Journal of Faith in the Academic Profession
This journal exists to foster and disseminate research on the presence and importance of faith within the life and work of faculty housed at faith-based institutions of higher education.
Copyright (c) 2025 Kenneth Nehrbass (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Christian Worldview and AI Literacy: Promoting Responsible AI Use in Higher Education
The integration of artificial intelligence in higher education requires not only technical competence but also ethical discernment among students. While secular frameworks for AI ethics are prevalent, there remains a significant research gap concerning how faith-based perspectives might inform AI literacy. This study examined the relationship between Christian worldview and AI literacy among 307 undergraduate students at a Christian university. Utilizing established measures, including a Christian Worldview Scale and Digital Literacy Scale, alongside a custom AI Use Experience measure, the research investigated correlations between religious values and AI engagement. Results revealed that students' Christian worldview significantly correlates with critical comprehension ability and ethical behavior in AI contexts. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis identified Christian worldview as a significant predictor of ethical AI behavior, alongside AI risk awareness, agreeableness regarding faith's impact on AI usage, and formal AI training. Despite 58.2% of students utilizing AI for academic purposes, only 15.6% had received formal AI training, highlighting a significant educational gap. Furthermore, 42% of students expressed neutrality about their faith's influence on AI usage, suggesting opportunities for more intentional integration of religious perspectives in technology education. These findings provide valuable insights for Christian educational institutions to develop comprehensive AI literacy programs that explicitly address the intersection of faith and technology.
Christian responses to AI; measuring faith integration
AI literacy, Christian worldview, higher education, ethical AI behavior
Copyright (c) 2025 Sophia Mun, Robert Shields (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Christian Belief in the Student "Body": The influence of religious faith status, church affiliation, and theological knowledge
This study aimed to describe the influence of religious identity on college student views of their bodies. Data was gathered using the Christian Teachings on the Body Scale to assess how faith status, church affiliation, and knowledge of Christianity impact college students' Christian beliefs about their bodies. The main finding is that student beliefs about the body are positively affected by having religious faith and specific knowledge and understanding of Christian teachings. Church affiliation also impacts belief about the body. Results are discussed relative to Christian theology and anthropology literature describing humans as embodied. The potential implications for integrating Christian faith into university courses in health-related disciplines are also discussed. Faculty teaching at religious universities may use these findings to understand student views of the body and guide students toward Christian views that enhance personal wellness and professional development as image bearers.
Christian identity, views of body, faith integration
Copyright (c) 2025 Sean Sullivan (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Faithful Feedback: Integrating Christian Discipleship with Educative Assessment in Higher Education
The integration of faith and learning is central to the mission of Christian higher education, yet the role of academic feedback within this framework remains largely unexplored. This paper examines the intersection of Christian discipleship and academic feedback through the lens of Fink’s FIDeLity model, emphasizing the importance of feedback that is Frequent, Immediate, Discriminating, and delivered Lovingly. Drawing parallels between Jesus' approach to discipleship and best practices in educative assessment, we argue that academic feedback can serve as a formative tool for both intellectual and spiritual growth. By fostering student engagement, self-reflection, and continuous learning, faith-informed feedback practices can enhance academic outcomes while embodying the mission of Christian education. This study offers suggestions for integrating faith and assessment for the purpose of equipping educators to cultivate transformative learning experiences that align with Christian discipleship principles.
Copyright (c) 2025 Cammy Purper, Dirk Davis, Elisa Shepard, Jeff Keneaster (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
The Christian Commitment Index: Conceptualization and Development
While assessing faith integration is key at Christian universities, few objective tools exist for measuring the influence of students’ personal faith on such efforts. This study proposes the Christian Commitment Index, CCI, which offers potential toward addressing this need. A study of over 700 undergraduate business majors indicates that the CCI can help measure students’ personal faith. Relative to faith integration in their cognate area, CCI helps explain students’ understanding of their career aspirations and their perceptions of the role of work and business.
Christian Commitment, CCI, Faith Integration, Faith Scale, Undergraduate
Copyright (c) 2025 Adele Harrison, Dr. Wendy L. Martin (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Book Review: Teaching with AI: A practical guide to a new era of human learning
Copyright (c) 2025 Julie Powell (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Book Review: Jesus Among the: Successful Strategies of Christian Ministers to the Marginalized
Copyright (c) 2025 Shane Teran (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Facilitating & Measuring Faith Integration
Christian universities are unique in that they not only have academic aspirations for each student but also spiritual ones. The problem is that spiritual growth is difficult to measure, so while a school may have clear data to justify graduation and career readiness, there is no mechanism in place for quantifying whether the spiritual element of their mission has been accomplished. Since nearly all Christian university mission statements claim spiritual growth and/or spiritual impact as a core value, schools must come up with a means to both facilitate and measure the effectiveness of their programs in this regard. The purpose of this paper is to explore the problem and then provide practical ideas to assist professors and administrators in the process of implementation, thus, ensuring the full mission of each Christian university is fully realized.
