Word Pictures book cover

One of the reasons why the Jews of the first century did not recognize the visitation of the Messiah was because even they took the Bible too literally.  Indeed, they were expecting a military or political king who would crush Rome (Dan 2:44-45), restore the nation of Israel back from exile into their land (Zeph 3:14-20), build a new kingdom on earth (Dan 7:14) from Mount Zion in Jerusalem (Is 52), rebuild the Temple (Ezek 40-48), reinstate the Davidic monarchy (Ps 89:38-51) in a new “age to come” (Is 61) — all based on Old Testament prophecy.  Even Jesus’ own disciples misunderstood the literary nature of these promises as literal earthly political power (Mt 20:20-28; Acts 1:6).  Jesus’ kingdom did crush Rome, though not through military revolution, Jesus did restore Israel, did rebuild the Temple (Acts 15:14-17), did reinstate the Davidic monarchy (Lk 1:32), and he is the King of kings who came to Mount Zion (Mt 21:5) and rules over all things at the right hand of his father (I Pet. 3:22).  He just didn’t do these things in the literal way that they had envisioned, but in a literary way.  We see how the literary meaning of Israel and the Temple was first fulfilled in Christ and is now fulfilled in the church as his “body” (Rom 2:28-29; Eph 2:19-22).  Christ’s rule in his kingdom may be current and real, but certainly not an earthly reign of outward political power (Lk 17:20-21).

As you might guess, this is part of a chapter which explores the Literal versus Literary reading of Scripture and Godawa has come to read the Bible literarily.  How do you read the Bible this Easter?

*Wall of Silence: The Untold Story of the Medical Mistakes That Kill and Injure Millions of Americans (Rosemary Gibson & Janardan Prasad Singh, LifeLine Press, 2003), sent to me by a friend in Nursing Christian Fellowship is next in cue.

**Although I referenced some of these themes while participating in a campus Bible earlier this week, I wish I could have shared the quote.  Maybe I’ll bring it next week.

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Life in the Trinity cover

God created us to share in this relationship (between the Father and the Son) and gave us a share in the communion of the Trinity at creation. This is the primary thing that we lost through the Fall. God’s promise after the Fall, around which one may organize the entire history and teaching of the Old Testament, was ultimately a promise that the Son of God would come to bring human beings back into a share in the communion of the Trinity. In fulfillment of this promise, God the Son personally entered human life by becoming man while remaining God, and in his human life he showed us both God’s love and perfect human love. At his crucifixion, God the Son bore in his own person our estrangement from God; as man he was crushed by our sin, and as man he was forsaken in our place by his own Father. Through his resurrection and ascension, he was restored as man to the fellowship of the Trinity which he had always shared as God, and in the process he opened the way for people who are united to him by faith to be restored to fellowship with the Trinity as well.  The Holy Spirit, whom the Father and the Son sent to earth, dwells in believers, uniting us to the Son and thus granting us the participation in the Father-Son relationship that became possible through Christ’s life, death and resurrection. Through the Spirit, Christian are called to live — both individually and as the church — so as to anticipate the time when God will transform the entire created world and bring his dwelling here to be with his people for eternity.

All of this implies that fundamentally, our task as Christians is not to aspire to some higher or better world, either though our own efforts or with God’s help. The effort we put into Christian life is not our attempt to achieve something we do not already have, because God has already given us a share in the Son’s relationship to the Father. We are already daughters and sons of God, and we are called to live like sons and daughters by reflecting the relationship of the true Son to his Father. Furthermore, the better world is not some other world than this, but it will be this world itself once God transforms it by removing the effects of sin, restoring it to its pristine glory and even bringing his own dwelling place down into it. As a result, this is where human life ultimately finds its significance. The way life is meant to be is tied to four great realities: who God is as Trinity of loving persons, how God created the world and humanity within it, how God has redeemed fallen humanity, and how God will transform the world and the lives of his adopted children in eternity. Christian life looks up to the Father-Son relationship, back to both creation and redemption, and ahead to the culmination of history, and this web of participation, reflection and anticipation provides the context in which we understand the details of Christian life and recognize their significance. Life as God has always had it, and life as it was meant to be for people, will one day become life as it is for believers. We are called to participate in, reflect and anticipate that life.” — Donald Fairburn, Life in the Trinity: An Introduction to Theology with the Help of the Church Fathers (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2009), 232-233.

PS. The quote concludes Life in the Trinity, for material earlier in the book visit Google Preview.  Hope you’ll join me in reading the whole book!  HT: Dan and Miller.

