Fortunately, across the country, faithful Christian researchers continue to embrace a biblical and robust worldview in their vocational pursuits. With the aforementioned in mind, an accompanying goal of this article is to help readers make heads and tails of research methodology—from Above—utilizing a biblical perspective. No doubt, some will challenge this theological approach as immediately invalidating, but everyone has a biblical perspective that is either affirming or denying. To say that a person’s religious beliefs invalidate proper scientific scrutiny is a self-condemning position for all human beings, logically; however, it is important to be self-aware of personal biases, to be intellectually honest in one’s appraisals, and to follow proper scientific methodology—even (or especially) as a conscientious caring Christian.
Approaching Research from Above requires three things: 1) utilizing scientific evidence and facts, 2) resting upon biblical evidence and facts, and 3) applying the Christian worldview virtues of truth and love. If one does this faithfully, useful and beneficial analyses are sure to follow. Of course, a Research from Above mentality embraces one immutable idea: God is the great transcendent Scientist, affirmed and buttressed by Scripture and Christian testimonies. Here are some examples in real life (in no particular order):
Dr. Paul Hoffman, PhD
Your credentials and Vocational History
I was raised outside of Portland, Maine. I came to saving faith and received my call to ministry when I was a Sophomore in High School.
I am a graduate of Gordon College (BA, Biblical and Theological Studies), Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (Master of Divinity), and the University of Manchester, UK (Doctor of Philosophy in Practical Theology and Urban Missiology). I am the author/coauthor of three books: Reconciling Places (Cascade, 2020), Preaching to a Divided Nation (Baker Academic, 2022), and AI Shepherds and Electric Sheep (Baker Academic, 2025). My areas of research include Practical Theology, particularly in the areas of Homiletics and Ecclesiology (leadership, discipleship, and evangelism), Missiology (trinitarian and urban), Reconciliation (theology and practice), and the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence.
Presently, I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Biblical and Theological Studies and Director of the Preministerial Scholars Program at Samford University. Prior to that, for eighteen years, I served as the senior pastor of Evangelical Friends Church of Newport, Rhode Island.
How I Integrate Faith with my scientific methodology
As I pastor and academically trained practical theologian, my first approach is the Biblical-Theological. I ask, “What do the Holy Scriptures say about this topic? What do scholars and historians think about this topic? This has been called “Normative Theology” and includes “the creeds, official church teaching, and liturgies.”[1]
My second approach is Ecclesiological. Here I ask, “How is this concept or principle comprehended and applied in Christian communities?” This has been called “Operant Theology” which is defined as “the theology embedded within the actual practices of the group.”[2] Concrete action is how most people inhabit the world. In fact, oftentimes, we don’t know what people believe until we observe their habits and practices and trace them back to their sources.
Critique of postmodern scientific methodology
In my experience, some postmodern methodologies swing toward one of two poles. The first is that many are excessively phenomenological. I am thinking of pockets of sociology or anthropology. The emphasis is on lived experience and describing first person perspective and narration. This preferences subjectivity and centers humans as the locus of epistemological endeavors.
On the other end of this spectrum are the overly rationalistic and detached approaches, represented by the hard sciences or STEM. In these lines of inquiry, there is a pursuit of objectivity and detachment. Humans must be fully outside a “thing” to fully and properly comprehend it.
Both methodologies can fail to grasp that much of humanity’s pursuit of knowledge involves a constant and dynamic interplay, a never-ending dialogue between the internal and the external, the subjective and the objective, between immersion and separation. In a Christian anthropology, no human can be, to use a literary term, third-person omniscient, the all-knowing narrator. Only the triune God occupies this post. All homo sapiens, to use the words of the Apostle Paul, “see through a glass, darkly…[and] know in part” (1 Cor. 13:12, King James Version).
Suggestions to make academia a more healthy, scientific community
I believe academia would be healthier if it were intentional in incorporating a telos centered on the flourishing of creation. In Genesis 1, creation is described seven times as being “good” (Hebrew, tov). That word means “beautiful, bountiful, pleasant.”[3] The triune God’s craftsmanship is lovely to behold, deeply satisfying to encounter, and stands coherent and complete. Further, God places human beings in the Garden of Eden to “work it and take care of it” (Gen. 2:15). The Hebrew verb (shamar) translated “take care,” conveys the idea of “to serve, to till”[4] the environment for the benefit and growth of the sentient and non-sentient lives inhabiting it. If scholars can keep this panoramic perspective at the forefront of their endeavors, they will honor God’s plan for the created order.