Copyright (c) 2025 Daryl Neipp (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Innovative Faith Integration In Healthcare Education Related to Three Different Modalities (Didactic, Online Asynchronous, Clinical Education)
How do you teach healthcare profession students to apply faith, not just in the classroom but in their profession (McKnight, 2017)? This article presents an innovative approach to faith integration in healthcare education through three distinct modalities: didactic, online asynchronous, and clinical education. This initiative, spearheaded by three nursing faculty members, aims to bridge the gap between spiritual beliefs and professional practice (Young, 2023). Recognizing the challenge of applying biblical principles in real-world healthcare scenarios, faculty members designed faith-based case studies and devotionals that foster engagement, ethical reasoning, and spiritual growth among healthcare profession students. In didactic settings, students engage in discussions about nursing scenarios, which are structured around concepts related to formulating a biblical worldview through reflective questioning. Online asynchronous activities use faith-driven case studies to promote leadership and ethical decision-making, while clinical education encourages students to apply a biblical worldview in patient care settings. Preliminary feedback indicates that these methods enhance student engagement, ethical reasoning, and the integration of faith into professional practice. This approach offers a holistic model of education that prepares nursing students to become compassionate, ethically-grounded healthcare professionals capable of addressing both the physical and spiritual needs of their patients. This project highlights the importance of continued research and adaptation in faith integration within healthcare education, ensuring students are equipped to meet the complexities of their roles with both clinical competence and a biblical worldview (Siahaan, 2021).
Copyright (c) 2025 Sarah E. Pearce, Katherine Valentine, Cheryl Mead (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Copyright (c) 2025 Jeff Cardell (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Faith Integration in Online Programs: The Role of Self-Efficacy in Fostering Confidence Among Adjunct Faculty
Most higher education institutions have made a commitment to providing high quality online classes or perhaps even fully online programs in order to keep up with the market demand for flexible learning environments. Administrators, directors, curriculum writers, and full-time faculty members are often very immersed in the work of faith integration and connections to institutional identity while ancillary or adjunct instructors do not always report the same level of confidence in this area of their teaching. A conceptual framework that draws on self-efficacy theory and the community of inquiry model can provide a foundation regarding ways to support adjunct faculty in the direction of confidently integrating their faith in the online classroom. The authors are both directors of online Master of Arts programs in a faith-based institution and have worked to create professional development and assessment measures to bolster self-efficacy among adjunct instructors. Many adjunct instructors lack confidence in the area of faith integration due to primarily and simultaneously working as practitioners in secular workplaces. The authors outline strategies on ways to provide training, integrate modeling, create resources, and give feedback to foster self-efficacy regarding faith integration so that adjunct faculty can confidently represent the institution’s faith tradition in their classes.
Copyright (c) 2025 Dr. Lori B. Doyle, Dr. Tanya M. Tarbutton (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Creating a Tool for Measuring Faith Integration Outcomes in Student Products
Academic faith integration literature has largely focused on the behaviors of the instructors of courses. Less has been written on student behaviors and work products that demonstrate the integration of faith and learning. It follows that even less has been done to measure the quality of student work in faith integration assignments. To address that gap, this article uses theoretical literature to create rubric dimensions that allow professors to measure academic faith integration. The article also describes the iterative process of developing rubric dimensions and the changes that were made to the design and substance. These rubrics can prove useful as instructors plan their own academic faith integration assignments. Lastly, implications for further research in this area are discussed.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ted Murcray, Kenneth Nehrbass (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Imago Dei and AI Governance: Ethical and Theological Challenges in the Age of AI
This article explores the ethical, theological, and social implications of artificial intelligence (AI) through the lens of Imago Dei—the belief that human beings are made in the image of God. By grounding the analysis in this theological framework, the study addresses the challenges AI poses to human dignity, moral agency, and justice, particularly as AI systems begin to replicate human cognition and decision-making processes. The ethical safeguards proposed in this study—such as regular bias audits, algorithmic transparency, and human oversight—are critically examined not only through secular ethical frameworks but also through Imago Dei, which emphasizes the intrinsic worth and moral responsibility of every individual. These safeguards differ from secular frameworks by insisting on a moral foundation, rooted in the protection of human dignity, social justice, and equity. Theological insights from Imago Dei inform practical applications in AI governance by guiding policy recommendations that call for the rectification of historical injustices, the incorporation of ethical review boards combining secular and religious perspectives, and the design of AI algorithms that prioritize equity, justice, and compassion. This study argues that integrating Imago Dei into AI policy can reshape regulatory actions, influence algorithmic designs, and ensure that AI systems actively promote human flourishing, social justice, and moral responsibility, rather than perpetuating inequality or dehumanization.