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Education for Human Flourishing, Cover

Find yourself in blizzard conditions as you reflect upon the larger structure of education, but can’t quite figure out why or the proper direction for next steps?  In Chapter 4:  The Information Economy of Education, Paul D. Spears and Steven R. Loomis move from tracing

several important knowledge traditions vital to Christian thought and indispensable to a complete education … [to] an exercise in the ontology of education as a social institution. — Education for Human Flourishing: A Christian Perspective.* InterVarsity Press, 2009. p.125) .

Put on your snow (I mean thinking) cap, review the topics given below, and let me know some of your responses to these concerns.  In particular, what is unique about what the mind/Way of Christ, which influences the follower of Christ as he/she is salt and light, has to say regarding these concerns in the fragile institution of education?  What are the hidden persuaders which are in tension between the manner in which the world versus the people of God understand, view, practice education?

• least-cost direction [in education] has tended to mean an increased emphasis on technical practices that contribute to a descent in educational practices, on training instead of education, an emphasis on mere rationality in place of the first principles of theoretical and practical reason. … quantitative outputs such as testing and climbing the ladder of attainment have become more important to institutional agenda than qualitative outputs.  Much of this trend results from the price factors of information … (p.125-126).
• In colleges and universities the incongruency between attainment and knowledge manifests in lower-cost credentialing (e.g., diploma mills), often in order to capitalize on the vast demand for attainment and to grow the size of the university.  The higher-cost pursuit of learning gives way to lower-priced, often standardized replica courses and degree programs.  Franchising becomes a lucrative business model for many universities (p.127).
• credentialism:  a job that used to require a high school diploma now requires a bachelor of arts; what used to require a B.A. now requires an M.A., and so on.  There is a built-in assumption that more attainment will achieve a higher functioning society.  Ordinary citizens and others in the lower economic classes cannot keep pace with the inflationary pressures of credentialism (p.128).
• [Regarding the threat of opacity to the learning community]:  Estrangement from human purpose and flourishing may occur through either repressive coercion … or by voluntary assent to certain institutional incentives, such as when human beings follow an illegitimate path-dependent pattern of belief or action … [e.g.,] when faculty and leadership choose new institutional incentives such as those brought about through processes of standardization, as the costs against their resistance in personal prestige and professional reputation, or one’s research agenda or practice become too high (p.130-131).

More coming from Chapter 4 as the conversation unfolds.

*Find the topic of interest?  Check out the Preface & Precis of Book and Chapters.

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Education for Human Flourishing, Cover

After rattling the reader’s cage by exploring Have you been properly educated?, Paul D. Spears and Steven R. Loomis argue:

Most of the abilities that we associate with knowledge in the educational field turn out to be mostly a capacity to recite. … As humans we are constantly engaged in mental activities.  We constantly access and categorize everything around us.  We experience the world around us and we have beliefs about the world, some of which are true and some of which are false.  We justify our ideas through our rational capacities, by which we set up a system of understanding that arbitrates what can be constituted as knowledge, what is and is not an accurate depiction of reality.

To claim we know something implies we have sufficiently good reasons to say the things we believe are as we say they are.  Knowledge is justified true belief. Each of these categories — justification, truth and belief — plays a necessary but not sufficient role in determining knowledge, and each should be explained in order to see how belief, justification and truth form an integrated concept of knowledge. – Education for Human Flourishing: A Christian Perspective.* InterVarsity Press, 2009. p.103-4) .

Questions …

• Are Paul D. Spears and Steven R. Loomis on track with their definition of knowledge?  Note:  earlier they distinguish three types of knowledge
  • technical knowledge or what is more commonly called know-how
  • propositional knowledge, which is knowledge of facts
  • knowledge of acquaintance, which is knowledge about something in direct awareness (78-80, 103).
• How do you define knowledge and describe it’s acquisition in general, in your discipline?
• What scholars/resources/books have you found most helpful in shaping your understanding of knowledge?

*Find the title appealing? Then check out the Preface & Precis of Book and Chapters.

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Education for Human Flourishing, Cover

Educational standards are the foundation of the modern educational endeavor.  Statements about educational success imply standards.  Measuring whether or not students are being properly educated involves testing them in particular subjects with its prescribed set of grade-appropriate standards that they must meet or exceed (Paul D. Spears and Steven R. Loomis. Education for Human Flourishing: A Christian Perspective.* InterVarsity Press, 2009. p.100).

