The Regent Vine

The Vine is published by Regent College, led by its faculty and staff, and supported by an Editorial Advisory Board comprised of outstanding authors, thinkers, and leaders from around the world. Our contributors come from both within and beyond the Regent community, and include established academics, emerging scholars, and experienced professionals in a range of fields. In keeping with Regent’s educational mission, we also prioritize the publication of excellent work by current graduate students. You can meet the Vine team on our Masthead page. 

The Vine is addressed, first of all, to the readerly layperson, reflecting Regent's commitment to educating the laity. While we have often used this language to express our commitment to extending theological vocation to Christians in a range of professions in addition to professional clergy, here we also embrace the more general sense of the word "layperson," referring to a non-specialist in a given academic field. The curious non-specialist is probably the reader who will enjoy The Regent Vine the most, because its aim is to share well-informed and well-articulated ideas, arguments, and reflections with the widest possible audience.

The Vine’s editorial point of view is a Christian one, consistent with Regent College’s Mission, Values, and Theological Position. Embedded within these core statements is a deep commitment to serving individuals and communities who hold a wide range of perspectives, theological and otherwise. For example, we affirm that “Regent College welcomes students as varied as the whole people of God and from beyond the community of Christian faith.” We expect The Vine’s readers, viewers, and listeners to be no less diverse. The same holds true for our contributors.

Regent’s Global Mission Statement speaks of “commitment to Jesus Christ, His church, and His world.” Naturally, then, the concerns addressed in The Regent Vine pertain not only to the church, but also to the world. We intend to host conversations that can and must include voices that will sound unfamiliar, even dissonant, to many members of Regent College’s community. To quote once again from Regent’s Theological Position, “committed to the pursuit of truth, we invite those in our community to wrestle with complex and sometimes controversial topics as we engage with matters about which people disagree. We seek to nurture an environment in which all are encouraged to participate in careful, courteous, and respectful conversation.”

Put simply, in keeping with the College’s core values and stated commitment to “hospitality and respect,” everyone is welcome here. This is not only a matter of loving our neighbours—it is crucially important to welcome incompatible viewpoints in order to allow them to influence our own. Our ideas are only as strong as the fires in which they've been tested; the same fire can also help refine them. Since we need one another, we should read one another. 

Therefore, the Vine’s invitation to share perspectives and reflections is not limited by theological, cultural, partisan, or other boundary markers. What we do require is a willingness to participate in a conversation in which all people are accorded the same “hospitality and respect.” When inquiry and criticality are tempered in ways consistent with the purpose of the Vine to edify its readership, it supports our desire to show care in the choice of views we publish. We want to promote stances that exemplify respect and reconciliation, even when our ideas contrast starkly against a backdrop of prevailing difference. Civility is too precious to squander on overstating any intellectual position; we want to uplift the weaker party in all situations. This includes showing particular care for both contributors and readers who have personal experiences we cannot all share, such as motherhood, living amid armed conflict, or belonging to a marginalized group.

In all of these emphases, we strive to uphold the best traditions of Regent College. Since 1968, Regent College has carried out conversations of profound joy and seriousness in the context of a vibrant graduate school and community focused on Christian theological studies. Over the decades, Regent has shared those conversations with a broad and inclusive public not only through its classroom teaching, but also through its famous Summer Programs, public lectures, and various publications, including CRUX and The Regent World. While the Vine is predominantly focused on publishing new work, we are also pleased to republish older materials. Our goal is to do so in a way that will show how the themes dealt with in those publications remain timely and relevant, put them in their best light, and gradually build an archive of beloved older material. Learn more about legacy materials and our publishing heritage on the Resources page. 

The conversations we carry on today are given focus by the pressing questions of today’s world, even as we remember that there is nothing new under the sun. To read more about how we are considering today’s big questions, and what kinds of conversations most occupy our attention, please visit our Topics page. 

Thank you for joining us on The Regent Vine as we travel and learn together on a journey not only to think, but to act more Christianly, and to more fully receive the life more abundant that Jesus promises to all who would accept it. 

Jeremy Stewart
Editor-in-Chief, The Regent Vine

Ideas and opinions expressed in material published on The Regent Vine represent the personal views of individual contributors, and do not reflect the views, positions, or policies of Regent College or any related institution.