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Home » Scholar’s Compass Discussion Guide

Scholar’s Compass Discussion Guide

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Discussion Guide Introduction

Are you looking for a doable way to start deep conversations about faith and work for faculty and/or grad students? Or launch a faculty or grad group for the first time? Our discussion guide makes it easy to get started, whether your group is brand new to the topic or deeply experienced. It’s also designed to be flexible based on the schedule that works best for you.

We’ll guide you through an approachable tour of 4 different models for connecting faith and work: Loving Your Neighbor, Cultivating Virtues, Growing through Difficulty, and Connecting Ideas. Each unit includes 3 short readings from Christian academics. The authors distill an aspect of their experience connecting faith and work, as an encouragement to explore your own ways of doing it. We have created discussion questions for each entry, focused on helping you imagine your own ways of connecting faith and work in each model.

There are 12 readings to allow a variety of possible group formats. We recommend 3-6 week reading groups exploring 1-2 units at a time as one effective format. You could also read one reflection a month for a calendar year, or one a week for a semester. Each unit can stand alone, if you’re looking for a short 3-week discussion group. Used together, the units also form a whole arc that helps you develop new ideas about connecting your faith and your work.

Do just one unit or all 4, and consider pairing it with a retreat. Order our Scholar’s Compass booklet to find all these articles and more in book form, or access them online through the links in the unit reading guides. Either way, use our study guide questions to help your group explore further.  

Order Scholar’s Compass Booklets

Explore Online Retreat Guide


Unit 1 (3 readings): Loving Your Neighbor

Discussion Guide & Questions

Readings at a Glance

Sharing the Wonder

Grading as a Spiritual Practice

Stories for Life


Unit 2 (3 readings): Cultivating Virtues

Discussion Guide & Questions

Readings at a Glance

On Submitting Academic Work

James Clerk Maxwell’s Accidental Invention of the Color Photograph: Humility in Research and Life

Learning Scholarly Virtues from the Iliad


Unit 3 (3 readings): Navigating Difficulty

Discussion Guide & Questions

Readings at a Glance

Navigating the Rapids, Part 1: When It Doesn’t Go As You Expect

Surely the Lord Was in the Rare Books Room, Part 1

Surely the Lord Was in the Rare Books Room, Part 2


Unit 4 (3 readings): Connecting Ideas

Discussion Guide & Questions

Readings at a Glance

Integrating Faith and Archaeology

Words of Authority

Creativity That Delights


Want to order hard copy Scholar’s Compass booklets? Need an online retreat guide featuring other Scholar’s Compass reflections? These are both optional but helpful tie-ins to our online discussion guide.  

Order Scholar’s Compass Booklets

 

Explore Retreat Guide


 

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Scholar’s Compass Booklet

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