The Emerging Scholars Blog

This week, two powerful quotes that question the current system of education. I hope that they won’t seem too negative put together like this, and maybe this is the wrong tone for the start of the academic year. On the other hand, perhaps you’re struggling to get excited about this year, being stressed on all sides, and feeling like you don’t belong. May these words affirm that it’s not just you.

First, commenter Hannah sent us this quote from Eugene Peterson. It was written to David Taylor, of the Diary of an Arts Pastor blog. Hannah notes that this is not quite her view of the PhD (nor mine, for that matter). As usual, though, Peterson raises good questions in a style only his own.

…what do you do when you are part of a system that is diabolical? Boycott it? Subvert it? do the best you can to survive privately through the process? I’m thinking primarily of the PhD process which seems to me to be truly diabolical–knowledge acquired with no rootage in the prayerful, the local and the personal, and at such a strenuous level that virtually no one has any enjoyment/play in the process.

Will there come a time when all the saint-intellectuals refuse to continue in higher education becuse they love learning and God too much? Has the time already arrived when the school is no longer a congenial or safe or holy place to cultivate the life of the mind?

Read the rest of this entry »

A Faith and Culture Devotional

If you don’t already have a copy of A Faith & Culture Devotional, click here to learn how to enter a drawing for a free copy.  The first drawing is on August 31st and the second on September 7th. Whether or not you win a copy, consider starting off the new term with a copy in hand.

Thank-you to Kelly Monroe Kullberg for her work on this project and the gift of this week’s devo from John Stott, see excerpt below.  Note:  You may remember our June study Stott’s classic Your Mind Matters.

I believe that anti‐intellectualism and fullness of the Holy Spirit are mutually incompatible. And I dare to say it because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. Jesus our Lord himself referred to the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Truth, and therefore, it is only logical to say that wherever the Holy Spirit has given his freedom, truth is bound to matter. So I have argued, and argue still, that a proper, conscientious use of our minds is an inevitable part and parcel of our Christian life. …

James Lang's Life on the Tenure Track

I have a terrible confession to make: I’ve been giving away copies of a book that I had never read. For the past two summers, we’ve surveyed ESN members about their past year, and members who had made a recent career transition – earned a degree, started a new job, received tenure – have been offered the free book of their selection. I included among our offerings a book, James Lang’s Life on the Tenure Track: Lessons from the First Year, based on the high recommendations of others, and I promptly (18 months ago) ordered my own copy. I’ve even been known to carry extra copies in my bag to give away spontaneously, yet it’s been sitting on my own “to read” shelf for well over a year.

But my shame has been lifted. This afternoon, I finished reading the final chapter. Even better: I’m glad that I’ve been giving it out.

Lang’s book is not meant to replace the myriad other advice books that are available to young and aspiring faculty. While Lang has studied the art and science of teaching, his book is primarily a memoir of his first year as an assistant professor of English at Assumption College, a Catholic liberal arts college in Worcester, Mass. The book takes the reader through the entire first year, with each month matched up with a dominant theme of academic life from that time period: teaching, grading, writing, and so on. While Lang includes general advice to new professor, he mostly focuses on his own experiences of learning how to teach a full schedule while trying to fulfill service and writing commitments, balancing his work with the needs of his young family, navigating relationships with faculty colleagues, and learning his way around a small college in an unfamiliar city. Read the rest of this entry »

In 1994, Clark Kerr reflected on his movement from guarded optimism to guarded pessimism to guarded optimism (1997, 193) and his hopeful return to the unguarded utopianism of earlier years with respect to the importance/value of higher educaiton:

[a]s society goes, so goes the university; but, also, as the university goes so goes the society. The progress of knowledge remains so central to the progress of civilization (1997, 194, 196).*

As we enter a new academic term, what do you think about the relationship of the university to the larger society (in the United States, other countries, civilization)?  In Searching for Utopia: Higher Education as a Panacea?  (a paper which I wrote for my masters in higher education), I make the below comment about the solid foundations for higher education.  I would be interested in your comments/reactions as I prepare for conversations with academics over the course of the next couple of weeks.

How do Christians extend hope for our society while still acknowledging the reality of internal and systemic sin? First, we confess that God is in charge and we are not. As long as we seek to be agents of transformation on our own, we will forget that only God changes hearts and structures. Second, we acknowledge that individuals and institutions have the capacity to offer hope because God has ordered creation in such a way that the meaning, satisfaction, wholeness, which are found in Him alone, are dimly reflected all around us. Third, we affirm that good things can come from education, e.g., verbal skills, quantitative skills, personal self-discovery, cultural identity, appreciation of the arts, opportunity, upward mobility, new knowledge.

We may even go as far as saying that common grace is dispensed as the God invested capacities are played out through the proper uses of the university. But all of this must keep in mind that sin corrupts and God’s power alone transforms and sustains.  So although higher education has much to commend it, we are not to worship it. The blessings experienced by those within and without, past and present, individual and corporate are mixed.

*Kerr, C. (2001). The Uses of the University. (5th ed.). Cambridge: Harvard University Press. (Original work published in 1963).

As you begin a new term, what do you think about abstaining from social media? I had some friends who fasted from Facebook through Lent and according to Inside Higher Ed a professor offered a class extra credit if they stopped using social media during his course (see Extra Credit: Abstain from Facebook).