Copyright (c) 2025 Yoonil Auh, Chanmi Kim (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Book Review: Modern Technology and the Human Future: A Christian Appraisal
Was told by Ken Nehrbass, no Abstract needed for book review.
Copyright (c) 2025 Alex Chediak (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Faith Formation and Faith Integration: Framing Studies of Faith Development
Copyright (c) 2024 Ted Murcray (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Lego Serious Play in a Career Exploration Class: A Case Study of a Failure in Faith Integration
Lego Serious Play is a facilitated approach to solving problems that is popular in the world of business and nonprofits because it is both fun for the participants and has been validated as a means of encouraging communication and group problem-solving. In an attempt to provide a meaningful faith integration activity in an undergraduate career exploration class at a Christian University, a Lego Serious Play intervention was introduced to develop vocational identity. Vocational identity is a set of experience-based personal beliefs regarding one’s interests, goals, and abilities related to one’s career. From a Christian perspective, vocational identity would be influenced by the integration of Christian values and priorities, as well as one’s spiritual gifts. The intervention was designed as a pre-test/post-test control group experiment. The quantitative results of the study showed no differences between the outcomes of the control group and the intervention group, t(16) = .26, d = .12, p = .40, 1-tailed. In a debriefing focus group, it became clear that students had a limited understanding of vocational identity and that the faith integration elements of the intervention were not clear to them. Factors that appear to have contributed to this failure in faith integration include inappropriate assumptions of students' understanding of career and vocation, a lack of trust in the Lego Serious Play facilitators providing the intervention, false assumptions concerning the students’ spiritual status and maturity, a small sample size, and an over-reliance on the attractiveness of Lego Serious Play.
Copyright (c) 2024 Dr. Wendi Dykes McGehee, Dr. Todd Pheifer, Dr. LaShan Epperson, Dr. David R. Dunaetz (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
What does it mean to teach Christianly, teaching in such a way that faith would inform pedagogy and not simply course content? For this question posed by David I. Smith in 2018, the author develops an answer by drawing from Smith himself as well as from broad literature that includes the Bible and research findings in behavioral science. His working answer is to incorporate personal narrative into teaching while serving as a role model for students. He conducts a practical exploration of his working answer in the classroom by telling his own story from both Christian and non-Christian viewpoints, giving students a choice of model for their own narrative. Students then tell personal stories about their character formation as a form of engaged learning in the discipline of strategic management in an undergraduate course. The author frames the assignment in the context of the course in terms of the strategic management concept of organizational capability. Students are not required to incorporate faith explicitly in their stories. The author simultaneously studies the classroom assignment as a qualitative researcher, making observations of over two hundred students during four-year period. The qualitative study provides some support for the author's working answer and thus advances understanding of of what it can mean to teach Christianly and what the consequences of such pedagogy might be.
Copyright (c) 2024 Andrew Herrity (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
How degree programs define, measure, and improve Faith Integration: An analysis of 80 program reviews
The purpose of this study was to understand how degree programs at a Christian University define, teach, measure and improve faith integration (FI). Data was gathered from the “faith integration” section of 80 “self-studies” that were conducted during a six to eight year program review cycle. The central understanding of this study is that departments triangulate FI learning activities and assessments through a variety of efforts that are offered through the curricula, the campus’ co-curricular programming, service learning, and the local churches. The article discusses the findings in light of literature in the field of educational effectiveness to develop a rubric that can help degree programs plan and improve their FI efforts systematically. Stakeholders in FI on campus may even use the rubric to set benchmarks for “acceptable” and “exemplary” FI systems at the degree program level.
Copyright (c) 2024 Kenneth Nehrbass (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Book Review: Healing Conversations on Race: Four Key Practices From Scripture and Psychology (2023)
This article reviews the recently published Healing Conversations on Race: Four Key Practices from Scripture and Psychology (2023).
