We like to share what we call "snapshots" from time to time, brief reflections from a particular moment of the year in the life of an ESN author or member. We hope these glimpses of God's work in the lives of fellow academics are encouraging to early career scholars as they navigate the calendar of the academic year and the everyday calling of following Christ in their work and lives. Today we share some thoughts on the end of summer by literature professor Angela O'Neal. You can read her previous posts here. … [Read more...] about In June or January: The Myth of Summertime (Summer Snapshot 2018)
“Your crooked heart”: Literary Study and Spiritual Formation (Scholar’s Call)
John Runciman, King Lear in the Storm, 1767 Act III of Shakespeare's King Lear gets to me every time. Lear, spectacularly blinded by pride and bereft of power in his old age, having foolishly exiled one daughter and exposed himself to betrayal by the other two, retreats into a storm with his Fool and descends into madness, shaking his fist at nature, railing, “Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow!” … [Read more...] about “Your crooked heart”: Literary Study and Spiritual Formation (Scholar’s Call)
“Animals and Atoms”: The Creative Imagination and the Body of Christ (Scholar’s Compass)
So spacious is [Christ], so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies. -- Colossians 1:19-20, The Message Reflection I discovered my favorite subject during my sophomore year of college in Ms. Gaines' survey of British literature class. I didn't know why at the time, but Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, and Shelley … [Read more...] about “Animals and Atoms”: The Creative Imagination and the Body of Christ (Scholar’s Compass)
Navigating Knowledge: Suspicion as Spiritual Praxis
My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2:2-3 (NIV) Reflection Every year I teach a required upper-level course on Literary Criticism and Theory. In the span of a semester, my students and I paint broad strokes across centuries of intellectual history, from Plato to … [Read more...] about Navigating Knowledge: Suspicion as Spiritual Praxis