The acknowledgments of J. P. Moreland’s Scientism and Secularism include a nod to colleague Garry DeWeese, followed by a parenthetical comment about how Moreland has never understood the second ‘R’. It’s a throwaway line, possibly tossed in for some private levity to break up the intense, thoughtful process of writing. Yet it helped crystallize for me how I think differently than Moreland and thus why some parts of his book clicked for me while others did not. To me, the answer is obvious: because name spelling drifts over time as parents express personal taste, conflate multiple related names (it’s Larry and Barry so why not Garry?), or simply make mistakes. Granted, I don’t know the exact details of Ma & Pa DeWeese’s thought process, but understanding some general mechanisms is adequate for me. I’m similarly not certain what kind of explanation Moreland would prefer, but based on his writing I’d guess it would involve reasoning from commonsense principles rather than starting with the brute data.
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Book Review/Discussion
We Are Ahab – Both Hunter and Hunted. A Book Review of Moby Dick
Like most who are part of the academe, I consider myself a well-read person, though we all admit that the more of an expert you become in one area, the more you realize how ignorant you are in others. My focus is the 19th Century American religious environment and even when I stray from there to another research focus, I always come back because I find the century so interesting. Sometimes, to get a more complete view of the period, I will read fiction from the era since it gives a window into the period’s views about religion which theologians do not and cannot. In addition, I am just interested in literature and I listen to a lot of books during my commute time. Rarely do I intentionally put one down unfinished, though several have challenged me in that regard. One book which I started but just could not finish was Moby Dick; it was just so long, and seemed so disconnected from the tale of Ahab that I just couldn’t finish it. Consequently, I became very critical of the book; how could a book filled with so much detail about whales and whaling be considered such a great American classic? But in the best way that students can, my own hypocrisy was pointed out: how could I be so critical of book I openly admitted I had not read completely? I hate it when people point out my own inconsistencies. So, this summer I committed to reading the whole of Moby Dick, even though I had previously failed and I already knew how the book ends. [Read more…] about We Are Ahab – Both Hunter and Hunted. A Book Review of Moby Dick
Book Review: Introverts in the Church
Adam McHugh provides a very reflective and open-minded resource in his Introverts in the Church: Finding our Place in an Extroverted Culture (Intervarsity Press, 2009). As I began to digest it, I soon thought of two books published in the past few years—one, Susan Cain’s Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking (Penguin, 2012) and second, more tangentially related, Angela Duckworth’s Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (Scribner, 2016). As it turns out upon my investigation, Adam McHugh has been a contributor to the Quiet Revolution blog (www.quietrev.com), an online resource led by author Susan Cain. While McHugh has also published more recently with IVP (The Listening Life: Embracing Attentiveness in a World of Distraction, 2015), his title that has been out for nearly a decade now contains some personal account of his own struggle during the time of his preparation for pastoral ministry, struggle which nearly prompted him to take the step of resignation from the ordination process following seminary study, and potentially shutting the door on a future in ministry. He relays the connection he experienced early on with the persevering, studious characteristics needed in the academic aspect of graduate school; and yet, while enjoying close relationship with others, he struggled to maintain the pace of public interpersonal interaction that is often called for in the work of ministry. [Read more…] about Book Review: Introverts in the Church
Faith and Reason, Part 1
Frequent ESN contributor and Graduate & Faculty Ministries Staff Mark Hansard returns to give us a summer series on faith and reason. We’re always happy to share Mark’s thoughtful writings. Interested in reading more by Mark? You can explore his thoughts on learning about godly scholarships through Hebrews, his popular posts on The Fruit of the Spirit in Academia, or all of his literary and theological reflections for ESN.Â
In this series on Faith and Reason, we will take a brief look at a Scriptural basis for using reason and logic, and then we will visit several thinkers through the Ages and their views on how faith and reason go together. [Read more…] about Faith and Reason, Part 1
Science Corner: Lightning in a Novel
Twenty five years after the original Jurassic Park film brought photo-realistic digital dinosaurs to the big screen, the latest entry in the franchise opens this weekend. While covering the previous film, I brought up Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the influence it has on the Jurassic stories and also our perception of science, especially biology. This year is also the 200th anniversary of that novel, first published in 1818 when Shelley was just 20. In honor of that milestone, several universities have put it on their summer reading list. Shelley’s story will also be the springboard for my upcoming talk at this year’s ASA meeting. So it seems like a good time to explore some of the themes of Frankenstein and the world of Jurassic Park.
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