Additionally, as often as possible, the most robust scholarship will seek to be cross disciplinary and thus more holistic. This may look like art dialoguing with law, theology with biology and psychology, history with economics, and more. The aim is to help scholars avoid the myopia and echo chambers that academic disciplines naturally propagate. Otherwise, specialty can breed a stifling specificity disconnected from broader reality.
[1] Helen Cameron, et al. Talking About God in Practice: Theological Action Research and Practical Theology (London: SCM Press, 2010), 54.
[2] Cameron, et al. Talking About God in Practice, 54.
[3] James Strong, The New Strong’s Complete Dictionary of Bible Words (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1996), 380.
[4] Strong, The New Strong’s Complete Dictionary of Bible Words, 466.
Mr. Shija Shilunga Lucas, MA, MS
Your credentials and Vocational History
I am an evangelist and a master student at Barclay College, KS, Havilland, pursuing a Master of Arts in Bible Translation and expecting to graduate in May 2026. I hold another Master's in Life Sciences, majoring in Biodiversity and Ecosystem Management. I also have a Bachelor of Science degree in Education, specializing in Biology and Geography. I did some additional courses in Agriculture and have worked in the Agricultural sector for five years, and have written several papers aiming to help farmers, policymakers, and stakeholders make informed decisions in agriculture.
The Integration of Your Faith with Scientific Methodology
Inasmuch as all researchers search for solutions based on scientific investigations, understanding that God is sovereign over all things is essential. This belief suggests thinking of how one’s methodologies align with God’s moral values and natural laws. It calls for an inquiry into how the research methodologies contradict God’s moral values and natural laws or align with them. This has been my archetype criterion and rule system whenever I embark on any research project. I always think of God first and how my methodology is ethical in the light of God’s word.
Your Critique of Postmodern Scientific Methodology
Most methodologies in the postmodern world contradict God’s moral values and natural laws. They are centered on personal pursuit and politics without necessarily considering that they contradict God’s moral values and natural laws. Such methodologies are evident in many fields such as Health, Information Technology, and Agriculture, a few areas to mention. Research is being done to please those in power for fame and material gain. How I wish that research would align with God’s moral values and natural laws.
Helping Academia Become a More Healthy, Scientific Community
One of my roles as a researcher is to encourage other researchers and people in Academia to remain faithful to their roles by embracing the process. This is because naturality is getting lost in Academia due to the role played by emerging technologies. People want to see the work done quickly without minding the process. This on the one hand affects the health of the Academia community and the future of research. As a researcher, I raise my voice to the world calling researchers and Academicians to return to the basics and use all innovations wisely without contradicting the natural laws.
Dr. Benjamin Wood, PhD
Your Credentials and Vocational History
I am an entrepreneur in the higher education field. I have my PhD in Applied Organizational Psychology and have been focused on creating systems and procedures that best facilitate learning for individual learners. For over a decade, I have taught online and residentially at several Universities. From those experiences, I have crafted a current vocational journey that is primarily focused on landing students jobs and in utilizing AI to help others gain vocational competency.
The Integration of Your Faith with Scientific Methodology
Inquiry in any form has a starting point. For me, it is my Christian-Judeo faith. I believe that all searching and questioning fits into the overall framework of God as creator and sustainer of faith, with things working out according to his purposes and for his Glory. This framework sets the groundwork for what is true and what is not, for what is good and what is evil, and from that framework, I ask questions and pursue the specificity of knowledge that fits into the meta-narrative of God’s creation.
Your Critique of Postmodern Scientific Methodology
When you have a starting point, you can deduce truth. When you do not have a starting point (and can make it up), then you can induce anything you want. In postmodernity, scientific methodology is wrapped up around inducing evidence for any socially/politically accepted viewpoint or position. The academy has made its position that “science” must be politically correct rather than just factually correct. Science will always be better when it is deductive rather than inductive, and when it is rooted in discovering “the Truth”—not “a truth.”
Helping Academia Become a More Healthy, Scientific Community
I am actively engaged in closing one of the current major gaps in academic: the B-to-B pipeline (the touchpoints that all potential students move through in education). The academy should all be about vocational training and upskilling learners to be contributors in the workforce. I am leveraging AI to help students learn proficiency— both in core and then job-related competencies—to pipeline those students directly to hiring organizations. This AI tool is facilitated by an AI bot, which both teaches and then assesses proficiency in learning goals and activities related to employment. This tool does not replace human activity but rather helps enhance the learning experience and directs students to employment like educators have never been able to do before.
Mr. Quinn Weinzapfel, BS, MDiv
Your Credentials and Vocational History
I have known the author since 2019. I serve on staff with the International Mission Board as a data analyst and researcher. Additionally, I serve as board president for Speak for the Unborn, a pro-life ministry that equips churches in having gracious gospel conversations with abortion-minded men and women. I completed my BS in Criminal Justice at Liberty University, and I am currently pursuing a MDiv at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. I love expository preaching, biblical counseling, systematic theology, craft coffee, and chess.
