Archive for the ‘culture-making’ tag
How do we practice a faithful presence?
Last week, I offered my review of James Davison Hunter’s important book, To Change the World. A central idea of Hunter’s is that Christians ought to be a “faithful presence” in their community of faith, their tasks, and their spheres of influence.
Today, I want to focus on the second of those items: our tasks. I think there’s a parallel between one of the mistakes people make in inductive Bible study – seeking to jump too quickly to application – and a mistake we sometimes make when talking about being Christians on campus – jumping too quickly to “big deals” without spending enough time on less public activities. Andy Crouch would say this is trying to create before we know how to cultivate.
So, my question: how do we practice a faithful presence in our tasks as students and faculty: research, writing, teaching, service, campus life? Do you have any examples of people doing this well or ideas on how it might be done well?
One caveat I’ll put out there: faculty and students are often under great pressure to excel, produce, work harder/longer, etc. Though faithful presence involves a certain degree of excellence, we must not make an idol of our academic careers.
Changing the World with James Davison Hunter
As part of my role with ESN, I sit on the InterVarsity Faculty Ministry Leadership Team (FMLT), made up of, well, these people. Each year, we read a book together that (we hope) gets at some aspect of our ministry to the university. Our book for this year was James Davison Hunter’s To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World.
If you’ve not read it yet, you should. Hunter, a sociologist at the University of Virginia, has produced a seminal book on cultural formation and change, particularly insightful on how Christians (primarily evangelical) have understood and misunderstood culture change over the past 40 years or so.
There’s much to discuss in this book — at times, it seemed like I was highlighting nearly every sentence — so I won’t try to summarize it or give a detailed review. For that, I encourage you strongly encourage you to read:
- Andy Crouch’s review of the book
- Christianity Today’s interview with Hunter
- Responses to Hunter by Crouch and Charles Colson on points where they feel Hunter errs (and Ray Pennings’ perspective on their debate)
- Byron Borger’s reflections at the Hearts & Minds Books blog
- An ongoing conversation about the book at FaithfulPresence.com
For my own remarks, I’ll limit them to two: the argument which I feel is Hunter’s most important, and what I think is the greatest weakness of the book. My observations come after the jump.
Have you read Hunter’s book? Do you agree or disagree with my points? What are your favorite parts of his argument? Read the rest of this entry »
Playing God: Christian Reflections on the Use and Misuse of Power
Andy Crouch in class, but happy
Tonight, as part of Biblical Seminary’s Conversations on Christianity & Culture lecture series, Andy Crouch speaks on Playing God: Christian Reflections on the Use and Misuse of Power. What are your thoughts on the topic? Any questions I should ask the author of Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling (InterVarsity Press, 2008), winner of Christianity Today’s 2009 Book Award for Christianity and Culture? I’ll take some notes and share what he presents.
PS. Culture Making is one of my Favorite book[s] on Christ and culture … Crouch provides an excellent springboard for conversation by the larger Evangelical community in his writing (book, blog, Christianity Today) and speaking. Due to the variety of contexts for the conversation, it’s very hard to respond to Mike’s question inquiry for a favorite book. In my life, some combination of the writing of Richard Mouw [He Shines in All That's Fair: Culture and Common Grace (Eerdmans, 2002), When the Kings Come Marching In: Isaiah and the New Jerusalem (Eerdmans, 2002 revised edition)] and Abraham Kuyper [Lectures on Calvinism (Princeton Theological Seminary, 1898) supplemented by Peter Heslam's Creating a Christian Worldview: Abraham Kuyper's Lectures on Calvinism (Eerdmans, 1998)] stimulated a larger perspective shaped by my education at Grove City College [See Must Reads for an American College Education?]. I’m feeling another post coming on and the PS being longer the original post. Better stop now. More later ;-)
Is there a Christian intellectual presence on your campus?
One form of Christian presence on campus.
A few different strands of thought came together for me this morning in the form of a question. Let me throw out the question first, and then elaborate.
Is there a public Christian intellectual presence on your campus?
