The Emerging Scholars Blog

What excites Tom most about BioLogos?  Hard to top the visual presentation structure and the carefully selected offerings found in the suggested resource section.  None-the-less, the weekly thoughts on Science and the Sacred may open new possibilities for much needed visceral, entry level conversation for those who face isolation, not realizing resources and events/communities exist.  The Science and the Sacred blog may also remind those who have found comfortable learning communities that they can be a blessing/mentor/resource to those early in their academic journey and/or in a location which feels isolating, even oppressive.

To give you a taste for the blog, below’s the first part of Francis Collins’ BioLoguration.  Check out the post and let me know what you would share with student at the beginning of their academic (possibly vocational) journey. Read the rest of this entry »

After last night’s launch event, BioLogos is up and running full steam.   As a member of the academic community, what are your thoughts on the BioLogos Foundation?  Can BioLogos accomplish it’s ambitious agenda or at least move the conversation closer to where it should be (see below)?  Are there particular resources, events, and discussions at BioLogos which impress you or stirr interest in dialogue?  BTW, come back tomorrow.  I have some thoughts  to share regarding … (well you’ll just have to wait)

The BioLogos Foundation promotes the search for truth in both the natural and spiritual realms, and seeks to harmonize these different perspectives.

Dr. Francis Collins established The BioLogos Foundation to engage America’s escalating culture war between science and faith. Read the rest of this entry »

Any responses to the NY Times piece End the University as We Know It?  Another piece highlighting the concerns of specialization and the slave labor by graduate students in the research universities with diminishing chance of reward after pushing through the system.

The dirty secret of higher education is that without underpaid graduate students to help in laboratories and with teaching, universities couldn’t conduct research or even instruct their growing undergraduate populations. That’s one of the main reasons we still encourage people to enroll in doctoral programs. It is simply cheaper to provide graduate students with modest stipends and adjuncts with as little as $5,000 a course — with no benefits — than it is to hire full-time professors.

In other words, young people enroll in graduate programs, work hard for subsistence pay and assume huge debt burdens, all because of the illusory promise of faculty appointments. But their economical presence, coupled with the intransigence of tenure, ensures that there will always be too many candidates for too few openings.

What do people on the inside think about Mark Taylor’s, the chairman of the religion department at Columbia, assessment of higher education and his proposal of rigorous regulation and complete restructuring?  Does he shake you from your complacency and open academia to a future you cannot conceive, just speak out without proposing viable next steps, or miss the boat for followers of Christ engaged in higher education? 

Note:  I was particularly interested in the transforming the traditional dissertation, providing opportunity for other formats.

Last weekend, my fellow blogger Tom Grosh launched the Central Pennsylvania Christian Scholars Network with an event called “Culture Making on Our Campuses,” featuring Andy Crouch, author of Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling. (Here‘s more about the book from Tom himself.) Over 70 people attended, and it sounds like it was a wonderful beginning to a new community of Christian students, faculty, and scholars.

Tom has written up a complete recap of the event that we’ll be publishing in this month’s Emerging Scholars Review (join ESN to get this quarterly email delivered to your inbox).  In the meantime, Byron Borger of the terrific Hearts & Minds Bookstore has written up his own take on the event. Enjoy!

Maybe I shouldn’t have been spending so much time thinking about Hell, see Deep Shift: Hell? (no doubt a natural extension to our discussions regarding resurrection), when Religion of hatred: Why we should no longer be cowed by the chattering classes ruling Britain who sneer at Christianity by A. N. Wilson has been such a great surprise and encouragement to many.  What are your reactions/thoughts regarding the article and A.N. Wilson’s story?

Note:  Two other recent pieces by A.N. Wilson which I found of interest:

Why I believe again

Can you love god and agree with Darwin?

Inside Higher Ed reports on two interesting studies about which students complete a PhD and why. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday, most Christians around the world celebrated the resurrection of Jesus (for Orthodox Christians, Easter isn’t until this coming Sunday).  On Facebook, Nicholas Kristof asked “How literally do you think most Christians today interpret the Resurrection? And if one doesn’t accept it literally, then is one still a Christian?”  Though I’ve been convinced of an answer to that question for many years, N. T. Wright’s Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church addresses the question of the resurrection (both Jesus’ and our own, future resurrection) in the context of current Biblical scholarship, the contemporary church, and our (post)modern culture.  I highly recommend the book, but if you’d like a sneak preview, you can listen to Wright answering the question “Why does Jesus’ Resurrection Matter?” at a Veritas Forum last year at Emory.  Part 1 and part 2 of the talk can be downloaded from the Veritas Forum website. They’re less than 90 minutes together, and well worth the time.

Response:  Truly, He is Risen!

First, as we read the Easter stories, we note the strange absence of Scripture in them. When you read the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ last days — of his arrest, his trial, and his crucifixion — you find Old Testament echoes, quotations, and allusions all over the place. The Psalms, Isaiah, Daniel, Zechariah, and other books have provided material that has then been woven into the structure of the narrative. … Read the rest of this entry »

In between Good Friday and Easter, I’m taking time to prayerfully consider Bart Ehrman on the Colbert Report and the Twelve Voices of Easter (audio files).  Ever had a conversation which seemed to have the assumption that the Bible is a big fat lie and if you believe the Bible you’re an idiot?  If so, how did you respond (or desire to respond when faced by such an opportunity)?

The question of the death and resurrection of the Son of God, one which we share with the early disciples, stands at the center of the Biblical story.  We have the privilege of knowing the end of the story, from a number of angles.  In addition to the Gospel records, we have a number of testimonies and helpful tools including:

1. the outline of the whole Biblical story (provided by the Word of God)*
2. the additional insights provided by Jesus on the walk to Emmaus
3. a hymn giving praise to the humbling/exaltation of Christ Jesus, who being in the very nature God
4. I Corinthians 15, Romans 6:1-14

But these only testify to us and provide a framework for everyday living, if we choose to trust the Word of God.  And what does that mean?  I’ll add a digging deeper into a consideration of the Word of God to the list of future posts. … Read the rest of this entry »

Today is Good Friday for most Christians (for Orthodox believers, Good Friday is a week from today). Eugene Peterson, in Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness
recommends that all Christians read the Psalms daily on a monthly schedule, so I have been endeavoring to do that for the past 6 months, using the Book of Common Prayer as my guide. Fittingly, today’s readings for morning prayer included Psalm 51 and Psalm 52.
Read the rest of this entry »