The modern university (along with the rest of society) is awash in confusion about the most basic questions of human existence. What does it mean to be a man or a woman? What is freedom? What is family for? These are not arcane puzzles for ivory-tower specialists—they are live questions that determine how our neighbors will live, suffer, and raise their children. Yet too often, Christian scholars remain silent in the public square, content to write only for one another in journals that few beyond their guild will ever read.
If the Christian academy is to serve Christ’s church and the world, it must do more than issue diplomas. It must produce public witnesses—scholars who see their research not merely as technical expertise, but as a resource to be translated for the good of the church, the nation, and a world adrift. Public scholarship is not the enemy of rigorous scholarship. It is the extension of it into the public sphere, where truth must contend with error.
A Counterfeit Anthropology
The stakes could not be higher. The world offers a counterfeit anthropology: one that says we are disembodied wills, free to construct ourselves however we choose. The result is gender chaos, family breakdown, technological overreach, and a pervasive sense of meaninglessness. Christian higher education has a counter-testimony. We confess that men and women are creatures, made in the image of God, embodied, moral, and destined for glory in Christ. This vision is not a curiosity; it is the very lifeline our neighbors need.
Institutions that train Christian scholars cannot remain indifferent. They must help their faculty see themselves as sentinels and servants to a confused public—not merely specialists tucked away in disciplinary corners. If Christian academics do not speak, progressive voices will continue filling the vacuum, shaping law, policy, and culture with destructive ideas. Silence is complicity.
Thinking Publicly, Not Just Academically
Most academics are trained to write for a small circle of experts. But millions of confused neighbors need truth-tellers. Christian scholars must learn to think bilingually: able to write rigorous articles for their peers and compelling essays for the public.
That begins with living examples and a culture of formation. Institutional leaders should model public engagement themselves. Seminary presidents like R. Albert Mohler Jr. have long shown how academic insight can be translated through podcasts, editorials, and interviews. Faculty should see such work not as a distraction but as a form of neighbor-love and service to the common good.
This means hosting workshops on public writing, bringing in journalists and essayists who model clarity, and encouraging faculty to regard op-eds, social media posts, podcasts, and popular-level books as part of their vocation. When scholars speak into the public square, they are not cheapening their craft; they are fulfilling it.
Incentivizing Public Witness
Institutions can do more than exhort—they can reward. Faculty need structures of discernment and incentive. Editorial cohorts, interdisciplinary teams collaborating, and centers for public theology can help professors see how their research intersects with pressing cultural questions. Sabbaticals and summer grants could come with a public-facing requirement: turn your research expertise into a book for the church or a lecture for the community.
Promotion and tenure guidelines should count public engagement alongside peer-reviewed publications. If a faculty member writes a widely read essay on technology, gender, or education that helps the church and culture think clearly, that labor should be celebrated, not sidelined.
Partnerships and grants with aligned organizations can further amplify scholarship. Consider how a project on Artificial Intelligence might produce not only a technical journal article, but also podcasts, lectures, and editorials that reach thousands. The point is not to dilute rigor but to multiply impact.
Regrounding in Christian Anthropology
At the root of all this lies anthropology. Too many Christian institutions assume their faculty share the same vision of the human person. They should not. Leaders must regularly center faculty formation on theological anthropology—our identity, embodiment, and moral agency. Every discipline, from biology to literature to business, should be tethered to the question: what does it mean to be human in light of Christ?
A college or seminary that forgets this will drift into the same abstractions and technocratic fads as the secular academy. But one that regrounds itself in the doctrine of the image of God will train scholars who can speak across disciplines and into the public square with sanity and courage.
Anticipating Resistance
Public scholarship is not without cost. Some donors, alumni, or media outlets will complain. Local papers may mock Christian professors for their stances on sexuality or family. Faculty may fear being caricatured on social media. But courage is the price of public truth-telling. A faculty aligned around mission, unembarrassed by public engagement, is far stronger than one fragmented by timidity.
The objection that public work “dilutes” scholarship should be rejected outright. The academy does not exist for itself. It exists to serve the church, to bear witness to Christ, and to equip God’s people with clarity. If Christian academics hide their light under a bushel, they betray their calling.
The Way Forward
The path is clear. Christian institutions must:
- Form faculty to think publicly—teaching them the art of translation and showing them that essays, lectures, and even tweets can be tools of discipleship and neighbor-love.
- Incentivize public witness—revising promotion criteria, funding projects, and creating communities that reward engagement with real cultural questions.
- Reground in Christian anthropology—ensuring that every scholar, whatever their discipline, understands their work as an expression of what it means to be made in God’s image.
If these commitments take root, Christian higher education will not merely graduate students. It will produce public theologians, courageous academics, and cultural witnesses who can speak sanity into chaos.
The world is not waiting for more journal articles. It is waiting for clarity. It is waiting for scholars who know that truth is not meant to be hidden but proclaimed. If Christian academics do not rise to that call, counterfeit anthropologies will continue to wreak havoc. But if they do, our institutions may yet become outposts of moral clarity and theological sanity, which are gifts of truth in a confused age.
This editorial is adapted from a talk that I gave at an Alliance Defending Freedom event in July 2025.
