Emerging Scholars Blog

InterVarsity's Emerging Scholars Network

andy crouch

Missionaries Changed the World Once – Can they do it again?

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The topic of a recent cover story in Christianity Today is shaking up not only the world of missions, but also academia.  The World the Missionaries Made is a report on the work of Robert Woodberry, a sociologist currently researching at the Political Science Department of the National University of Singapore. CT's Executive Editor Andy Crouch calls it the CT cover story of which he is most proud. Its thesis and Woodberry's work support a remarkable conclusion – that a generation of “conversionary protestant … [Read more...] about Missionaries Changed the World Once – Can they do it again?

Imagebearer: Flourishing

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I confess being quite excited to board Amtrak at 5:17 am in Elizabethtown, PA, to travel to  the Big Apple to hear  Andy Crouch, Executive Editor for Christianity Today, present material from his new InterVarsity Press release Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power.  As some of you know, the Emerging Scholars Network has not only highlighted Crouch's earlier InterVarsity Press publication  Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling  (2008) in various posts, but also featured  Culture Making  as the focal point … [Read more...] about Imagebearer: Flourishing

What Books Should We Suggest at Urbana 12?

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In only 15 days, ESN will be joining 18,000 of our closest friends at Urbana 12,  InterVarsity's triennial missions conference. As in years past, we'll have an exhibitor table, and I'll be hosting a seminar on  "Serving Christ as a Professor." One of my favorite things about conferences is learning about new books —or, even better,  old books that I somehow hadn't known about. Most of the attendees at Urbana are undergraduates, so the conference is a great opportunity to send them away with a fresh reading list for … [Read more...] about What Books Should We Suggest at Urbana 12?

Best Books on Calling and Vocation?

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I recently wrote about themes of calling and vocation in Chaim Potok's My Name Is Asher Lev. This got me to thinking: What are the best books on calling and vocation? Here are a few that occur to me. What books would you add to the list? These below are all Christian nonfiction books, but novels, secular guides, poetry, anything, is welcome as suggestions. Os Guinness,  The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life One of the classics on calling and vocation, this book is made up of … [Read more...] about Best Books on Calling and Vocation?

Headed to Graduate School: A Time of Re-imaging

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In my prior post I encouraged students who are headed toward grad school to begin their journey with a lofty end-point in mind: to grow into a person. In the Biblical sense, personhood has to do with fulfilling one's potential as a creature who is created in the image of God. So if I stop and ask myself, Who am I? – that is, who am I at the core of my existence, the answer from scripture is that I am a representation of God, a mirror image of his being. Unfortunately, this “image” has been damaged by the Fall, yet it … [Read more...] about Headed to Graduate School: A Time of Re-imaging