Life in the university promises a chance to think about the big questions in life, to reflect on who we are and what we’re learning. But all too often, life as an academic seems so busy as to overwhelm any chance at contemplation; it can be a struggle to figure out even how to have daily time with God. For our fall tips series, we’re asking writers to share a brief tip or idea on building your spiritual life in your role as an academic. Last week we kicked off the series with a post by Mary Poplin. This time we share a few short tips from ESN author Tim Gilmour. [Read more…] about Tips from Tim Gilmour (Growing Spiritually in Academic Life Series)
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New Tips Series: Growing Spiritually in Your Academic Life
Life in the university promises a chance to think about the big questions in life, to reflect on who we are and what we’re learning. But all too often, life as an academic seems so busy as to overwhelm any chance at contemplation; it can be a struggle to figure out even how to have daily time with God. For our fall tips series, we’re asking writers to share a brief tip or idea on building your spiritual life in your role as an academic. We’re thrilled that longtime friend of ESN Mary Poplin has agreed to start the series today. Click here for other work by Mary. [Read more…] about New Tips Series: Growing Spiritually in Your Academic Life
Next Steps for ESN — Scripture
Perhaps you remember the first instance when you understood a passage in the Bible with more than your own mind–when the words came to life and became incarnate in your imagination. For me, it was a passage I had heard all my life. I could have quoted it. But in that moment, the words spoke in a way that connected the pieces of my life with Scripture like a puzzle. I was hearing what I thought I knew for the first time. The last words became, in a sense, the first words.
“Thus it is written . . .” (Lk 24:46 ESV): Jesus begins and then he unfolds, in a sentence that can be spoken in a single breath, what it had taken an eternity to accomplish. First suffering, then resurrection, then the message of repentance and forgiveness preached to all the nations. It will all begin where it had just ended, in Jerusalem. And so he sends them back to the city to wait for the coming of the Spirit that will empower them from on high. . . . — Michael Card, Luke: The Gospel of Amazement (InterVarsity Press, 2011), 266.
The Bible Project — A daily engagement with the word of God
In January, I began a daily engagement of the Word/Story of God through The Bible Project. I have found The Bible Project a rich online resource to prayerfully consider and apply “How to Read the Bible” in a number of contexts.
Drawing from the outline on Bridgetown Church’s (Portland, OR) website, ESN has provided daily reflections via ESN Facebook and ESN Twitter. [Read more…] about The Bible Project — A daily engagement with the word of God
Book Review: The Global Diffusion of Evangelicalism
Thank-you to Bob Trube for sharing reviews from Bob on Books with the Emerging Scholars Network Blog! His post on The Global Diffusion of Evangelicalism: The Age of Billy Graham and John Stott by Brian Stanley (InterVarsity Press, 2013) comes at an apt time to provide background to “Evangelicals” as we prayerfully consider NY Times: Colleges and Evangelicals Collide on Bias Policy. ~ Thomas B. Grosh IV, Associate Director, Emerging Scholars Network
The title of The Global Diffusion of Evangelicalism: The Age of Billy Graham and John Stott proposes an ambitious project and I am impressed with how well Brian Stanley [professor of world Christianity and director of the Centre for the Study of World Christianity at the University of Edinburgh School of Divinity] pulls this off in under 250 pages of text. While focusing on the evangelical landscape in the U.S. and U.K.(hence Graham and Stott), he gives us a helpful overview of the global spread of the evangelical movement from 1945 to the year 2000.
He opens with exploring the dynamics of this period–communications, the spread of evangelicalism in the English-speaking world, and the growing evangelical influence of the majority world. He then goes back to the beginning of this period and explores the differentiation of evangelical from fundamentalist in its US, British, Canadian and Australian forms, marked most notably in the US with the establishment of Christianity Today as the print organ of the forming evangelical consensus. [Read more…] about Book Review: The Global Diffusion of Evangelicalism