Jerry A. Pattengaleאור
Sunlit university lecture hall with a Levant wall map and an open lectern

Classroom

Purpose-guided education

Coined at Indiana Wesleyan University in 1997. In 2014 he became the first University Professor in the history of a school founded in 1920.

  • 2024Sagamore of the Wabash
  • 2021Three Telly Awards
  • 2020United Nations address
  • 2017Museum of the Bible opens
  • 2014Inaugural University Professor
  • 1994NEH · Isthmia / Corinth
Pattengale at a chapel lectern with an open book

1997 · IWU

The dream needs to be stronger than the struggle

Purpose-guided education argues that student success needs a humanities frame and faculty ownership, not only advising mechanics. He built it while leading first-year, honors, and retention work at IWU, then wrote it into McGraw-Hill and Jossey-Bass books that still circulate in student-success offices.

“The dream needs to be stronger than the struggle.”

The campus, the hall, the walk

Pattengale on an Indiana campus path
Sunlit classroom with a Levant map
Empty lecture hall in autumn light

Books that carry the classroom

McGraw-Hill, Jossey-Bass, IVP, Baylor

Publisher covers and Amazon links, as on his earlier site.

Cover of The Purpose-Guided Student

The Purpose-Guided Student: Dream to Succeed

2010 · McGraw-Hill

Author

The student-facing statement of purpose-guided education, coined at IWU in 1997: the dream has to be stronger than the struggle.

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Cover of Why I Teach

Why I Teach

2008–2009 · McGraw-Hill

Author

A McGraw-Hill book on vocation in the classroom: faculty ownership of student success, not outsourced advising theater.

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Cover of Helping Sophomores Succeed

Helping Sophomores Succeed

2010 · Jossey-Bass

Co-editor

Jossey-Bass handbook on the neglected second year — the drop-off most campuses refuse to name.

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Cover of Habits of Hope

Habits of Hope

November 2024 · IVP Academic

Co-editor · with Todd Ream and Christopher J. Devers

Educational Practices for a Weary World. An IVP volume on the practices that keep Christian colleges honest, hopeful, and intellectually serious.

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Cover of Cultivating Mentors

Cultivating Mentors

September 2022 · IVP Academic

Co-editor · with Todd Ream and Christopher J. Devers

Sharing Wisdom in Christian Higher Education. An IVP volume on mentoring as a craft of the Christian university.

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Cover of The Anxious Middle

The Anxious Middle

August 2023 · Baylor University Press

Co-author · with Todd Ream

A Baylor Press argument about the future of the Christian college — the anxious middle between nostalgia and surrender.

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Appointments

IWU, Lumen, Religion News Service

  • Inaugural University Professor, 2014Indiana Wesleyan University. After years as professor of history, grants leader, and Assistant Provost for Scholarship & Public Engagement. World Changing Faculty, 2012. Outstanding Alumni / World Changer, 2021–22.
  • Lumen Research Institute, 2014–presentCo-founder and Executive Director. IWU and international partners, including Excelsia College in Australia.
  • Religion News Service, 2019–2020Interim President and CEO of RNS and the Religion News Foundation.

Earlier classroom: Azusa Pacific University, 1988–1997. Professor of the Year (student body) 1993 and 1995. Alpha Chi Outstanding Faculty, 1994. Common Day of Learning, Pew Younger Scholars, Night of Champions.

The scholarly file

  • 1992Anchor Bible DictionaryContributing scholar — the standard English reference dictionary of biblical studies.
  • 2016–2020Israeli / Compedia augmented-reality Bible curriculaGeneral editor: TAMAR (Hebrew), The Book, and The Bible and Its Impact on Western Culture — editor-in-chief of 20+ high-tech volumes.
  • —Dictionary of Daily Life in Biblical and Post-Biblical AntiquityHendrickson. Scholarly articles on the material world of the text.
  • —The Light of DiscoveryYamauchi festschrift chapter — honor to the mentor who directed the Anargyroi dissertation.