What is Christian Scholarship?

In the preface of The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship, Marsden states that his purpose is to "take a step toward clarifying what the ancient enterprise of relating faith and learning might mean in the academy today." In so doing, he hopes to carve out a place of respect and welcome for Christian scholarship in the academy today.


But what is "Christian scholarship?"


It's a difficult question to answer. But it's an important one, as your answer to that question will color your responses to Marsden's ideas.


Here are a few possibilities:

1. Christian scholarship is scholarship about Christianity.
2. Christian scholarship is scholarship about topics that are of concern to Christians.
3. Christian scholarship is scholarship that seeks the goal of confirming Christian beliefs.
4. Christian scholarship is scholarship that is born out of uniquely Christian beliefs.
5. Christian scholarship is scholarship that seeks to understand the relationships between Christianity and other fields.
6. Christian scholarship is scholarship that seeks to clarify Christian beliefs.
7. Christian scholarship is scholarship that is conducted by Christians.

Do you see how each of these applies a different flavor to the term?


There's a similar problem, for example, in trying to define what physics is. There are many physicists whose work looks a lot like pure mathematics, or chemistry, or biology, or philosophy, or meteorology, or astronomy, and there are the folks who apply the principles of physics to social networks & economic systems. Ultimately, then, we define physics as what physicists do.


Based on that comparison, I'm inclined to support definition #7 above, with the understanding that implies, includes, and encompasses #1-6.