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.

The future is almost here!

1.  The Future of Evangelicals in Academia. Who else to address this question than Mark Noll, historian and author of The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. Lots of good material in this interview, including some of his impressions of James Davison Hunter’s To Change The World and Andy Crouch’s review of the book.   Note:  If you have thoughts to share regarding the ideas in Hunter’s book, then please comment at Micheal Hickerson’s ESN blog post Changing the World with James Davison Hunter.

The last question of the interview is “What are some of the most encouraging trends you see today in evangelical intellectual circles, be they projects or institutions or ministries?” He mentions several projects, institutions, and ministries including InterVarsity’s Graduate and Faculty Ministry. Thank-you for the encouragement. To God be the glory!

2. Philosophy and Faith (Gary Gutting. NY Times Opinion. 9/1/2010.)  Interested in studying philosophy at Notre Dame or tracking with some of the discussion which occurs on campus (and on-line) regarding material such as  Alvin Plantinga’s modal-logic formulation of St. Anselm’s ontological argument or William Rowe’s complex version of a probabilistic argument from evil, then visit this NY Times Opinion piece.

3.  Keeping up with the Amish? Just in case you haven’t seen one of the many articles on Amish growth, here’s a link to how it ran on NPR, APNewsBreak: Study Says Amish Expanding Westward (AP, 7/28/2010).   Thank-you to Donald Kraybill for his focused research, for more visit Elizabethtown College Amish Studies. Read the rest of this entry »

In addition to the presentation on "Seeking Other Earths: Exoplanets and the Significance of Life," conference participants had the opportunity to visit the NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center. The above photo is of "a small portion of one of the largest-seen star-birth regions in the galaxy, the Carina Nebula." It was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope (developed and serviced by NASA-Goddard), http://hubble.nasa.gov/.

The American Scientific Affiliation (ASA) has just begun to post audio podcasts of the talks from their 65th Annual Meeting:  Science, Faith, and Public Policy (Catholic University in America, Washington, D.C.).  I’d encourage you to check out their library.

Three presentations which I found of particular value and commend to you are …

• Experiences of a Scientist-Christian in the Washington Fishbowl
• An Introduction to a Systematic Theology of Medicine
• Seeking Other Earths: Exoplanets and the Significance of Life

If you have comments on any of these presentations, please post them here.  If you’d prefer a private on-line discussion group on one of these presentations, let me know.

Note 1: Files of many of the presentation slides will also be posted on the ASA site. We’ll keep you up-to-date.  In addition, interviews of several ASA presenters are in process for posting on the ESN blog.  As you may remember, we already have posted

• Interview: Ted Davis, the Story of a Historian of Science (21.208) and History of Science Recommendations from Ted Davis
• Interview: Jimmy Lin, Medical and Scientific Doxologist

Note 2:  If you’re a student in the sciences (or interested in the sciences), don’t miss the ASA’s special student rate of $20 a year. To learn more about the benefits of membership click here.  Might make a good item to request as a birthday or Christmas gift. Just an idea ;-)

Note 3:  ESN’s looking forward to more conversations on the relationship of science-faith on the blog AND at next year’s ASA mtgs, which will be hosted by North Central College, in the Chicago area, July 29 – Aug 1, 2011. Mark your calendars!

Francis Collins

What do you think about Francis Collins Picked To Head NIH?  The NPR piece lays his credentials, faith, and embracing of the two out in the open.  I wonder how many hits there will be to BioLogos (which the NPR article links to) over the course of the next several days?  See BioLoguration for my earlier comments on the blog aspect of this amazing resource. And if you haven’t read Collins’ The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, it’s time to pick up a copy (or at least catch the NPR interview) so you can talk about it with your family, neighbors, and colleagues ;-)

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 »

A while back, one of our blog readers sent me a link to this fascinating New Yorker article, “The Interpreter” by John Colapinto, which combines academic controversy, the interplay between theory and practice, and the (dis)integration of faith, life, and learning. It tells the story of Dan Everett, professor of linguistics at Illinois State University, a former evangelical Christian and Bible translator with SIL who, as he advanced in his academic career, lost his faith in Christ. Read the rest of this entry »