Preface
Robert Boyle, illustrious scientist and Fellow of the Royal Society, described how, while in Geneva on a continental holiday, he underwent a conversion from nominal, unthinking Christianity to committed Christianity. As a result of his experiences, he stressed the need for Christians to have what he called an “examined faith.” [1]
John Stott, discussing Paul’s letter to the Christians in Philippi, drew attention to the importance for all Christians to heed the apostle’s exhortation to “contend for the faith of the Gospel.” He continues, “This describes a combination of evangelism and apologetics, not only proclaiming the gospel, but also defending it and arguing for its truth.”[2]
Echoing the views of Robert Boyle and John Stott, Mark Noll says, “If what we claim about Jesus Christ is true, then evangelicals should be among the most active, most serious, and most open-minded advocates of general human learning.” [Read more…] about Time to discuss faith, psychology and neuroscience?
faith
Interview with Jennifer Wiseman, Part 2
Jennifer Wiseman is an astronomer who studies star forming regions of our galaxy using optical, radio, and infrared telescopes. Her career has involved oversight of national astronomical facilities as well as public science policy and discourse. In 1987 she co-discovered the periodic comet 114P/Wiseman-Skiff as an undergraduate researcher at MIT. She has a bachelor’s degree in physics from MIT, and a Ph.D. in astronomy from Harvard University. In Part 1 of her interview with ESN, she shared some of the latest astronomical findings. In Part 2 she shares how science shapes her personal life of faith.
ESN: Are there areas of your research that move you to worship?
JW: I am fascinated by galaxies. The Hubble space telescope produced a marvelous image called the ultra deep field, which is the result of staring out into space for several days and collecting light so that it could image the faintest objects, thereby seeing a whole collection of galaxies. When you look at this image and you realize it’s only a tiny fraction of one area of the sky, and then extrapolate in your mind around the whole sky, you get a visceral sense of how enormous the universe is. And when you imagine that each galaxy, each speck of light contains potentially hundreds of billions of stars, and there are potentially planetary systems around most of those stars, it is awesome to contemplate. I find both the magnitude of the universe I sense by looking at images of these galaxies, and also the beauty of these galaxies, to be one of the most spirit-gripping parts of astronomy that I’ve ever seen.
So then for me, if I think about these things through the lens of faith, because I am someone who believes God is responsible for the universe and the natural processes we study in science, I have to realize God has been upholding and watching over and supporting an evolving universe over billions of years, long before life and human life existed on this planet. What does that mean? One way people react to this is by feeling a great sense of insignificance, since we occupy such a small fraction of time and space. My reaction is not that, but a sense of almost fearful gratefulness that this whole universe has been allowed to mature over eons of time to the point where planets, at least one, can support abundant life, and that I get to be a part of that for just a little while. So I’m grateful. And it also makes me a little fearful: am I using my time well? [Read more…] about Interview with Jennifer Wiseman, Part 2
Becoming a Thoughtful Christian in the Secular Academy: Part II
Last week I wrote about my journey as a developing follower of Jesus in a secular university. I told you that I’d become a stronger Christian during my time in the academic world, and now I want to tell you a little bit about what happened in my mind and heart during that time. This post is, to an extent, a response to Andy Walsh’s question in the comment thread of last week’s post in this series:
You mentioned that your Christian faith is stronger as a result of the experience. Did you find that aspects of your theology changed during that time? To put it another way, were there any shifts in what you believed along with how strongly you believed them? […] Â I was just musing that we (Christians broadly) talk a lot about strengthening/deepening our faith, and I wondered if that was a general phenomenon, or if it correlated with particular beliefs. In other words, is it possible to have a strong/deep faith in anything, or are there certain beliefs which are more amenable to that kind of reinforcement.
