What is The Raised Hand?
Higher education in the twenty-first century is both beset by an unprecedented number of challenges, and is still one of the most crucial and dynamic institutions in modern societies. The Raised Hand’s editorial board, comprised of leaders and staff in the Christian study center movement, would like to join in the task of helping universities fulfill their missions in these challenging times. Each day dozens of Christian study centers serve the unique, embodied, contextual needs of campus communities across the country.
The Raised Hand is a joint effort of Christian study centers to host a larger conversation, one that raises questions, prompted by our unique vantage point on higher education. These questions, each of which will be the focus for an entire academic year, are ones that either are not being asked or are being answered in ways that need deeper scrutiny.
We recognize the questions we raise are complex, with no easy answers. We seek to begin discussions, not to settle arguments. Nevertheless, our goals are clear: to help form people holistically, to shape thought on academic and societal topics through a Christian lens, and to advocate for a pluralistic ethos in higher education that makes room for Christian thought alongside other traditions.
What to Expect
One Essay per Month. Eight Essays per year. A Variety of Authors. Each month during the academic year we will post one essay relating to a topic that has been set for that year in the form of a question. Some essays may attempt to answer that question directly. Most will speak to a question with a smaller scale, but related to the larger question.
Christian Diversity. Christianity has had a large and diverse influence in our culture, so, while our essays will seek to present Christian ideas, they may accord with other viewpoints as well. Therefore, some of our essayists may not identify as Christians, but their essays will still reflect Christian opinions. Also, our editorial position being a historically orthodox, Christian one, we understand there will be many—Christians and non-Christians alike—who will differ with opinions expressed by our authors. We seek to create a conversation that is for all, regardless of belief, so we encourage comment. Discussion, not proclamation, is what The Raised Hand is about.
No Subscription Fee. We desire to create conversations so we are not charging a subscription fee. However, it is necessary to subscribe in order to interact with the essays on the site. Please subscribe below (It takes almost no time—just your email address—and did I mention? It’s free!) and comment on our essays. We would love to hear from you.
A Variety of Authors. Our contributors have been carefully selected from the large pool of those who are associated with higher education as university faculty, administrators, or relevant observers or are participants in the world of Christian study centers.
2023-24 Question: “What has the university to do with the good life?”
Knowledge and practice of the good life, once a preoccupation of university curricula, has been eclipsed but also witnessed a revival in recent years. For example, the University of Notre Dame offers a popular “God and the Good Life” course, while Yale University has developed “Life Worth Living” into a standalone book. As questions swirl around the instrumental, intrinsic, and economic values of higher education, we will hear from a diverse array of educators about the relationship—real and ideal, close and distant—between the university and the good life.
2022-23 Question: “What is education?”
The essayists for 2022-23 were George Marsden, Margarita Mooney (Suarez) Clayton, Elizabeth Corey, Marilyn McEntyre, Stephen Day, Mark Eckel, Cherie Harder, and Wilfred McClay. See all past essays by clicking “Archive” on the banner.
