The Emerging Scholars Blog

What are you reading, watching, thinking about this week? As usual, here’s a few which have been on our mind. Let us know your thoughts on any/all of them. If you have items you’d like us to consider for the top five, add them in the comments or send them to Tom or Mike.

1. More on Waltke: Christianity Today has published a summary of the story of Bruce Waltke’s resignation and reactions to it. If you remember, ESN posted a long summary of the situation with many links.

2. Putting Abortion on the Curriculum: In the Chronicle, Teresa J. Hornsby (a Biblical studies professor at Drury U.) writes about her experience leading an interdisciplinary working group exploring ways to deal with abortion in the classroom – not just as part of a planned curriculum, but also when it might arise unexpectedly because of the personal lives of students. As you might expect, the “culture gap” between academia and conservative Christians enters the conversation:

We tried to discuss our project with representatives of local and national pro-life organizations, which proved difficult. I wanted to gather as much information as possible, to hear all points of view, and, perhaps, identify some local representatives who could come into the classroom. But they were, in general, reluctant to speak to us; I suspect they mistrusted academics.

The article has some interesting suggestions on how to discuss controversial topics in a civil manner: finding language that everyone is comfortable with, using stories of real people, starting with more “distant” examples from other cultures or time periods before moving to contemporary issues. As a counter-example of how not to discuss abortion in the classroom, consider this 2006 incident, in which a Northern Kentucky U. faculty member used a British Lit class to encourage vandalism against an on-campus anti-abortion display.

3.  What is your identity and how do you share who you are on-line?  Is on-line reputation a greater concern for those in a public vocation such as higher education?

Reputation management has now become a defining feature of online life for many internet users, especially the young. While some internet users are careful to project themselves online in a way that suits specific audiences, other internet users embrace an open approach to sharing information about themselves and do not take steps to restrict what they share. Search engines and social media sites play a central role in building one’s reputation online, and many users are learning and refining their approach as they go — changing privacy settings on profiles, customizing who can see certain updates and deleting unwanted information about them that appears online. — Managing Your Online Profile:  How People Monitor Their Internet Identity and Search for Others Online (Mary Madden, Senior Research Specialist and Aaron Smith, Research Specialist, Pew Internet & American Life Project, 5/26/2010).

4.  Transitions for tenure track professors.  What would you add to, clarify, or desire to learn about on these lists of recommendations (as a follower of Christ and/or academic)?

• Open Letter to 2010-11′s Newly-Tenured Professors (Nels P. Highberg, Chronicle of Higher Education, 5/27/2010)
  • In a nutshell, I’d like to offer this final thought from a ProfHacker reader: “Remember how lucky we are, and be nice to the department’s secretary.” Good advice, indeed.
• Open Letter to 2010-11′s First-Time Tenure-Track Professors (Billie Hara, Chronicle of Higher Education, 5/20/2010)
  • If you could offer one piece of advice to an incoming faculty member, what would it be?

Lamppost at dawn, Kings College, Cambridge (Photo: Nigel Cooke via Flickr)

5.  “What place is there for religion within the University? Is there a place for God on the Quad or should we have no God on the Quad? … What is the connection between religion, intellectual diversity, and scholarship?” — If you haven’t already done such, swing by God on the Quad? (RJS) – Jesus Creed for conversation on the typologies of interaction of faith and science from Elaine Ecklund’s new book Science vs Religion: What Scientists Really Think.  Note to faculty: InterVarsity Christian Fellowship’s quarterly faculty newsletter The Lamp Post provides articles of theological reflection audio downloads of speakers like Dallas Willard and Cal DeWitt, practical resources for faculty communities, updates on events (local, regional, and national), and much, much more.  You can download a sampler of The Lamp Post by clicking here.