Copyright (c) 2024 Kevin Yau (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Teaching Psychology in the Classroom Based on Domains of Integration
While many recent studies have been on teaching integrating psychology and Christianity in the classroom, literature addressing the optimal classroom approaches for teaching specific domains of integration is limited. The body of literature on the integration of psychology and Christianity shows that the integration of psychology and Christian faith in the related mental health fields is multidimensional. This article focuses on addressing the domains and content of integrating psychology and Christianity and discussing how each domain of integration can be best taught using the teaching practices categorized.
integration of psychology and Christianity, domains of integration, and strategies for teaching domains of integration
Copyright (c) 2024 Dr. Jong Cheon Lee, Dr. Sophia S. Mun, Dr. Thomas Frederick (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Book Review: Research as worship in the company of God
Copyright (c) 2024 Tom Steffen (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Copyright (c) 2023 Kenneth Nehrbass https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Book Review: Becoming What We Sing by David Lemley
Copyright (c) 2024 Chessa Williams (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Book Review: Christian Ethics and Nursing Practice
Copyright (c) 2024 Kristin Fontaine, Gina Weeks (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Book Review: Lead Like it Matters to God: Values-Driven Leadership in a Success-Driven World
Copyright (c) 2023 Philip Breitenbucher (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Book Review: Christianity in Business: Applying Biblical Values in the Marketplace
Neither the passage of time nor post-pandemic culture shifts have diminished the relevance of Christianity in Business: Applying Biblical Values in the Marketplace, edited by Dr. Ernest Liang. With few exceptions, this book provides training, research, and lifestyle principles that honor God in business. This book’s emphasis on the spiritual, moral, and economic imperatives for Godly commerce in an ungodly world remains timeless. Christian educators can derive course plans, curriculum outlines, and future research priorities from its contents.
Copyright (c) 2023 Tim Gramling (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Decision-Making Around Disruptive Technologies
This article presents the Christian Ethic of Care as a framework for classroom decision making with regards to new technologies exploding around the world, particularly how these disruptive technologies impact the teacher student relationship, exacerbating questions of trust and ethical conduct. The authors, both teacher educators, suggest a framework for decision-making based on Jesus' example of grace and truth when dealing with technology innovations that disrupt learning. Scenarios using the framework and practical considerations are presented that recommend rethinking numerous areas of pedagogy.
Copyright (c) 2023 Tyler Watts, Amy Flagler (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
If one could start a new Christian college, what would faith integration look like? Without decades or centuries of institutional history, how would the faculty craft a distinctly Christian curriculum from scratch? What steps should be taken to evaluate the depth of such integration and promote accountability to the institutional mission? How does an institution ensure missional fidelity as it increases enrollment, hires new faculty, and changes leadership over time? While such questions can serve as effective prompts to promote faculty discussion about curricular improvements, they were part of the lived experience during the past two decades as Regent University created its College of Arts & Sciences (CAS) to bring undergraduate education to an institution that had been exclusively graduate focused. This paper offers a description of the process that CAS used, including its challenges, with an emphasis on the process used to integrate faith throughout the curriculum. The authors’ intent is to provide a useful model for other Christian institutions wishing to pursue a similar integrative approach for forming or reforming an academic endeavor.
Copyright (c) 2023 Michael Pregitzer, Jason Baker, Josh McMullen (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
A Survey of Graduate Students’ Perspectives on the Integration of Faith and Learning
Little scholarly attention has been dedicated to the integration of faith and learning (IFL) for graduate students in Christian higher education. While the spiritual development of students is central to the mission of the Christian higher education institution, graduate students often have limited opportunities for spiritual development outside of class attendance, which underscores the need for the use of effective approaches to IFL by faculty within their courses. This research utilized an online survey completed by graduate students across disciplines in a private Christian university. Survey questions focused on students’ ratings of the general importance of IFL in choosing a graduate program, their perceptions of the effect of IFL on their spiritual development, the importance of specific IFL approaches used by their professors in the classroom, and examples of effective IFL. Results indicate that the majority of students valued IFL in their selection of a graduate program and felt their spiritual identity and understanding of their faith had deepened as a result of IFL. The majority of students also valued all types of IFL presented in the survey, but it was most important to students that their professors model Christian values and attitudes as a means of IFL in the classroom. Selected narrative descriptions of students' explanations of effective IFL are presented thematically and the implications of the data are discussed.
Copyright (c) 2023 Cammy Purper, Dr. Elizabeth Morris, Dr. Amy Stumpf, Dr. Robin C. Duncan (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Book Review: Teaching for Spiritual Formation
Copyright (c) 2023 Cameron D. Armstrong (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0