Here are the threads that came together for me. First, in our recent book discussion of John Stott’s Your Mind Matters, Stott describes a kind of intellectualism that is very public. For example, in chapter 3, he “examines six spheres of Christian living, each of which is impossible without the proper use of the mind”: worship, faith, holiness, guidance, evangelism, and ministry. These have internal and private aspects, but also external, public aspects. I’d be willing to bet that, on your campus, there are at least two or three of these which are very public indeed. Picture the sidewalk evangelists who roam through each year, or campus ministry student outreach events. On some campuses, worship or holiness might have similar public aspects.
Image credit: falonyates via Flickr.
Can New Symbols Change Academic Culture?
John Sommerville at the Midwest Faculty Conference
Two weeks ago, I was at InterVarsity’s Cedar Campus for our 2009 Midwest Faculty Conference. John Sommerville, professor emeritus of history at U. Florida and author of The Decline of the Secular University
The third of his four talks addressed a key question: How can Christians change our universities? We’ll be posting the complete talk in the near future, but I wanted to highlight one suggestion that Sommerville made, explicitly borrowing an idea from Andy Crouch’s Culture Making: The only way to change culture is to create more of it.
Specfically, Sommerville thinks that Christian academics ought to be creating new symbols within their discipline and for the university as a whole. While he thinks that new concepts and new ideas are important and necessary, these are far more rare and, really, outside the realm of possibility for most of us. Symbols, however, are powerful conveyors of ideas that frame the thinking of both academics and the general public. Read the rest of this entry »
Christianity needs to be unfashionable on campus
Would you agree or disagree with me that Christianity* is unfashionable on campus? If so, would you go further with me to argue that Christianity is even more unfashionable on campus than in our larger culture? Whether you agree or disagree with me that Christianity is unfashionable on campus, does Christianity need to be unfashionable on campus? And if so, why and how? Read the rest of this entry »
First impressions of BioLogos?
After last night’s launch event, BioLogos is up and running full steam. As a member of the academic community, what are your thoughts on the BioLogos Foundation? Can BioLogos accomplish it’s ambitious agenda or at least move the conversation closer to where it should be (see below)? Are there particular resources, events, and discussions at BioLogos which impress you or stirr interest in dialogue? BTW, come back tomorrow. I have some thoughts to share regarding … (well you’ll just have to wait)
The BioLogos Foundation promotes the search for truth in both the natural and spiritual realms, and seeks to harmonize these different perspectives.
Dr. Francis Collins established The BioLogos Foundation to engage America’s escalating culture war between science and faith. Read the rest of this entry »
The Central PA Christian Scholars Network
Last weekend, my fellow blogger Tom Grosh launched the Central Pennsylvania Christian Scholars Network with an event called “Culture Making on Our Campuses,” featuring Andy Crouch, author of Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling
Tom has written up a complete recap of the event that we’ll be publishing in this month’s Emerging Scholars Review (join ESN to get this quarterly email delivered to your inbox). In the meantime, Byron Borger of the terrific Hearts & Minds Bookstore has written up his own take on the event. Enjoy!
Keeping “to-do lists”
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 ;-)
March Madness!
As you have a passion for higher education, you no doubt follow March Madness with great interest and/or concern. So join me in swinging by Culture Making to wrestle with the 5 Culture Making Questions applied to March Madness:
- What does March Madness assume about the way the world is?
- What does March Madness assume about the way the world should be?
- What does March Madness make possible?
- What does March Madness make impossible (or at least a lot more difficult)?
- What new culture is created in response?
But before you go, what do you think about the promise by Courtney Paris, an all-American center at the University of Oklahoma, to repay the cost of her scholarship if she does not bring the national championship back to her campus? – Putting a Price on a Title Run Stirs a Debate, by Jere’ Longman, NY Times, 3/23/09.
Is that what investment in athletic scholarships are understood to mean? Is it too romantic to consider college athletic scholarships as an opportunity to enter and receive the long term value of higher education?
With regard to financial investment and visibility, star athletes seem to be in a unique situation. I don’t think a similar promise to produce results or repay (publish or perish, win the Nobel Prize, etc) could be given by those who receive a full ride academic scholarship, grant money, or a named academic chair.
