Academically Speaking was a very interesting look at the career of someone in administration in Christian Higher Education. I initially picked it to learn more about the education as it would relate to teaching roles and enjoyed the early chapters for that. I enjoyed the rest of the book more than I thought. The book was written in an engaging and enjoyable style. I do plan to look up other books by this author as a result. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC copy.

AcademicallySpeaking #NetGalley.

This book is well written, interesting and timely. The author, long time professor and administrator at several Christian institutions of higher learning, strikes a perfect balance between personal story telling and valuable commentary on the challenges and opportunities faced by Christian colleges. In the preface, Ostrander makes the strongest case for such schools when he describes their twofold mission as "cultivating graduates who make a difference in the world and providing a scholarly voice to counterbalance the anti-intellectualism that often emanates from evangelical populism." The rest of the book, interspersed with the author's honest and always interesting account of his own experiences, demonstrates the tension between these two goals, a tension that has only increased as the nation has become more politically and culturally polarized. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the intersection of religion and intellectual life in America, especially those who continue to believe that colleges and universities, whether religious or secular, should strive to create communities built around shared, humane values. We need more books like this that interrogate the state of higher learning in the United States and this one is a model of insight and readability. I thoroughly enjoyed it.