The Emerging Scholars Blog

Last night I took the Pew Research Center’s Quiz: See How You Compare to the Millennial Generation (HT:  How Millennial Are You? Chronicle of Higher Education, 3/17/2010).  I scored a “22″ with the below markers on a scale up to “100.”

• “4″ for Silent Generation
• “11″ for Baby Boomer
• “33″ for Gen X-er
• “73″ for Millenial

What’s your score? 

Anyone have comments on the quiz (and where you fall), the data found at Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next, and/or how this material should be used by those in higher education?

PS.   For more check out Week in Review: Milliennials in Transition Edition.

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 »

Are to-do lists a helpful tool to getting things done? Or do you find them frustratingly long and seemingly insurmountable? Or do you find them buried under papers or in old documents/post-it notes on your screen, wall, door?  Or do you somehow ignore to-do lists entirely?

Thanks to Andy Crouch’s 5 Questions post on to-do lists, I’ve had quite a few good conversations with friends and family on this topic. Two pastors of my local congregation have given some interesting feedback on the topic.  One quipped that he finds to-do lists helpful in his search for significance, i.e., when he crosses items off his list he feels like he’s accomplished something. He confesses to sometimes adding items to be crossed off … I’ve heard this from some other people ;-)  Another pastor noted the cultural rootedness of to-do lists:  

In our culture, almost everyone has multiple things to manage, most not by choice but by necessity in our complex, multi-faceted world – more than can conveniently be remembered.  Thus the need for external support mechanisms.

What are you thoughts? In what manner are to-do lists vital to the scholar. Does this vary from field to field and the level of one’s responsibility? What tools do you use to manage and prioritize items on to-do lists? Is this cultural artifact unique and/or over-used in the United States (or Western Civilization)?

Maybe this should be the topic for Chapter 2 of Up to the Minute Publishing ;-)

Take a moment sometime today to consider The Real St. Patrick and invite others to do likewise.  Looking for some resources?  I’d encourage you to start with The Real St. Patrick and St. Patrick’s Day.  If you have additional suggestions, including books to recommend, please share below.

St. Patrick

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through a confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation.

– A Poem by St. Patrick, ca 377 AD

Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s Fastnaught Day in PA Dutch Country (referred to by other traditions/regions, some with much more enthusiastic traditions, as Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday) and the celebration of it emphasizes stuffing our bodies with wants before entering the sacrificial lock down of the religious practice of Lent.   

By contrast I look at Lent from the radical, relational lens of seeking God the Father – one shared by the people of God throughout the Biblical story — finding its fulfillment in Jesus the Christ through His inauguration of the Kingdom of God, death, resurrection, ascension to Lordship, the gifting of the daily redemptive Presence of God through the Holy Spirit (which dwells within the Body of Christ by the grace of God the Father and the Son). … and the New Heavens and the New Earth.  To God be the glory!  Forgive me, I’ve gotten a little carried away.  Lent ends in Holy Week where we focus upon the final days of Jesus the Christ’s earthly ministry and his death/resurrection.

Christine Sine in What Is Lent Anyway? defines Lent as

a time for “confrontation with the false self” (Thomas Keating) when we reflect on the responses and behaviours we exhibit that are least Christ like and seek God’s help in rededicating ourselves to God and God’s purposes. This is a time for self-denial and fasting when we give up some of the comforts of our lives in order to make ourselves more available to God.

If you practice Lent, please take a few minutes to share some reflections regarding the Lenten journey, how the lessons learned (and life lived) apply to campus life/vocation, and recommended resources (on-line and/or in print) for the blog’s readership.  Read the rest of this entry »

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.

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 »

How do we find, evaluate, share, and use on-line resources/data?  In this morning’s Daily Report from The Chronicle of Higher Education, I came across the post Thinking About Truth, Lies, and the Power of Google.  The flow of comments focused upon librarians, the vetting of information, and the current election (what article doesn’t relate to McCain/Palin and now I’m even doing it!).

Out of curiosity, I followed the link to the original post on the ACRLog (i.e., Association of College and Research Libraries: Blogging by and for academic and research librarians):  Information is Power – Even When it’s Wrong.  Then I took some time to ruminate over the piece, particularly the concern Sometimes aggregators are misleading. … Anyone have thoughts and/or tips on how to find, evaluate, share, and use on-line resources?

By-the-way, the last time I followed the Daily Report to the ACRLog, I read about the rise of the blog among academic and research librarians in What Happened To The Personal Web Site.  Next time I visit the ACRLog, I’m going to look to see whether someone wrote about the question of accessing material received from a blog (or how about a Facebook post) versus a personal web site, an organizational web site, or an on-line journal article.  Fascinating questions, maybe I should consider a degree in information science.

Hope I didn’t catch you (and me) at an awkward time, but are you already thirsting for encouragement in Sabbath-keeping this fall term?  As I reflected upon the topic and prayed for the graduate students and faculty with whom I minister, I returned to Calvin College’s helpful Sabbath-keeping resource page for faculty.  Below’s just a taste:

In an academic setting like Calvin where Monday signifies not only the beginning of a new week but the onslaught of classes to teach, tests to take (or give) and general all-around busyness, is it really realistic to rest from your work on Sunday? Is it even biblically mandated for the New Testament church?

In his book, Catch Your Breath: God’s Invitation to Sabbath Rest, Don Postema points out that that “the hectic pace of contemporary life makes the idea and practice of sabbath rest enormously attractive.” Yet this same hectic pace also, on the other hand, makes it incredibly difficult to slow down, let alone cease from the normal concerns of everyday life. In light of these considerations, two key questions must be answered: Why should Christians observe the Sabbath and how?

Two other links which come to mind when I consider the topic are given below.  What resources, practices, and communities have you found helpful in Sabbath-keeping, particularly as a new term begins?

1. A Guided Sabbath, a resource written by Sarah MacDonald & Jay Sivits for Following Christ in 2002
2. Critical Junctures: The Spiritual Formation of Graduate Students and Young Faculty by Bob Trube.

Science Out in the Open

Young scientists making their research results open to the public, challenging the standard means of publishing results, and opening themselves up to criticism.

Out in the Open (Boston Globe) (HT: Culture Making)

Historically Black Colleges Producing More PhDs

After falling for several years, the number of PhD recipients produced by historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) is on the rise.

Who Produces Black Ph.D.’s? (Inside Higher Ed)

Teach Them to Challenge Authority

Inside Higher Ed speaks with Gregory S. Prince Jr., former president of Hampshire College and author of Teach Them to Challenge Authority: Educating for Healthy Societies. Prince argues that taking a “neutral stance” in the classroom is the wrong approach:

Faculty need to take positions so that students can learn how to challenge those in authority. How a faculty member takes a positions is what is critical. It is an art both to take positions and to create an atmosphere in which students will learn how to challenge those positions

Teach Them to Challenge Authority (Inside Higher Ed)

Get Reporters to Call You

If you are an expert on something (and if you have a PhD, then you most definitely are!), check out the website HelpAReporter.com. It is a free subscription service that connects journalists with expert sources. According to the home page, after you sign up, you will receive up to 3 emails a day, with 15 to 30 queries each, listing reporters who are looking for expert sources. Just don’t let all the publicity go to your head!

HelpAReport.com (HT: Seth Godin)