As we plan for 2016, we’re deeply heartened by the way emerging scholars participated in Urbana15. We’re filled with excitement as we work on ways to provide more mentoring, conferencing, and communal conversation for members in 2016.Read more…
Stone Soup, Scarcity, and the Kingdom of God (Scholar’s Compass)
Stone soup has been on my mind this January. I remember as a child reading a book where a few weary soldiers heading home from a war stop in a village. I guess they were short on money in the story, because they ask the people in the village to give them some food.Read more…
Finding Christ When You’re Busy, Part 4 (Scholar’s Compass)
The people who prayed me through graduate school included homemakers, staff members of a local food pantry, artists, lawyers, part time church secretaries, state tax employees, retail workers, and so many others.Read more…
Finding Christ When You’re Busy, Part 3 (Scholar’s Compass)
We may not always be able to give the biggest percentage of our time to prayer or meditation. But can we give the best of our time to God? Read more…
Finding Christ When You’re Busy, Part 2 (Scholar’s Compass)
Perhaps the time you can make for prayer and meditation right now feels like the widow’s mite—practically nothing on the world’s scale of value. Maybe you only have 15 minutes to give to prayer and Scripture reading at this moment. Maybe you only have 5. Read more…
Finding Christ When You’re Busy, Part 1 (Scholar’s Compass)
Sometimes God calls us to a moment or even a season of life in which time is severely limited. How do we seek Him when we’re busy?Read more…
New Science/Faith Resource Page from ASA
Looking for faith/science resources? Check out the new Resources on Science and Christian Faith from the American Scientific Affiliation. Read more…
Sailing and the Spirit (Scholar’s Compass)
I’ve been learning to sail this summer. I’ve also been wondering if Jesus was thinking about all the fishermen He knew when He said this. Starting to sail made me pay attention to the wind, and as I’ve done that I’ve found myself understanding these words about the Spirit in a new way. Read more…
Loving Our Neighbors Through Research (Scholar’s Compass)
It’s easy to imagine an academic vocation as a solitary one, full of brilliant and prickly eccentrics who publish famous monographs but have no idea who lives on their street. But in addition to reminding me how deeply an academic life can be centered in love of God, the scholars at the Lausanne Creation Care and the Gospel Conference also reminded me how deeply it can be about love of neighbor.Read more…
The Earth is the Lord’s: Worship as Vocation (Scholar’s Compass)
I had an amazing week at the Lausanne Creation Care and the Gospel conference. Many of those present were involved in very active work to care for God’s creation, whether that meant working for a missions organization that helps communities improve agriculture and care for the environment by planting trees, or facilitating Christian academics to partner with local organizations in ecological research.Read more…
Finding Rest (Scholar’s Compass)
What does rest mean if you’re coming up for tenure and working for as many lines on the CV as possible, if your course planning is complex, if your dissertation seems to be an endless cascade of new and complicated research tasks that lead from one to another? Read more…
Community, Excellence, and Joy, Part 2 (Closing Interview, Faithful Is Successful series)
ESN: One of the largest themes of the series has to do with issues of faith and ambition. It seems that God has called us to do our best work for Him, and yet He’s also called us to seek humility and associate with the humble. Any further thoughts on navigating that tension?Read more…
Community, Excellence, and Joy, Part 1 (Closing Interview, Faithful Is Successful series)
It is too risky not to engage with a Christian academic community. Read more…
Faithful Is Successful: Continuing Conversations (Scholar’s Compass)
This week wraps up our Scholar’s Compass series on Faithful is Successful. When we started way back in February, my area was looking like Narnia’s hundred-year winter . . . Read more…
Learning to See (Scholar’s Compass)
When I teach students to look at art, the first question I ask them is “what is it?” By this, I do not mean ‘what do you think you see?’ but ‘what do you actually see?’. – Sarah AwadRead more…
How Can the Church Care for Academics? (Scholar’s Compass)
On Tuesday I wrote about how academics can support the church. Today I’d like to spend a little time reflecting on how the church can care for believers whose vocation is to study, research, and teach. Academics are part of Christ’s body, with a role to play, even as they celebrate the roles of others with very different vocations. Read more…
Serving the Church through Scholarly Ambition (Scholar’s Compass)
Today I’m thinking about how academics can use their gifts to serve the church, encouraged by Bruce Huber’s essay in Faithful is Successful. As Huber wrestles with the thorny question of ambition, one of his conclusions is that ambition can be pursued rightly in the context of service to the body of Christ. This has me thinking about the many faithful scholars I know through ESN and elsewhere. I thought I’d make a partial list of some ways I see the fruit of faithful scholarly ambitions supporting the church, universal or local.Read more…
Faithful Is Successful: Interview with Matthew Cabeen
A congressperson once asked a scientist, “Why should we keep funding so many research projects when such a small percentage actually make important contributions to human society?” The scientist replied, “You are right that very few projects have profound results. But the problem is that we don’t know beforehand which few projects will be the important ones! So we have to do them all.” I see an important parallel to family life here.Read more…
Faithful Is Successful Interview: David E. Lewis
If your work never has a clear substantive connection to your faith, this does not mean that God cannot be intimately involved in your research life. In the chapter I write about ways that my faith influences both the process of research and the substance. Read more…
Faithful Is Successful Interview: Dano Jukanovich
For the last almost two years, I have juggled a number of different roles: continuing to oversee Karisimbi Partners with frequent travel to Rwanda, conducting leadership training seminars in China periodically, refurbishing a 150 year old farm house, barn and vegetable-stand, supporting my wife’s work in a stressful senior executive role, being the primary caregiver, playdate scheduler and sandwich maker for our 5, 8 and 11 year olds.Read more…
Faithful Is Successful Interview: Bryan McGraw
ESN interviews Bryan McGraw, a politics professor at Wheaton, as part of the Faithful Is Successful interview series. Read more…
Pray for Scholar’s Compass in February
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family[c] in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,Read more…
Faithful Is Successful Interview: David E. Lewis and Joshua Swamidass
ESN is partnering with the team that wrote Faithful Is Successful to foster conversation among our Scholar’s Compass writers and the community of Christian scholars and professionals who authored the book. Today, we feature an interview with two of the book’s editors.Read more…
New Series: Scholar’s Compass Interacts with Faithful Is Successful
What does it mean to be successful as an emerging scholar? Early tenure? Prestigious publications? Great course evaluations?Read more…