It's great when everything rolls along smoothly in your academic work and the rest of your life. But what about those times when it doesn't? Maybe this spring, you're dealing with doubt, struggling with unjust circumstances, or grieving a loss. Or perhaps nothing huge is wrong, but you feel overwhelmed and tired out. ESN has gathered a few of our memorable posts on dealing with difficulties of different kinds. We hope the stories and insights in one or more of these posts will be an encouragement, whatever challenges … [Read more...] about Survival Kit: Challenges in Life and Academia
doubt
Faith and Doubt in Emily Dickinson’s “This World is not Conclusion”
Image: Daguerreotype of the poet Emily Dickinson, taken circa 1848, cropped and retouched. (Original is scratched.) From the Todd-Bingham Picture Collection and Family Papers, Yale University Manuscripts & Archives Digital Images Database, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. In the public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons. Reflection Emily Dickinson's poem, “This World is not Conclusion” is a paradigmatic example of her ambivalence about Christian faith. It reveals, as many of her poems do, her struggle … [Read more...] about Faith and Doubt in Emily Dickinson’s “This World is not Conclusion”
Book Review: Questioning Your Doubts
Questioning Your Doubts: A Harvard PhD Explores Challenges to Faith, Christina M. H. Powell. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2014. Summary: This book comes out of the world of academic research and proposes that the process of questioning our doubts as well as our faith builds bridges of understanding deepening both our exercise of reason and confidence in our faith. … [Read more...] about Book Review: Questioning Your Doubts
Review: Benefit of the Doubt (Greg Boyd)
Gregory Boyd's Benefit of the Doubt is an intriguing look at the role of doubt in the life of faith. Boyd gives us a hefty dose of original thinking and a helpful critique of the evangelical world that is long overdue. With a couple of important caveats (see below), Boyd's book is recommended reading for anyone who has intellectual questions about Christianity and struggles with doubt. … [Read more...] about Review: Benefit of the Doubt (Greg Boyd)
Book Review: Mind Your Faith
Ideas have consequences. The Holocaust began as an idea, argues David Horner*. Thinking well and loving God with our minds is thus an essential calling for Christians. Horner dedicates Mind Your Faith: A Student's Guide to Thinking & Living Well to helping university students, especially undergraduate first years, grasp what it takes to think and live well in their university years and beyond. Horner begins with our minds. He talks about what we mean when we talk about something being true, how to think about … [Read more...] about Book Review: Mind Your Faith