The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship

More than 30 years ago, Carl F. H. Henry founded the Institute for Advanced Christian Scholarship (IFACS). Its purpose, as Henry recalled in a recent interview published in the debut issue of Christians & Scholarship, the IFACS newsletter, was "to enlist evangelical scholars on secular university campuses in dialogue and in writing books which reflected the Christian worldview and life, a task neglected by the evangelical colleges."

Today, evangelical colleges are doing a better job, and scholars from evangelical institutions work hand in hand with their Christian peers on secular campuses to achieve IFACS's original goals. Despite such progress, much remains to be done. As Nigel M. de S. Cameron, president of IFACS, writes, "The double challenge of habilitating the Christian mind in the church, and maintaining its cultural engagement at the heart of the intellectual life of our civilization, are daunting tasks and beset with difficulty. Yet as the final years of the second Christian millennium play out, there could hardly be any of greater moment."

We at B&C strongly agree, and we are delighted to announce that the IFACS Book Prize, inaugurated in 1997, will now be the Books & Culture/IFACS Book Prize.

—John Wilson, Editor

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