Do you have a set of must reads which you believe should lie at the foundation/base of a college education (i.e., American college education), no matter the institution, e.g., Christian college/university, community college, engineering/tech school (e.g., Carnegie Mellon University or MIT), Ivy League, liberal arts college, state university?  If so, what are they and why?  Below’s a recent email from a faculty friend regarding his alma mater, Harvard.

it’s sad but the harvard faculty could never approve anything like the “great books” program…they could never have a coherent view of what education is about, now that the “veritas” of the old harvard has been removed…a cafeteria approach is all that could reach a consenus in the recent revision of the general education requirements…they couldn’t agree or approve the wonderful suggestion of requiring one course in “faith and reason”  (broad guidelines, could even be taught by an atheist)…but too many faculty fussed and worried about any courses that involved that sloppy, unscientific thing called “faith”…St. Johns is one school that does have a “great books” program as the foundation of their liberal arts curriculum…and another school “st. thomas aquinas” (i think that’s the name) also has a similar curriculum…and the conservative “hillsdale college ” in michigan has a coherent liberal arts foundation (freshman take either greek or latin)…. [Follow-up email] … columbia university’s substantial, coherent core curriculum…harvard faculty would  never approve this  old-fashioned approach…consensus is impossible with them…  http://www.college.columbia.edu/core

In The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less (HarperCollins, 2005), Swarthmore Professor Barry Schwartz takes a few pages to highlight Shopping for Knowledge (pp.14-17):

1. the loss of general education requirements, in particular the capstone course which was intended to teach students how to use their college education to live a good and an ethical life, both as individuals and as members of society and 2. the purchasing of goods such as classes and degrees. … Now students are required to make choices about education that may affect them the rest of their lives. And they are forced to make these choices at a point in their intellectual development when they may lack the resources to make them intelligently.

Upon reflection, my education at Grove City College (1992-1996) began with a class to set the tone for college education but lacked a capstone course.  Furthermore, the core curriculum sought to teach values over the course of several years (6 classes, 1 per term for the first three years) drawing from compilations of readings and Building a Christian Worldview (W. Andrew Hoffecker, editor, P&R Publishing, 1986. Note:  written by a cross-disciplinary faculty team from the college).  Although there was not a focus upon the great books providing the core of College Education, the Good Book (i.e., the Bible) was given significant attention in all the classes (Note:  One of the core classes was a Bible overview).

Back to the question, do you have a set of must reads which you believe should lie at the foundation/base of a general college education (in the United States of America)?

And I guess that I have raised a second question, if must reads are not the center of a core curriculum are there certain principles at the foundation/base of a general college education (in the United States of America)?  Or is a core curriculum only possible in unique educational settings and the ability to assume a college graduate has read or considered certain materials a thing of the past (or possibly one that was only fulfilled in an ideal, distant past)?

Last week Ed Brown, director of Care of Creation, Inc. posted How Do You Pray About an Oil Spill? Below is an excerpt which my wife and I, found particularly helpful for the direction of our prayers.  Note: in the context of Daniel’s prayer of confession as recorded in Daniel 9.

From today’s New York Times:

“In the furor over the Gulf disaster, a hard-to-overlook fact: America needs the oil.”

As an individual, I do my part to feed our oil- and coal-driven economy by pumping gas into my car, by burning electric lights and using all kinds of oil-derived plastics to sustain my “lifestyle”.  As do you.  (You are reading this on a computer screen… enough said).  Collectively, we have created an economic and political system that cannot run without these fossil fuels, and we bear collective guilt for this.  Yes, guilt.  We could have designed an economic system that would have functioned in harmony with God’s creation rather than in opposition to it.  We did not.  We are guilty. [See my article on this topic here.]

Over the past several days, I have been struck by how the oil spill is an example of research and development reaching its in the field limits.  The deep exploration tested boundaries with unexpected consequences.  Could more university research (before going to the field) modeled these potential consequences and adverted the current situation?  Do we really have a grasp on how to accurately track the spill (e.g.,  5/9 NPR Piece with Widget and comments)?

The Viking Poseidon lowers the top hat device into the Gulf of Mexico at the site of the oil spill late Monday night.*

Will the oil spill be capped, if so how?*  Or will we have to wait until it runs dry? Who should be leaned upon for the best recommendations regarding next steps in addressing the spill (short and long term)?  Will the incident discourage similar exploration or encourage a chastened pursuit to get it right?

Is there a point at which our society should choose, even become satisfied with less?  In what ways do followers of  possess the beginning of a framework for saying No to our consumer orientation and harnessing our creative efforts in order fulfill the call to care for/steward God’s creation?  More on these topics coming, but would love to read your thoughts. …

Recommendations regarding next steps:

1. Read How Do You Pray About an Oil Spill?
2. Pray.
3. Gather some friends to pray on the National Day of Prayer for Creation Care (May 25).
4. 

