Our world is growing increasingly complex and confused—a unique and urgent context that calls for a grounded and fresh approach to Christian higher education. Christian higher education involves a distinctive way of thinking about teaching, learning, scholarship, curriculum, student life, administration, and governance that is rooted in the historic Christian faith. In this volume, twenty-nine experts from a variety of fields, including theology, the humanities, science, mathematics, social science, philosophy, the arts, and professional programs, explore how the foundational beliefs of Christianity influence higher education and its disciplines. Aimed at equipping the next generation to better engage the shifting cultural context, this book calls students, professors, trustees, administrators, and church leaders to a renewed commitment to the distinctive work of Christian higher education—for the good of the society, the good of the church, and the glory of God.

What is education? How and why do educators do what we do? And, in what way can and ought education be distinctively Christian? These are a few of the probing questions for which this book seeks answers. Among other contributions, Currivean’s book explores a biblical philosophy of Christian education with unprecedented breadth and depth. To accomplish this objective, it considers what education is (chapter 1), what philosophy of education is (chapter 2), and what the ultimate goal of education is (chapter 3). Additionally, this book provides a never-before, Christian overview of twelve philosophies of education (chapters 4–15). Each of those chapters provides an introduction of a particular philosophy of education and some of that philosophy’s exemplars. Each of those chapters also contributes a constructive, Christian critique. Chapter 16 highlights a biblical philosophy of Christian education—featuring some people, some principles, and some priorities for a biblical philosophy of Christian education, viz. pursuing excellence for the glory of God.

Shedding light on an important and neglected topic in childhood studies, Anja Müller interrogates how different concepts of childhood proliferated and were construed in eighteenth-century periodicals and satirical prints. In examining links between text and image, Müller uncovers the role these media played in the genealogy of childhood prior to the 1790s, challenging the myth that situates the origin of childhood in late eighteenth-century England.