The Integration of Your Faith with Scientific Methodology
Most of my work, regardless of organizational affiliation, centers around fusing the art and science of data analytics with Christian theology. Contrary to popular beliefs, these fields exist in harmony and do not require fission. I view faith and science as equally required for academic practice.
It saddens me that with new, maturing believers, the concept of a divided mind between faith and science has been thrust upon them by slightly older, still unknowing victims. An unfortunate byproduct of the Enlightenment, new believers are too often called to cull their spiritual lives in pursuit of scientific practice. Thus, the ouroboros of science-sacrificing-faith spins on quietly killing the faith of young students. If Christians concede to such an artificial division, we quickly lose our assurance in both. As such, Christians must reunite their scientific practice with their spiritual state.
Your Critique of Postmodern Scientific Methodology
I hold that the postmodern world is essentially dead. Yes, there are bitter clingers who still twist secular humanism into a Frankenstein’s neo-atheism, but the younger generation is abandoning the atheism and liberal philosophy of their elders. Why? Mainly because the worldview is unsustainable. If there is no faith in things unseen, why conduct science? All personal, scientific, or social advancement becomes moot under the humanist boot. Without a sufficiently strong theological structure to order the world, there is no reason for anything. The immense idolatrous faith in humankind required for atheism to flourish leads its worshipers ever closer to the sleeping leviathan of nihilism at the bottom of secular humanism.
Helping Academia Become a More Healthy, Scientific Community
The marriage of scientific practice and faith can be a happy one, but like every marriage, it requires something from both spouses. Truly, everyone is a theologian at heart, with their worldview forming their scientific theories and practice. Moreover, there is no such thing as a perfectly independent researcher. Owning one’s theological worldview is the first step in becoming a better scholar. Being a good student of theology (and its impact on one’s life) informs and shapes one’s scholarly work.
Furthermore, our studies and scientific practice challenge and inform our beliefs about the world. This means we should grow in our scientific practice to expand our theological practice. One of the significant errors within modern scholarship is the incessant and unnecessary requirement for alignment with(in) a humanistic framework. The best part of theology and science is that it is bigger than us. We study the world for things that are bigger than ourselves. Trace this thread long enough, and you’ll find someone worth worshiping at the end of it.
Dr. Jeffery Childress, D.Min.
Your Credentials and Vocational History
I have a Doctor of Ministry degree (Expository Teaching and Preaching) and a master’s degree in Christian Apologetics, both from Liberty University. I am the host of a Christian podcast, and I am the Charlotte Chapter Director of Reasonable Faith. I am bi-vocational, so while I have a Christian parachurch ministry, I have over 30 years of experience as a technology leader in the financial services industry as well.
The Integration of Your Faith with Scientific Methodology
Truth, by definition, is exclusive. If God exists, the pursuit of science is simply discovering, not inventing or creating, the wonders of physics, biology, cosmology, psychology, all functioning in the integrated framework of God’s creation. Science itself, as a professional and academic discipline, was initiated as a formal strategy to seek evidence of the fingerprints of God on the universe. This is why the researcher, faithfully grounded in the truth of Christianity, will never be intimidated by the pursuit of science. However, one must also understand the limits of science. Science is indeed a tool to understand the language of creation, but it is limited to the exploration of the material, the repeatable, and the demonstrable. I believe it is critical to any faithful researcher, in any discipline, to free their minds from the shackles of convention that some scientists force on the creation. Instead, we should boldly unleash our minds to better understand the Creator, as evidenced through the second book that He created for us, that being, the book of nature.
Your Critique of Postmodern Scientific Methodology
The phrase "postmodern scientific methodology" is a contradiction in terms. Scientific methodology is a strategy for understanding natural science by obtaining data through research. While one may start with a rational assumption (in scientific terms, a hypothesis), the scientific process explores based on where the evidence leads, dispassionately and without prejudice. On the other hand, postmodernism is a philosophy that rejects objective truth and embraces relativism. Combining these two endeavors is bound to fail. One can see the detrimental impact postmodernism has had on evidence-based medicine today. An attempt to manipulate the scientific method into being informed by socio-political ideologies instead of unbiased evidence is simply a house built on shifting sand.