   Our Father's World: Mobilizing the Church to Care for Creation Cover

   Encourage further conversation on the oil spill and pick up a copy of Our Father’s World: Mobilizing the Church to Care for Creation (InterVarsity Press) for summer reading as an individual or part of discussion group.  Note:  The new Our Father’s World is about 20% longer, with updated material, several new chapters and a discussion guide suitable for small groups or Sunday School classes.

5. Ask around to see if there is interest in hosting Our Father’s World: Why Christians Should Care about the Environmental Crisis to explore these questions further.  Note: Ed shared with me that the weekend seminar can be done with a student/campus focus.  I’ve desired to arrange a seminar for several years, if you’re in the Mid-Atlantic and have interest in partnering, let me know.   For more information, visit here and/or email ed [at] careofcreation.org.

*[BP deploys second containment box (CNN Wire Staff, 5/12). Picture linked from article.]

A commonplace book from the 1620's, recording Francis Grosvenor's personal notes on witchcraft and geography

What are you reading, watching, thinking about this week? As usual, here’s a few which have been on our mind. Let us know your thoughts on any/all of them. If you have items you’d like us to consider for the top five, add them in the comments or send them to Tom or Mike.

1. The Collapse of Higher Education: Seth Godin on the coming melt-down in higher education:

For 400 years, higher education in the US has been on a roll. From Harvard asking Galileo to be a guest professor in the 1600s to millions tuning in to watch a team of unpaid athletes play another team of unpaid athletes in some college sporting event, the amount of time and money and prestige in the college world has been climbing.

I’m afraid that’s about to crash and burn.

[Editor's note: I'm not sure about the Galileo at Harvard claim, but Godin makes some very salient points in the rest of his post. ~ Mike]

2. Of the Making of Books: If you’re in literary studies, you probably love reading lists. Here’s a list of  books recommended by the Christianity & Literature listserv (HT: Mark Filiatreau). While you’re at it, check out the ESN Core Bibliography and our suggested readings for undergrads.

Teaser alert! We have in our possession a “Beginner’s Christian Bookshelf” reading list compiled by none other than the great Christian literary scholar David Lyle Jeffrey. It starts with Athanasius and ends with P. D. James. We’ll share it with you as soon as we’ve read all the books on it… Read the rest of this entry »

HT to Christine Sine who posted Tom Sine is Blogging (April 13, 2010).  Looking forward to Tom’s entering of the blogosphere ;-)  His first question is with regard to what difference Easter/the resurrection is making in our troubled world, not just our personal lives.  To show that ESN’s thinking about this question, I shared some material from Amish Grace and Recognizing the Messiah.  What comments/thoughts do you have to share?

Desiring the Kingdom cover

PS.  Wish I could point to a post on Desiring the Kingdom of God (James K. A. Smith. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books. 2009).  But even with the requirement to have read parts of it by the end of the month for a faculty ministry discussion and  Byron Borger, Hearts & Minds Books, calling it one of the most important books of 2009, it still sits in queue.  Anyone who has read it is welcome to comment as to whether it helps address Tom Sine’s question.

“One of the truly significant books of the year. . . . In this deeply philosophical study, [Smith] invites us to ask how to relate worship, life, and a radically Christian way of life. . . . Can universities help us become Godly dreamers? A huge, huge question, and this is a book worth working on for a long school year. Highly recommended.” — Byron Borger, Hearts & Minds Books

What are you reading, watching, thinking about this week? As usual, here’s a few which have been on our mind. Let us know your thoughts on any/all of them. If you have items you’d like us to consider for the top five, add them in the comments or send them to  Tom or Mike.

1. Friend Request: Confirm or Ignore? (Tom Bartlett, Chronicle of Higher Education, 4/5/2010). Are “we” (are you) becoming more friendly due to increased use of the internet tools such Facebook? Is there a positive feedback loop of increased number of friends with whom one communicates and friendship? How do you define friend in the context of social media such as Facebook?  Is there a threshold for the time/energy expended in virtual versus face-to-face friendships.  Maybe it’s time to read the research instead of the summary ;-)  HT:  Gordon.

2.   Swing by the Mustard Seed Associates for their series 2010-2020, New Challenges-New Possibilities:  Technology & Social Networking, e.g.,  Rosie Perera‘s thoughts on The 10 Commandments of Computer Ethics.

3.  Christian Legal Society v. Martinez: Can Government Funds be Denied to Religious Groups on Campus? by David Masci, Senior Researcher, Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, 4/6/2010.