The battery of standardized tests which Spears and Loomis go onto describe and critique in Chapter 3:  Who Knows?  Education and epistemology are not just applicable my fourth grade twin girls, as I hear a variety of students/educators in higher education discuss standardized tests with some frequency (particularly at PSU-Hershey Medical Center).   Here are the questions Spears and Loomis bring to our attention:

• What do such tests actually tell us about the student’s intelligence, ability, creativity, insightfulness or grasp of reality?
• Do current standards provide an accurate way to assess a genuine education?
• What does it mean to be educated?
• How do educators determine the success or failure of our educational project? (p. 100)

Any responses?  Do the “answers” vary depending on the level, sphere of education

• Fourth graders
• Medical students
• Undergraduate History major prepare to teach Secondary Education versus preparing for Graduate School
• Computer Science PhD student headed to Microsoft versus a Faculty position involving Research/Teaching
• Vo-Tech student

As you’re mulling these things over, here are the three types of knowledge the authors discuss in chapter 2 and remind the reader of in chapter 3:

• technical knowledge or what is more commonly called know-how
• propositional knowledge, which is knowledge of facts
• knowledge of acquaintance, which is knowledge about something in direct awareness (103).

More coming from Chapter 3.

*Find the title appealing?  Then check out the Preface & Precis of Book and Chapters.

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Education for Human Flourishing, Cover

In Chapter 2 of Education for Human Flourishing:  A Christian Perspective* (InterVarsity Press, 2009), Paul D. Spears and Steven R. Loomis draw attention to the importance of foundational categories and philosophical thinkers for the development of educational theory.  Furthermore, they argue modern educational theory, influenced by modern philosophy, has led to some of the pitfalls of our prestigious institutions of higher education (p.71).  Spears and Loomis begin Chapter 2 with these comments:

Educators are inundated with myriads of competing educational theories, and these theories dictate the methods and goals that are actualized in the classroom on a daily basis.  These educational theories are a product of a commitment to a certain philosophical paradigm.  Teachers are overwhelmed, understandably, with the amount of work it takes to properly manage the classroom. … This doesn’t leave a teacher much time (if any at all) to reflect on educational theory — let alone the theories’ underlying philosophical commitments.  If teachers are going to be properly equipped for their task of education, they must begin to grapple with the historical development of educational purpose.

Broadly speaking, modern education lacks a unified purpose or goal to direct its curricular and pedagogical commitments.  This lack of unity exists because education has many competing allegiances to different educational methodologies, which are driven by a variety of diverse philosophical commitments.  Education is no longer understood in terms of training that enable us to pursue a true conception of reality.  Formerly, education was conceived as a tool by which we came to properly understand our humanity, ourselves and our right role within society.  Education was about pursuing and understanding objective value, as C.S. Lewis points out:  “the belief that certain attitudes are really true, and that others really false, to the kind of thing the universe is and the kind of things we are.”  Today, education is not so much about truth or morality as it is about tolerance and contributing to the nation’s economic growth. — p.69-70.

Questions to ponder/discuss:

• Do you feel overwhelmed by competing educational theories, whether as a student, researcher, a professor, or an administrator?
• What do you consider the purpose/goal/end of education?
• What training in foundational categories/philosophy is necessary for followers of Christ to work out their faith in the complex market of educational theory/practice?

*Find the title appealing?  Then check out the Preface & Precis of Book and Chapters.

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Education for Human Flourishing, Cover

We have argued that human beings are composed of a material body and an immaterial soul, and that  the soul directs the body’s actions ultimately through its rational capacities.  The development of these rational capacities through a life of study most effectively allows humans to pursue excellence, by which we mean actions that best enable them to obtain their most proper state.  Through education, we are able to understand who we are and how to seek our proper end, which ultimately leads to our happiness.  When we think about the life of study and how it can increase our own and our students’ happiness, this resonates with us as educators.  Giving others the opportunity to become happy is a rewarding experience.

In a limited sense teleology can enable us to help ourselves and others be more satisfied with our current existence.  However, classical teleologies are constrained by a limited viewpoint, that is, from a human perspective alone.  Classical teleology is eminently superior to a physicalist view of human beings; however, compared to a robust Christian theological anthropology, it falls far short. — p. 64.

Questions to ponder:  Spears and Loomis contend for the foundational role of theology in the anthropology needed to engage educational pedagogy and curricular paradigms.  Do you agree?  How does your anthropology align (or overlap) with the one the authors advance?

*For those with interest, check out the Preface & Precis of Book and Chapters.

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Education for Human Flourishing, Cover

Our conversations with hundreds of Emerging Scholars at Urbana 09 precluded us from keeping up with our readings.  But don’t worry, we’ll catch up as soon as our plane lands ;-)

In its place,

1.  swing by our Facebook page to see a few pictures of Emerging Scholars at Urbana 09.  Note:  more coming.

2.  enjoy the kick-off of a series of quotes from Education for Human Flourishing:  A Christian Perspective (Paul D. Spears and Steven R. Loomis, InterVarsity Press, 2009),* by considering an excerpt from the Christian Worldview Integration Series Preface:

The word integrate means “to form or blend into a whole,” “to unite.”  We humans naturally seek to find the unity that is behind diversity, and in fact coherence is an important mark of rationality.  There are two kinds of integration:  conceptual and personal.  In conceptual integration, our theological beliefs, especially those derived from careful study of the Bible, are blended and unified with important, reasonable ideas from our profession or college major into a coherent, intellectually satisfying Christian worldview. … In personal integration we seek to live a unified life, a life in which we are the same in public as we are in private, a life in which various aspects of our personality are consistent with each other and conducive to a life human flourishing as a follower of Jesus. — by Christian Worldview Integration Series editors Francis Beckwith and J.P. Moreland, pp. 9-10.

