Assigning a summer reading to entering freshmen is a growing trend at hundreds of American colleges and universities. Colleges typically pick one book and ask students to read it outside their courses. Many invite the author to help kick off the year by speaking on campus at convocation. Most colleges see the key purpose of a common reading…

Spiritual living demands growth, and spiritual development has many parallels with human development. Ministers who are knowledgeable of the various stages are best prepared to assist and optimize spiritual growth. The primary benefit of nurturing believers through developmental stages is assured spiritual health and maturity in the context of a…

This paper gives an account of the thoughts of Cornelius Van Til on the contemporary Christian school movement. An account of the historical development of Christian compromise is given, followed by a critique of the compromise among contemporary Christian educators. Van Til claims that any educational position which falls short of being founded…

Written by an Oglala Sioux Indian student for a creative writing contest, this story said that all people could live in peace with one another if they would follow the lessons given in the Bible. (AH)

Students are graduating from the public school system with little, if any, mythological background. If we are to graduate educated and informed human beings, we must not persist in pursuing our traditional unorganized attempts at teaching mythology. The appreciation of contemporary allusions to mythologies is dependent on a systematized approach.…

Rastafarians have used biblical geography to invest themselves with sanctity, status, and a global significance. They have reinterpreted the geography of the Bible in a novel manner that makes sense for them and provides a world map essential to their doctrine and manner of life. (RM)

This theme issue of "Research and Creative Activity" features 10 articles on Indiana University faculty members whose work on various campuses continues to broaden and advance knowledge about "Scriptures of the World" and their meaning in human life. The articles are as follows: "Why Scriptures of the World Still Matter…

Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that seeks answers to two main questions: How do we know? and How do we know we know? This paper is concerned with how four major schools of thought have addressed these questions and the implications that their answers to these questions have for education. The paper begins by discussing how four major…

A SURVEY WAS MADE OF INFORMAL ADULT EDUCATION BY AGENCIES, ORGANIZATIONS, AND CHURCHES IN NORTHEAST JOHNSON COUNTY, KANSAS (PART OF GREATER KANSAS CITY). RECREATION, LEADERSHIP TRAINING, HUMAN RELATIONS, ACADEMIC SUBJECTS, CREATIVE ARTS, PUBLIC AFFAIRS, AND BIBLE STUDY AND RELIGIOUS TRAINING WERE THE LEADING PROGRAM AREAS. ALL GROUPS BUT ONE CHOSE…

This paper discusses the concept of Bulgarian national mythology, a secondary mythology that emerged around the late 18th century based on the fundamental opposition Chaos-Cosmos, near-far, up-down, good-evil, God-Satan, and human-non-human. The new mythology redefined self-images and images of the Other, the main figures, and narratives about…

A seemingly simple tale of schoolboys marooned on an island, the novel "Lord of the Flies" is an enigmatic and provocative piece of literature. This casebook probes the many layers of meaning in the novel, examining its literary, philosophical, historical, scientific, and religious significance. The casebook integrates analysis and…

The communication of faith requires a full personal response not required to the same extent in other branches of human knowledge. Because of this, teaching methods designed for the arts and sciences must be adapted for use in religious education. Because religion focuses on God, the absolute transcendent, religious education has to do with…

In most churches, Bible and other religious instruction is based on an evangelical model structured on a teacher-centered, lecture-oriented approach that involves treating adults as children and that is thus more consistent with unregenerate human nature than with the born-again nature of Christians. An emancipatory model of Christian adult…

The closing of local mines and factories collapsed the economic and social structure of Ivanhoe, Virginia, a small rural town once considered a dying community. This book is a case study that tells how the people of Ivanhoe organized to revitalize their town. It documents the community development process--a process that included hard work, a…

The study of hermeneutics has been a growing focus of Jewish educational research in recent years. The significance of hermeneutics to Jewish education is its concern with how human beings read and respond to texts. Several scholars have addressed hermeneutic questions from a variety of different theory-to-practice perspectives. Many of their…