On April 19, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, a case that will determine whether a public institution can refuse official recognition to a religiously-based organization that prevents those who do not share its religious and moral values from becoming voting members. The case arose in 2004 when a chapter of the Christian Legal Society (CLS) expressed a desire to register as an official student group at the University of California’s Hastings College of Law.

4. Science, Advocacy, and the What It Means to Be Human: “Can Animals Be Gay?” (Jon Mooallem, New York Times, March 29) raises some fascinating questions. This would be an excellent article to read and discuss with a campus group. Questions that you might raise:

• What’s the connection between scholarship, advocacy, and application?
• How do we determine good models for being human?
• What do you do when your research is misinterpreted or misapplied?
• How should Christians interact with topics like “heterosexist bias”?

5. Are you missing chances for Christian community? From Mike: I’m at the Stone-Campbell Conference today at Cincinnati Christian University, an annual academic conference for faculty and students at universities affiliated with the Christian Church, Church of Christ, and Disciples of Christ (“Stone-Campbell” churches).  So far as I can tell, there isn’t anyone here from a secular university, yet here are some of the plenary and seminar topics:

• Scot McKnight (North Park U., author of Jesus Creed, Blue Parakeet, Embracing Grace) is the main speaker, addressing Spirituality in a Postmodern Age and Spiritual Disciplines for Today
• Tomorrow, David Fleer of Lipscomb University will speak on The Challenge of Spirituality for Academic Scholars.
• Seminars include:
  • The Relevance of the Philosophy of Science for Christian Faith
  • Finding God in the Midst of Crisis
  • Spiritual Direction in the Mentoring Relationship
  • 10 Things You Can Do Now to Get Published
  • Post Civil Rights Spirituality
  • Pursuing a PhD: Tips and Warnings

Wow! If you’re at a secular university, don’t those sound like great topics to discuss with your fellow Christian academics?

Books:

Tom’s almost finished with Brian Godawa’s Word Pictures: Knowing God Through Story & Imagination (InterVarsity Press, 2009) and it continues to be excellent!  Yesterday Tom couldn’t resist picking up The Comet and the Tornado: Reflections on the Legacy of Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture and the Creation of Our Carnegie Mellon Dream Fulfillment Factory by Donald Marinelli, Executive Producer of Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center.  Anybody else reading it?  Note:  For Tom’s take on the last lecture, click here.

As I mentioned in Week in Review: Behold the Man Edition, I have been unable to put down Brian Godawa’s Word Pictures: Knowing God Through Story & Imagination (InterVarsity Press, 2009).*  Below is a quote relevant to Holy Week.**

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? Read the rest of this entry »

Antonio Ciseri's Ecce Homo

What are you reading, watching, thinking about this week? As usual, here’s a few which have been on our mind. Let us know your thoughts on any/all of them. If you have items you’d like us to consider for the top five, add them in the comments or send them to  Tom or Mike.

1. Christine Sine posted Godspace’s Complete Lenten Series for 2010, including material for Good Friday and Easter.  Thank-you to Christine for organizing this great resource for followers of Christ on their Lenten journey.

Photo: “Ecce Homo” (“Behold the Man”) by Antonio Ciseri (1821 – 1891), one of Mike’s favorite depictions of Good Friday. Click for a larger image.

2. Why So Few? (RJS, Jesus Creed, 4/1/2010):  “There are many reasons why women are underrepresented in a variety of fields – from ministry, theology, and evangelicals and the early church,, to science and engineering. While men and women often have different goals, values and abilities, these factors alone are not enough to account for the differences, or for the hurdles perceived by women who aspire to positions in these fields.” … Join the conversation.

3. For the other gender, check out “What Men Need” (Inside Higher Ed, March 31), a conversation with the presidents of the 4 remaining men-only four-year colleges: Wabash College, Hampden-Sydney College, St. John’s University (MN), and the historically black college, Morehouse. Rev. Richard Koopman, president of St. John’s, a Catholic university, addressed the need for spiritual development among men:

Father Koopmann described two groups he has led. One was largely of “unchurched” students, whom he found all needing to find ways to talk about difficulties they had faced in the past — such as childhood injuries or parental divorce. The other was of Catholic students, and Father Koopman said that there was more ritual with this group, such as his leading mass for these students. But in both groups, he said, “there was a need to build trust” so that the students could talk about the issues that troubled them — something they had difficulty doing.