Questions to ponder as we begin a new year:  Why does integration matter?  How do we go about it?

*Find the title appealing?  Then check out the Preface & Precis of Book and Chapters.

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During the physician’s presentation, I was reminded how I often vie for the driver seat of my life and ministry instead of remaining in constant conversation with God.  Father forgive me.  Let me never forget to turn to you for my first and last thought of the day. As the physician reminded the PSU-Hershey Christian Medical Society, it takes intentionality to offer one’s whole life to the kingdom of God and to love/serve those He’s blessed us with the opportunity to be close to in family, local congregation, neighborhood, and vocation.  Father, may it be so for Emerging Scholars.

So as another year end approaches, join me in taking Thanksgiving to rejoice in God’s blessings.  And offer up distractions/difficult circumstances to God’s care instead of holding them close, potentially leading to waywardness and/or bitterness in 2010. I’d encourage you to take these next steps with me. …

1. Find a place of silence to pray through the deluge of concerns which so easily entangle and distract us in worship and time with family/friends.  Maybe this can occur for you during travel, shortly after you arrive to your destination, or near campus (if you’re not traveling).
2. Seek opportunities with family or friends over a Thanksgiving meal/conversation, a tea/meal during Thanksgiving break, and the Sunday meal before the term starts up again to share joys, distractions, and struggles. Have a family member or a friend hold you accountable to #3.
3. Dedicate the remainder of the year to God first and return to campus prepared to walk through the busy-ness of academic, cultural, familial, and social year end with a focus upon the Light of Christ as part of the Body of Christ (visit Bobby Gross: Living the Christian Year).

Looking for material to provide some direction for Thanksgiving?  This year I’ve found two selections from Christianity Today’s Holiday section particularly helpful, may they be a blessing to you.  Note:  If you have resources/testimonies to share, please do such.

1. Reflections: Thanksgiving, Classic and contemporary excerpts (one below):

Gratitude is the praise we offer
God: for teachers kind,
benefactors never to be forgotten,
for all who have advantaged me,
by writings, sermons, converse,
prayers, examples, for all these
and all others
which I know, which I know
not, open, hidden, remembered, and forgotten.

—Lancelot Andrewes in Heirlooms

2. Thanksgiving in the Midst of Fear: Seriously ill in the days of the Black Plague, poet John Donne still celebrated God’s goodness (Updated by Philip Yancey and introduced by Chris Armstrong | posted 8/08/2008 12:33PM).  Excerpt below. …

O most gracious God, on this sickbed I feel under your correction, and I taste of humiliation, but let me taste of consolation, too. Once this scourge has persuaded us that we are nothing of ourselves, may it also persuade us that you are all things unto us.

In a brief few hours you have shown me I am thrown beyond the help of man, so much so that the physician himself had to send for assistants. By that same light, let me see that no vehemence of sickness, no temptation of Satan, no guiltiness of sin, no prison of death—not this first, this sickbed, nor the other prison, the close and dark grave—can remove me from the determined and good purpose that you have sealed concerning me.

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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?

The second, from Wendell Berry’s 2007 Commencement Address at Bellarmine University. Bellarmine is a small Catholic liberal arts college in Louisville, KY. I once heard Czesław Miłosz read there a few years before his death. Berry opens his remarks by observing how obsessed Americans have become on the issue of education.

And yet by all this fuss we are promoting a debased commodity paid for by the people, sanctioned by the government, for the benefit of the corporations. For the most part, its purpose is now defined by the great and the would-be-great “research universities.” These gigantic institutions, increasingly formed upon the “industrial model,” no longer make even the pretense of preparing their students for responsible membership in a family, a community, or a polity. They have repudiated their old obligation to pass on to students at least something of their cultural inheritance. The ideal graduate no longer is to have a mind well-equipped to serve others, or to judge competently the purposes for which it may be used.

Now, according to those institutions of the “cutting edge,” the purpose of education is unabashedly utilitarian. Their interest is almost exclusively centered in the technical courses called, with typical ostentation of corporate jargon, STEM: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The American civilization so ardently promoted by these institutions is to be a civilization entirely determined by technology, and not encumbered by any thought of what is good or worthy or neighborly or humane.

Berry’s suspicion of uncontrolled technology is well-known. After reading his whole statement, if you are in a STEM field, how would you respond to his concerns?

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