One of the most important books of 2011 for Christians in the academy was Mark Noll’s Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind. Mark Noll is the Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame and one of the leading contemporary historians of religion; he’s also a gifted observer of the intellectual world of evangelical Christianity, perhaps best known to ESN members for his 1994 book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind.
Photo courtesy of William Koechling
I just finished reading Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind a few weeks ago and was about to start writing a review of it, when I discovered that my Faculty Ministry colleague Tom Trevethan had beaten me to the punch. Tom’s review had just been published on the Faculty Ministry website. Update (5/12/2014): As it is not presently available on the Faculty Ministry website, and I highly encourage you to take a few moments to read it on the ESN blog. Here’s a short preview:
Many thought of Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind as a sequel to The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (Eerdmans, 1994), which began with the biting observation and lament, “The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.” But aside from an appendix that updates his view of the current state of the evangelical mind, this work has little direct connection to Scandal. Rather, what we are given is a review of the Christian convictions that have shaped Professor Noll’s distinguished work and four decade long academic career. What we are given above all is an account of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ as the foundation for the life of learning. In Him, Professor Noll insists with clarity and forcefulness and evident devotion and joy, “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
Go ahead and read the whole thing. And if you have not already done such, read the book, too.
And then make plans to spend a week next June discussing the book with Mark Noll himself at InterVarsity’s 2012 Midwest Faculty Conference, which will be held June 16-22, 2012, at Cedar Campus, on the Lake Huron shoreline in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
The theme of the conference will be The Academy, Jesus Christ, and the Life of the Mind, with Mark Noll as the featured speaker. If you’ve not been to one of InterVarsity’s summer faculty conferences before, it’s unlike any academic conference you’ve ever attended. Our Faculty Ministry conference team has intentionally designed the conferences to combine intellectual stimulation, spiritual refreshment, and plenty of time for rest and recreation. Most of the faculty bring spouses and children along. Child care is provided during the main sessions, and there are long breaks each day for hiking, sailing, reading, and other “vacation-y” activities. Plus, you get to spend time with Christian faculty from all over the country.
Learn more about our summer faculty conferences on the Faculty Ministry website. We hope you can join us at one of our locations!
Update: 5/12/2014, 12:00 pm. Comment: I will look to see if material is available from this conference to post on the Emerging Scholars Network Blog. ~ Thomas B. Grosh IV, Associate Director of the Emerging Scholars Network.
About the author:
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.
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