Learn About/Subscribe:
Christian Union

Spring 2014

Christian Union: The Magazine

Click on the magazine below to launch a full-screen Flash-based reader (and then hit your 'esc' key to return to this site), or scroll down to read a selection of the feature articles in the magazine.

 

May 28, 2014

Christian Union Alumna and Husband Now Sponsor Current Students' Bible Course 

By Sarah Camp, Contributing Editor

Lindsay Grinols Simmons (Princeton '04) was one of just a handful of students involved with the budding Christian Union ministry when it first launched at Princeton over a decade ago. In fact, she was a member of the ministry's first women's Bible course. You might say that gives her a unique vantage point on the ministry's growth at Princeton over the years, where it has surged from three students in 2002 to more than 400 students in 2013-14.

"The year-over-year increase in Princeton students' engagement with Christian Union is astonishing," she says. "It shows Princeton students are hungry for the truth."

May 28, 2014

Jonathan Edwards' Devotion to Bible Study

By Catherine Elvy, Staff Writer

edwards_spring14_lgAn article in the latest issue of Jonathan Edwards Studies paused to shed light on the everyday habits and intense biblical study of the famed revivalist preacher and early Yale University alumnus.Jonathan Edwards stands as one of the top figures in the spiritual history of the United States, and his life serves as an inspiration to believers across the globe.

In the piece, Douglas Sweeney, a key Edwards' scholar with ties to Yale, reflected on the scriptural fervor behind the theologian's scholarship. Sweeney serves on the editorial board for the online journal, part of the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale.

"Edwards devoted most of his waking life to studying the Bible, its extra-biblical contexts, its theological meanings, and its importance for everyday religion," wrote Sweeney, the director of the Jonathan Edwards Center at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois.

May 28, 2014

"Christians need to be much bolder..."


metaxas_spring14_lgChristian Union: The Magazine
 interviewed author and renowned speaker Eric Metaxas, Yale '84, on the subject of culture change for its Spring 2014 issue.

CU: Regarding culture change and your recent books, did you find a common denominator between William Wilberforce, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, or any of the other subjects in Seven Men: And the Secret of Their Greatness?

EM: These were all men who were "in the world, but not of it," who all seemed to understand how to bring their faith into the "real world," as it were, into all spheres, not just the religious sphere.

May 28, 2014

Columbia Lecture Attracts Christians, Non-Christians

By Luke Foster, Columbia '14

findingjesus_spring14_lg
Thursday nights at Columbia University tend to be quiet. Few students have classes on Fridays, so almost everyone prepares for the weekend and tries to recover from the hectic week. The Christian ministries on campus use Thursday evenings as times to worship and reflect.

But Thursday, February 20 was a little different.

For a week, posters and Facebook posts had been proclaiming an exciting event for that evening. Compass Christian Koinonia and Apologetics Café co-hosted a lecture with Dr. Nabeel Qureshi, a Ravi Zacharias International Ministries speaker. Several campus organizations helped publicize the event. Approximately 150 people of all faiths and no faith crowded into a small auditorium to engage with the ideas of Dr. Qureshi.

Dr. Qureshi, who titled his talk after his new book, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus, challenged students to pursue truth above beauty, and to be willing to submit to the most compelling view of the world, no matter the cost.

May 28, 2014

Course Reflects on Harvard's Religious History

By Brian Zhang, Harvard '15

In thharvardreligion_spring14_lgSusan Overall, Harvard Class of 2014e spring semester, Harvard students taking Religion 1513: Harvard's History and Religious Evolution have a chance to study their university's religious roots in the classroom. With 60 undergrads and four Harvard Divinity School students enrolled, the class is the most popular in the religion department.

Dr. Stephen Shoemaker, the course's instructor, summarized the legacy of Harvard as "a history of left turns."While it is today regarded as a secular university, Harvard was founded in 1636 as a seminary for training Puritan ministers in the New England area.

May 28, 2014

The King's College President Greg Thornbury Speaks at Manhattan Salon 

By Catherine Elvy, Staff Writer

thornbury_spring14_lgThe new president of The King's College encouraged participants in a New York City Christian Union salon to reflect Christ as they labor in the powerful, but decidedly secular, corridors of their megalopolis.

Greg Thornbury spoke on February 20 at the ministry's quarterly salon, which was held at the editorial offices of First Things journal in Manhattan.Thornbury, who stepped into his newest leadership role in July, entitled his message, "He Is Not Far from Any of Us: The Art of Living and Working with People of Non-Faith."

During the evening, Thornbury told listeners to be aware that many of their atheistic and agnostic counterparts are open to meaningful discussions on topics of faith, but they are exhausted with cultural wars.