A Review of Andreas Köstenberger's Excellence When posted, guest contributor and ESN member David Leonard had recently completed a Ph.D. in philosophy and was teaching a wide range of courses at several universities in the Twin Cities. His project at the time involved developing a taxonomy of the intellectual virtues to be used in college-level philosophy courses. David's scholarship on virtue gave him particular insight to review the book under consideration, Excellence: The Character of God and the … [Read more...] about Evangelical Scholarship and the Pursuit of Excellence
christian scholarship
How Do Christian Faculty Integrate Their Faith and Work?
Last week, InterVarsity hosted the 2011 Midwest Faculty Conference at Cedar Campus in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It's a beautiful place, as slideshows from the 2009 and 2010 conferences attest, and the conference intentionally makes space for both relaxation and intellectual engagement. (There is still space available at this year's West Coast Faculty Conference, by the way. If Michigan isn't your thing, how does Catalina Island sound?) It's a great conference, but not one that's terribly well-known in either … [Read more...] about How Do Christian Faculty Integrate Their Faith and Work?
Jesus Didn’t Choose Scholars…
A few weeks ago, writer Donald Miller wrote a blog post —since republished in Relevant Magazine —about the kinds of people Jesus chose as leaders. They were not, he insisted, the kinds of people who lead today's church. The church in America is led by scholars. Essentially, the Church is a robust school system created around a framework of lectures and discussions and study. We assume this is the way its supposed to be, because this is all we have ever known. I think the scholars have done a good job—but … [Read more...] about Jesus Didn’t Choose Scholars…
What role does Christianity play in our scholarship?
I've been writing about George Marsden's talk to InterVarsity Graduate and Faculty Ministries at our recent staff conference. Over the last two weeks, I've written about Dr. Marsden's belief that metaphysical naturalism is losing its hold on the academy and his endorsement for methodological naturalism as an appropriate stance for Christian faculty. Last week, I shared the question that I asked him: Since we agree that methodological naturalism is a good way of doing academic work, but that privatization is a bad way … [Read more...] about What role does Christianity play in our scholarship?
Is Naturalism Losing Steam?
Last week, Tom and I attended the national staff meetings for InterVarsity Graduate and Faculty Ministries, which continued the theme of Campuses Renewed from our national staff conference in January. Our speakers could not have been better: historian George Marsden, the Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame, who wrote the seminal book The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship (see our online book discussion for more details), and University of Cincinnati Provost Santa Ono, who … [Read more...] about Is Naturalism Losing Steam?