When Tom Grosh and I launched the Emerging Scholars Blog last August, we had some ideas about what we wanted to write about, but very few ideas about what others would want to read or discuss. After 9 months and over 150 posts, we have a much better idea about what topics resonate with the community that is gathering around this blog. We’ve also learned the importance of consistency in blogging. We know how frustrating it can be to visit one of your favorite websites for new content and not finding any. So, today we are announcing a new editorial schedule and refined focus for the Emerging Scholars Blog.
Every Tuesday Monday and Thursday Wednesday, we will publish a new post from either Mike (Tuesdays) or Tom (Thursdays), related to one or more of the following three themes:
- Academic vocation and calling: What’s the nature of the academic life? What’s the nature of the university – its systems, assumptions, problems, glories? And why would a person (specifically, a follower of Christ) follow an academic vocation? Does a Christian academic look, act, or live any differently from any other academic or any other Christian?
- The role of faith and theology in specific academic disciplines: We’ll be looking at issues that arise when one takes faith, theology, and their academic discipline seriously. “Science and religion” is the pair most often discussed in mainstream and Christian media, but other disciplines – the humanities, social sciences, professions – are having discussions and controversies of their own. We encourage discussion on all of our posts, but in this theme especially, we seek your perspective as experts in your respective disciplines.
- Spiritual formation in the academy: How do you nurture your relationship with God and your spiritual life in the midst of the university? Or, put another way, how can one be a Christian in the academy? We’ll be looking at Christian practices, spiritual disciplines, and resources to help you grow closer to Christ.
Every Friday, Tom and I will post a “Week in Review” of articles, books, and other resources that we’ve been considering over the past week. These will include both very recent news and essays from the world of higher education, but also classics that have been open on our desks. We’ll also be asking you for what you’ve been reading or considering over the past week. We’ll include the best of those items in the following Week in Review. Our goal with these weekly posts is not merely to give you some interesting reading over the weekend, but, over time, to create an archive of materials helpful to Christians in the academy.
Our Week in Review articles will be the products of a community of learners, which is how we increasingly consider this blog. We’re looking for ways to make it easier to form relationships and learn from one another on this blog. We have a few things in mind, but we’d like to know what you want, too. With that said:
What do you think of our refined themes and new schedule? What would you like to see added to (or removed from) the blog to make it a better “community of learners”? Leave your thoughts in the comments, or send them directly to Mike or Tom.
Update: As of September 1, 2009, we publish new posts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Our Week-in-Review also has a new “top five” format. See here for details.
The former Associate Director for the Emerging Scholars Network, Micheal lives in Cincinnati with his wife and three children and works as a web manager for a national storage and organization company. He writes about work, vocation, and finding meaning in what you do at No Small Actors.
This sounds great. Good job.