Interestingly, Patrick White, president of Wabash and former president of Saint Mary’s, a women’s college, observed that both men and women seem more likely to engage deep intellectual topics when the opposite sex is absent.

4.  In the sciences?  Mark your calendar for the 65^th Annual Meeting of the American Scientific Affiliation, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, July 30 – August 2, 2010. The topic will be Science, Faith, and Public Policy.  Check out the slide show here.

5. It’s Friday, But Sunday’s Coming: Need some Good Friday inspiration? Tony Campolo’s signature sermon about surrendering to Christ – and changing the world – can be streamed or downloaded from Campolo’s website. (HT: Susan Isaacs via Twitter – Isaacs is also the author of the “snarky but authentic” spiritual memoir, Angry Conversations with God)

Books:

Tom currently can’t put down Brian Godawa’s Word Pictures: Knowing God Through Story & Imagination (InterVarsity Press, 2009).  What’s the main point of Word Pictures?

The Bible is not a systematic theology of abstract propositions or a treatise on doctrinal correctness. It is a collection of narratives, poetry, images and metaphors that convey God equally through rationality and imagination. If we want to know God more biblically, as well as be more persuasive to a postmodern world, we must embrace the power and mystery of imagination in our approach to and understanding of God. — Brian, Q&A Author Interview

Note:  Posts with material from Word Pictures coming … Let Tom know if you’re interested in discussing material from the book.

For your reflection in the midst of Holy Week and in the days which follow:

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.

What are you reading, watching, thinking about this week? As usual, here’s a few which have been on our mind. Let us know your thoughts on any/all of them. If you have items you’d like us to consider for the top five, add them in the comments or send them to Tom or Mike.

1.  All-Nighters: Failing to Fall (Siri Hustvedt, NY Times Opinionator, March 3, 2010):  Do you find your imagination flourishing as you fall asleep, so much so that you fail to fall asleep?  How do you address not being able to fall asleep when you have a lot of work?

2.  Learning From the Sin of Sodom (Nicholas Kristof, NY Times Op-Ed, 2/27/2010): A liberal columnist looks as the influence of evangelicals on U.S. support  for international health, development, and humanitarian activities. It is an interesting comment on the changing tone of many secular commentators toward faith-based organizations. — Link/comment passed along by a post doc at whose Graduate Christian Fellowship (GCF) a Political Theory PhD student shared (among other things) that he didn’t think human rights were possible without a theistic, i.e, Christian framework.

3. Religion Among the Millennials: The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life recently a report in February detailing the religious beliefs and practices of “Millennials” (people ages 18 to 29). Here’s how Pew introduces their report:

By some key measures, Americans ages 18 to 29 are considerably less religious than older Americans. Fewer young adults belong to any particular faith than older people do today. They also are less likely to be affiliated than their parents’ and grandparents’ generations were when they were young.

4. InterVarsity’s History on Campus: Two recents events brought InterVarsity’s history on college campuses into the present.  First, one of our earliest campus planters, Grace Koch Belden, passed on to glory at the age of 93. Grace’s story was told on IV’s website in 2007 – she organized Swarthmore’s InterVarsity chapter as a student, then traveled throughout the East Coast as a staff member, touching other campuses you might have heard of – Harvard, Johns Hopkins, places like that.

Second, InterVarsity held its Asian American Ministries Staff Conference this past week. Check out this post on the event from Kathy Khang. Kathy notes that InterVarsity hired Gwen Wong in 1948 . Like Grace, Gwen was a true pioneer, launching student work in Hawaii before moving to the Philippines in 1953 to found the IFES campus ministry there. Praise God for these two faithful women who laid the groundwork for our ministry today.

Books

Tom’s been digging into Life in the Trinity: An Introduction to Theology with the Help of the Church Fathers (Donald Fairbairn, InterVarsity Press, 2009) and finding it to be an engaging combination of Scripture, quotes from the Church Fathers, and author commentary.  Tom will be sharing some quotes in the coming weeks, but if you can’t wait, swing by Google Preview.  HT: Dan and Miller.

Mike is pretty excited about the new book from Gerald McDermott, The Great Theologians. McDermott profiles 11 key theologians in the history of the church, such as Augustine, Origen, Aquinas, Luther, and more recent thinkers like Hans Urs von Balthasar. If it’s as good as his 2007 book, God’s Rivals, it will be a great introduction for anyone who wants to be introduced to these important thinkers and pastors.