How many took him up on the offer? 12 out of 35. How many succeeded? 6 out of 12. I wonder how he tracked and/or verified what I assume to be self-reporting.

In what manner does social media help you get to know your colleagues? Is it awkward to use with those above or below you in the campus structure? Do all faculty need to have a Facebook page to relate to students or would students prefer not to have faculty know what they’re chatting about?

Note: HT to Ivy Jungle’s July Update for information regarding this article.

One of our goals for the Emerging Scholars Network is to point you to helpful resources. There’s an enormous amount of material out there about faith and learning, Christ and culture, spiritual formation, discipleship of the mind – even the list of topics goes on for too long! We’ve also negotiated discounts from a number of periodicals and publishers for ESN members, so that availing yourself of these resources isn’t quite as expensive. (Note: several of these come from our partner organizations, but by “partner organization” we mean a like-minded organization that we work with in ministry – they haven’t given us any money to be listed as a partner.)

Today I’m focusing on subscriptions – emails, magazines, and audio. I’m planning at least one follow-up post about other recommended resources. If you have some to suggest, let me know or post them in the comments.

The list of subscriptions is after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Even though A Neuroscience Professor Makes Her Move to the Racetrack (Bill Finley, NY Times, 7/29/2009) is in a worldly setting, her story reminded me of the importance of embracing and stepping into our calling (as individuals and the people of God). This might mean moving in the direction of research as a junior faculty at Johns Hopkins, or away from it. This might involve living out the dreams of your earthly family, or it might not. According to Os Guinness:

Calling is the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion and dynamism lived out as a response to his summons and service.” — The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life. Nashville, TN:  Thomas Nelson, 2003, p.4.

As we enter the fall term, how would you describe your call to yourself, family, friends, colleagues?  To help flesh out calling a little further, here’s an excerpt from R. Paul Stevens’ Calling/Vocation: Read the rest of this entry »

I loved the recent Chronicle of Higher Education article The World Beyond MapQuest in which Regina Robbins Flynn, assistant professor of English at Salem State College, begins with this illustration.

My older daughter was traveling back to grad school with her car last January, and we had MapQuested her trip from our home in Massachusetts to Pittsburgh, a journey of more than 600 miles, or 10 hours and 20 minutes without stops.

And you’ve probably already guessed that Flynn’s daughter gets lost.  Turns out that she goes astray not far from where I live in South Central PA.  Would you believe that Flynn teaches a spring semester travel writing course — nice transition ;-)

Each of the students has to take a trip during spring break and write a long travel essay as his or her final assignment. Some of the kids take the college-sponsored trips, others concoct their own.

The stories from her class abound.  How about you?  Do you have memorable travel stories of first finding your way to a new campus or conference?  On what do you depend for directions?  Is it only the older generation which use paper road maps?

As one who visits a number of campuses for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, I have quite a few wrong turns to report.  But for me two items particularly come to mind regarding my campus travels through the years:

1. How much stuff I packed into the car as a first year student. … AND my collection of books has only continued to go with each subsequent move!
2. The challenge of campus parking.   A few weeks ago, I visited a campus where my typical visitor parking location was under construction.  I circled the block and parked in an unmarked lot which appeared to be open to visitors.  No ticket, good news ;-)  Not sure if I’ll use that lot again.  I’ll have to ask again.

Jonathan Edwards, a theologian who knew a thing or two about the academy.

What is the place of theology in the secular academy? I don’t have hard data for this, but I think almost no secular colleges and universities still have “theology” departments. Rather, they have “religious studies” departments, of which theology may be a part. Even those universities that have well-respected schools of theology – Harvard, Yale, Duke – keep those schools in a separate line, and offer religious studies courses to undergraduates. We are all aware that religious beliefs have to be carefully articulated and nuanced to be taken seriously in the academy (that is, as something integral to scholarship and teaching, and not just a part of “student life”). Indeed, even the idea of religious ideas informing scholarship often has to be defended. It was not for no reason that Marsden titled his book The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship.

Nonetheless, I was still taken aback by K. L. Noll‘s suggestion in the Chronicle Review that it is actually unethical for theologians to claim to offer knowledge through their theological teaching and scholarship. Not “true knowledge,” mind you, but knowledge of any kind. Noll further argues that theologians have failed in their ethical responsibilities in the academy and in the wider world. Ethical theologians, Noll writes, will explicitly acknowledge that all theological claims are rooted in fiction. Read the rest of this entry »

Do we enter the fall with the anticipation of colleagues coming to faith? Several years ago, InterVarsity Graduate & Faculty Ministry Staff Christian Anible wrote The Conversion of a Scholar: A Reflection on Augustine’s Confessions.  Take a few minutes to read his essay and prayerfully consider who God has called you to be present with in the coming minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, even decades.  To God be the glory!

we must not succumb to the temptation to impose Augustine’s story as a kind of template for evangelism among today’s scholars. While some commonalities certainly exist, every individual is unique, and the business of making disciples cannot be reduced to technique. Perhaps the most striking aspect of Augustine’s conversion is that it took time — years of time! In this, Monica is our best model. Her patience and faithfulness in prayer reveals a confidence, not in her ability to persuade the one she loved, but in a greater Lover whose wooing would finally win out.

Here’s how Augustine relays his conversion and the response of his mother, taken from Book VIII, Chapter XII of Confessions: Read the rest of this entry »