Image courtesy of nuttakit at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Welcome to Scholar’s Compass, a devotional written for and by scholars.

InterVarsity Emerging Scholars Network (ESN)’s goal in this endeavor is to give Christian academics a resource as they navigate the delights and challenges of integrating their vocation as believers with their vocation as scholars. We believe that God has made all creation, that He sustains it in His generosity, and that it reflects Him. Because of that, every field of study will provide opportunities to glorify God and celebrate His good work.

Every subject will do that in a different way, and every individual scholar’s experience of integrating faith and field will be unique. Yet every experience of integrating faith and learning has much to teach others in the body of Christ. Through Scholar’s Compass, we provide reflections from scholars across a wide range of fields and experiences, in the hope that their thoughts will help others to navigate their own vocations well.

To receive Scholar’s Compass by email, you can subscribe right here:

A bit more on how Scholar’s Compass is organized: In addition to reflections on integrating faith and the details of a subject, which usually appear under the heading Navigating Knowledge: Integrating Faith and the Details of Your Subject, we also explore how scholarly vocation and faith intertwine with a number of other themes. These include the following, and we’re open to adding more:

• Navigating Research: Becoming Well-versed in Your Field
• Navigating Home: The Household and Academic Vocation
• Navigating a Path: Shaping your Career in Light of Vocation
• Navigating the Work of Your Hands: Learning about Academic Vocation through Physical Work
• Navigating Place and Vocation: Your Geography and Your Vocation
• Navigating Transitions: Your Vocation during Change
• Navigating the Rapids: When it Doesn’t Go as You Expect
• Navigating Teaching: How Vocation Shapes Pedagogy
• Navigating Justice: Your Academic Vocation and Seeking Justice

Scholar’s Compass devotional reflections are typically written by a different scholar each week, and will be posted here throughout the 2014/2015 academic year and into the summer. Each week the devotional explores one theme in three posts, presently on a Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday schedule. The first post on Sunday serves as a general introduction to the theme chosen for that week, and the following posts explore specific aspects of that theme.

Navigating Ohio State University (OSU) was taken by Thomas B. Grosh IV during a campus visit with the Faculty Ministry Leadership Team (2012). Please let us know if you have campus, community and/or disciplinary specific photos (and possibly even stories) to share with the Emerging Scholars Network.

We believe that navigating scholarly vocation well is a communal endeavor, and ESN seeks to encourage communities of believers, and to connect those who are seeking community. Scholar’s Compass writers come from a wide variety of career points and life experiences, reflecting the diversity of Christ’s church. Let us know if you’d like to write, or connect us with communities who may wish to use this devotional, or send us other ideas.

Scholar’s Compass will run on the ESN blog in order to be available to the widest number of readers. In addition, the material will be organized and available on ESN’s website under Hubs and Writing Projects.

Thank you for your support for this project. Our September theme is Navigating Beginnings. Please come back Tuesday and Thursday for reflections on seeking God’s glory as a physics professor and learning scholarly virtues from the Iliad. We pray for God’s blessing as you navigate your work and life this year.

To God be the glory!