for worship and as an opportunity to wrestle with faith and practice through the arts and sciences.
In this series, we proclaim our commitment to interdisciplinary studies. Interdisciplinary studies involves the methodological combination of two or more academic disciplines into one research project. Within a Christian worldview, we address complex questions of faith and life, promote cooperative learning, provide fresh opportunities to ask meaningful questions and address human need. Given our broad approach to interdisciplinary studies, we seek contributors from diverse Christian traditions and disciplines. Possibilities for publication include but are not limited to the following examples: (1) We seek single- or multiple-author contributions that address Christian faith and life via convergence of two or more academic disciplines; (2) We seek edited volumes that stretch across interdisciplinary lines. Such volumes may be directed specifically at the convergence of two or more disciplines and address a specific topic or serve as a wide-ranging collection of essays across multiple disciplines unified by a single theme; (3) We seek contributors across all Christian traditions and encourage conversations among scholars regarding questions within a specific tradition or across multiple traditions. In so doing we welcome both theoretical and applied perspectives.
The vision for this project emerged among professors at Evangel University (Springfield, MO). Evangel University, owned and operated by the General Council of the Assemblies of God (AG), is the fellowship’s national university of arts, sciences, and professions: the first college in the Pentecostal tradition founded as a liberal arts college (1955). Evangel University is a member institution of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU). Consistent with the values and mission of the AG and CCCU, Evangel University exists to educate and equip Christians from any tradition for life and service with particular attention to Pentecostal and Charismatic traditions. Evangel University employs a general education curriculum that includes required interdisciplinary courses for all students. The Evangel University representatives for this series continue to participate in the articulation and development of the Evangel University ethos and seek contributors that demonstrate and model confessional integration not only for the Evangel University community and Pentecostals, but all Christians committed to the integration of faith, learning, and life. We offer this series not only as a gift from the Evangel University community to other Christian communities interested in the intersection of intellectual integration and spiritual and societal transformation, but also as an invitation to walk with us on this journey. Finally, in order to ensure a broad conversation, our editorial committee includes a diverse collection of scholars not only from Evangel University but also from other traditions, disciplines, and academic institutions who share our vision.
Series Editors
• Paul W. Lewis (Associate Professor of Historical Theology and Missiology at Assemblies of God Theological Seminary)
• Martin William Mittelstadt (Professor of Biblical Studies at Evangel University)
Editorial Board
• Diane Awbrey (Professor of Humanities at Evangel University)
• Jeremy Begbie (Research Professor of Theology at Duke Divinity School)
• Robert Berg (Professor of Theology at Evangel University)
• Jonathan Kvanvig (Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Baylor University)
• Joy Qualls (Chair & Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Biola University)
• Brandon Schmidly (Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Evangel University)
• Geoffrey W. Sutton (Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Evangel University)
• Grant Wacker (Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Christian History at Duke Divinity School)
• Michael Wilkinson (Professor of Sociology at Trinity Western University)
• Everett Worthington (Professor of Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University)