I came into college a brand-new believer and left a pretty new believer — going on 6 years now, nearly all of which passed while attending the U of Montana. So you could probably guess that my thinking has been shaped a lot by the academic world. And you’d be right. The methodology I began to put to use in school sparked further personal research outside of the classroom. The critical, “outsider†lens, which is generally employed in the secular classroom, caught my attention. Secular scholars have come up with some really tough arguments that I needed to overcome or adapt if I could continue to believe in the creation of the world — however long that process took — and the physical resurrection of Jesus.
Those are two beliefs, creation and resurrection, that my academic research has greatly strengthened. [Read more…] about Becoming a Thoughtful Christian in the Secular Academy: Part II
Review: The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert
Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert (Pittsburgh: Crown & Covenant Publications, 2012). 154 pp.
Rosaria Butterfield is the kind of woman she herself once bitterly opposed. The homeschooling pastor’s wife and adoptive mother of four was not raised in the Reformed Presbyterian Church. She was a self-described “lesbian postmodernist,†(p. 41) a professor of English and Queer Theory conducting research on the Promise Keepers movement, when she encountered Christian hospitality at the home of one of her research subjects, the pastor of a local church. Her hosts, she reports, had a “vulnerable and transparent faith. . . . When the meal ended, and Pastor Ken said he wanted to stay in touch, I knew that it was truly safe to accept his open hand.†(p. 11) Two years later she gave her life to Christ. In her memoir, she describes her struggle (“How do you repent for a sin that doesn’t feel like a sin?†[p. 21]), her prayers, and her ultimate commitment (“I asked [God] to take it all: my sexuality, my profession, my community, my tastes, my books, and my tomorrows.†[p. 21]) She broke up with her partner, grew out her crew cut, and began looking for new fields of research and teaching. Two years later she left academia altogether to embrace a new role as pastor’s wife, mother, foster parent, and homeschooler. Yet she is still an educator. “My whole life, currently defined as a home-school Mom in the classical Christian tradition, relies daily on my educational training and the discipline and intellectual rigor developed over the course of my life. . . . I like to share with others what all English PhDs take for granted: fluency with words and their origins, the ability to parse any sentence at any time, an appreciation for the grammar of all fields of study, and a fearless embrace of broad reading lists.†(p. 139)
It’s hard to review an autobiography. Who am I to critique someone else’s story? Whether or not I agree with her, these were Dr. Butterfield’s experiences, and I am grateful to her for sharing them. Not only does she open up her intriguing life story to her readers, but she shares intensely personal experiences of both faith and sexuality. Dr. Butterfield has my utmost respect and her story challenges me as a Christian, as a woman, as a teacher, and as a member of a local church. Ours would be a better world if more people were like her.
I could comment on any number of themes in the book—the Christian family, interracial adoption, Reformed Presbyterian theology, Classical Conversations homeschooling, a capella psalm singing—but for the purpose of this blog, I want to respond to those aspects of Dr. Butterfield’s story relevant to me as a Christian who remains in academia. While I respect her decision to leave research and teaching behind, I can’t help but wish her story had a different ending. Butterfield writes movingly of the conflicts she experienced as a new believer in a field often hostile to Christians. I can only imagine the difficulties—personal, theological, political, social—of remaining in her field as an ex-lesbian and a struggling young believer. She felt alienated from friends who could not understand the changes in her life. Students shunned her, feeling betrayed. At times her worlds collided. A highlight of the book for me was when her new church family rallied alongside the LGBT community to support one of her grad students who had attempted suicide. [Read more…] about Review: The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert
What keeps Jim Sire believing?
What keeps me believing, what holds my faith, is not the way I understand Scripture, but the fantastic way Scripture explains me to myself. I am particularly struck by the way Jesus, who amazes me every time I think of him, becomes personal to me as I read the Gospels and as I see his presence in the saints and the sinners around me. And, O yes, in God’s creation — those magnificent Sandhills, the Holy Land of Nebraska, icon of the near edge of eternity. — Jim Sire. Conclusion to “Chapter 11: A Final Apologetic: Why I Am Still a Christian” of Rim of the Sandhills (2012). [Read more…] about What keeps Jim Sire believing?