The Emerging Scholars Blog

On InterVarsity’s main website, one can find two articles

1. Honoring God at Work
2. Human Flourishing

AND two audio files

1. Why Aren’t We Flourishing? — Opening Plenary by MaryKate Morse, Professor of Leadership and Spiritual Formation at George Fox University. Time: 35:00
2. Powerful Faith — Seminar presentation by Michael Lindsay, a sociologist at Rice University and the author of Faith in the Halls of Power. The seminar in which Michael Lindsay spoke was entitled Exploring Privilege and Redeeming Power. Time: 1:15:09

After you’ve reflected upon the presentations, take a moment to share some thoughts on fear, power, and faith in higher education.

Last night as I packed for Following Christ 08, I reflected upon how conference preparation can suddenly turn from a marathon to a sprint.  No doubt the race to the finish begins at different times for each of us based upon the complexity of travel plans, conference responsibilities, family size, past history at similar events, personality, support community/friends on site (and back home), etc.  And varies from conference to conference, based upon the above factors and our current state of being (i.e., heart, soul, mind, and strength). Read the rest of this entry »

This morning Russia Licenses Faith Healers topped my new mail. The one who forwarded it to me commented, They are soooo far ahead of us.  Read the rest of this entry »

As a member of the Central Pennsylvania Forum for Religion and Science, I’m participating in an Oracles of Science: Celebrity Scientists versus God and Religion (Karl Gibersonand Fr. Mariano Artigas, Oxford University Press, 2006) reading group.  I thought some of you would have an interest in considering how the Oracles of Science(i.e., Richard Dawkins, Stephen Jay Gould, Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Steven Weinberg, and Edward O. Wilson), influence contemporary understandings of reality, origins, science, and religion.  So tighten your seat belt, bring your communication system on-line, and let me know what you think about the concept of the Oracles of Science. ... Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday I posted Favorite Books of 2008.  Below are two which I’m reading alongside the Word of God as the people of God journey through Advent and Christmas.  Do you have materials which you return to again and again to enable you to focus upon the meaning of the season in the midst of the end of the term, the holiday festivities, and the beginning of a new year?  Read the rest of this entry »

I enjoyed skimming Mr. Wilson’s Bookshelf: Favorite Books of 2008. Out of his recommendations, The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East. Africa, and Asia—and How It Died by Philip Jenkins sits on my to read pile.  I will pick up The Lost History of Christianity sometime in the new year.  If you are not familiar with Jenkins’ material, I’d suggest visiting his Penn State Department of History and Religious Studies page. His thought-provoking work, which spans a great range of topics, provides great conversation starters ;-)  Note: The link to Mark Noll’s review in the November/December Books & Culture can be found here.

As you know, I’ve read and enjoyed a number of books in 2008 including Culture-Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling and The Last Lecture.  How about you?  In 2008, what 2-3 books were you not able to put down and/or find yourself talking/writing about? Read the rest of this entry »

In case you haven’t already, I’d encourage you to read, practice, and share material from the brief CT article Eat, Drink, and Relax* with colleagues, family, friends, and house parties. 

Bonus:  how about this life vision?  More on it after Thanksgiving, unless you’d like to make a comment before then ;-)

Puritanism was impelled by the insight that all of life is God’s. The Puritans lived simultaneously in two worlds — the invisible spiritual world and the physical world of earthly existence. For the Puritans, both worlds were equally real, and there was no cleavage of life into sacred and secular. All of life was sacred. —  Leland Ryken. Worldly Saints: The Puritans As They Really Were.  Zondervan, 1986.

*Note:  Written by Elesha Coffman who was managing editor of Christian History & Biography. She is now working on a Ph.D in church history from Duke University.

Nearly everyone cares — or says he cares — about art. After all, art ennobles the spirit, ­elevates the mind, and educates the emotions. Or does it?  — The End of Art by Roger Kimball, Copyright (c) 2008 First Things (June/July 2008).

How about The End of Art?  Take some time to reflect upon and discuss this article with friends, family, and the blog over Thanksgiving break.  To tease you a little, here’s the conclusion after ruminations on Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Jones, Murray, modern/postmodern art (to drop a few of, but not all of the names): 

Man is the sort of creature whose nature is to delight in art and aesthetic experience; I believe that he is also, by nature, a religious animal — a creature who becomes who he really is only by acknowledging something that transcends him. These different aspects of humanity will often conspire, but we do both a disservice if we blur or elide their essential difference.

In case you haven’t already, I’d encourage you to visit the C.S. Lewis blog. The blog, officially part of HarperOne’s C.S. Lewis site:

offers original work on and about C. S. Lewis from scholars who have written far and wide about his stories, his theology, and his world.

I was particularly excited to see the most recent post, Parables for Pilgrims, excerpted from a work by David Downing. Over the past several years, I’ve gotten to know Downing, R. W. Schlosser Professor of English at Elizabethtown College in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and value the insights which he has to share.  As you may know he has written two pieces for InterVarsity Press:  The Most Reluctant Convert: C. S. Lewis’s Journey to Faith and Into the Region of Awe: Mysticism in C. S. Lewis

  

P.S. He also has an excellent piece on the Ransom Trilogy, see here  Why is the Ransom Triology so ignored?

This spring’s Chronicle of Higher Education piece The Myth of First-Year Enlightenment has more to consider (Note: link to earlier post here). Of particular interest are the practical steps which Tim takes to address quintessential Americans in the classroom. Any students or faculty have reactions to the proposed shift in learning objectives and new classroom style?  Read the rest of this entry »