Helping Academia Become a More Healthy, Scientific Community
My Christian apologetics-based podcast aims to explore the intersection of various disciplines such as sociology, psychology, and other areas of scientific research with principles of Christian theology. We interview subject matter experts from academia, mass media, and the church to find ways to combat the deterioration within modern universities and re-establish their mission to teach students how to think, rather than what to think. We must continue to address this contagion by bringing awareness to its harmful and intrusive goals. The classroom should not strive to create a hive-mind; rather, its focus should be on preparing individuals to contribute effectively to society, and by doing so, allowing the dispassionate search for truth to reclaim its position at the top of the educational virtue hierarchy.
Dr. Holley Swanson Clough, DMin, PCC
Your Credentials and Vocational History
Throughout my career in education, I have focused on coaching within the field of higher education. I have a Doctorate in Ministry and a Professional Certification in Life Coaching from the International Coach Federation. The professional focus has been on creating a seamless coaching model, supporting a system to recruit and retain students throughout their time in their educational journey. For over thirty years as a Christian higher education administrator and professor of online and traditional courses, my focus has been to resonate my faith through creatively helping students of all levels discern and develop their God given potential. This career journey has had impact within Christian higher education and the work of the Global Church.
The Integration of Your Faith with Scientific Methodology
Upon a career of observation of student growth and receptivity to learning, research has indicated there is an improved way to allow adult students to progress through the learning process. God gives humans strengths, gifts and values from which to engage with the created world. It is in learning to use these God ordained assets and experiential learning that students engage with the world around them for the betterment of the Kingdom. Life coaching is based on Adult Learning Theory, which calls on these assets and learning to provide reflection and perception change as noted in Mezirow’s Adult Learning Theory and Kolb’s Theory of Experiential Learning. In addition, Christian advisors using a coaching model find God as the life coach and the Holy Spirit leads and guides in advising students in their learning and perception shift into transformation. Specifically, I am actively engaged in increasing the wellbeing of students through addressing Neuroscience and Coaching in looking at how students learn through utilizing coaching. These techniques can speak to current students, as well as pastors or leaders in midlife looking to transition to another phase in life. Coaching toward transition involves understanding how the brain and neuroscience impacts health, as well as learning and perception change.
Fundamental differences from period of modernity
It has been discovered through research a gap exists in allowing adults to transition from an active career on into later years in life, commonly called retirement, which impacts adult students. (Edwards Thesis, 2025) Entering into mid-life, adults can flounder in the question of what the next aspiration may be in life. An active adult transitioning through the midlife, currently has been immersed in a world that was shifting to Postmodernity Modernity impacted the time between 1850 to 1950, focusing on reason, objectivity and universal truths. Specifically, adult students struggle with having been raised by parents that were clearly in Modernity, yet living in a Post-Modern world facing globalization, fragmentation leading to complexities such as varying identities and lifestyles.
Your Critique of Postmodern Scientific Methodology
When you have a starting point of Post-Modernism that has been impacting society since 1950 focusing on skepticism, subjective truths and rejection of universal truths (AI Overview on 5/5/25) The objectivity and truth of Modernity allowed solid ground on which to build a career in the world around one, mainly found in one community with one, maybe two jobs during a career. In the post-modern context created a career trajectory of globalization where the viewpoint is changing and subjective, questioned with skepticism and not built on universal truths. One universal truth being, Christ as the “Way, the Truth and the Life.” Humans consider themselves all knowing with the aide of globalization and technology, which is increasing at a fast rate with AI. Postmodernity is fragmented, transient and less founded on consistent unchanging values, social structures are changing.
Helping Academia Become a More Healthy Scientific Community
I am actively engaged in increasing the wellbeing of students through addressing Neuroscience and Coaching. These techniques can speak to current students, as well as pastors or leaders in midlife looking to transition to another phase in life. Coaching toward transition involves understanding how the brain and neuroscience impacts health. By studying these techniques, an educator can reach out to coach toward change of perspectives based on concrete values. Neuroscience of Coaching is based on these core tenets:
· Manage personal biases and distractions, staying focused on the client’s goals and objectives.
Understand the relationship between body signals and decision-making, leading clients to more informed choices.
Integrate different aspects of the client’s being, paving the way for holistic personal growth.
Uncover deeper emotional responses and thought patterns, allowing clients to understand and manage their reactions.
Grasp the brain's functions and use that knowledge to improve interactions and relationships with clients. (https://www.coaching.com/neuroscience/program/)
Through using the above mentioned techniques, students can be guided into a new ways of thinking through reflection and writing. It is through this process that the mind predicts reactions, emotions and behaviors. Often there is a perception gap between anticipation of actions and actual responses. By developing emotional acuteness and balancing perceptions and biases with unexpected thoughts and actions, situations unfold naturally, causing significant transformation. This transformation happens through the change of perception gained through these neuroscience techniques.