Emerging Scholars Blog

InterVarsity's Emerging Scholars Network

Faithful is Successful

Failing Faithfully: Created, Fallen, and Waiting

In the first post of this series, I was ruminating about a patient who had a rapid decline in health and social circumstances, culminating in a recent scan that showed the possibility of cancer even while he was struggling with homelessness. It was a bleak situation that caught me off guard because I was not expecting it and was grieved to think of what it would be like for him to die alone.

He has since died.

ERdoc
ER physician after losing a young patient.

There is a picture and a story making rounds on the internet about the grief of physicians. An EMT snapped a photo of a young ER doctor who lost a 19 year old patient. The photographer states that shortly after, the physician walked straight back into the ER.  The picture is a moment of isolation in grief by a caretaker, and the original forum for the image is filled with thousands of comments that range from encouragement to echoes of similar moments by healthcare professionals and family members who continue to grieve death. [Read more…] about Failing Faithfully: Created, Fallen, and Waiting

Community, Excellence, and Joy, Part 2 (Closing Interview, Faithful Is Successful series)

middlebury college photo
Photo by Adam Franco

As we wrap up the Faithful is Successful series, ESN caught up with the book’s three editors for an interview. Nathan Grills, David E. Lewis, and Josh Swamidass reflect on community, faithfulness, and other themes of the series below. Enjoy Part 2 of this interview! Part 1 can be found here.

4. ESN: One of the largest themes of the series has to do with issues of faith and ambition. It seems that God has called us to do our best work for Him, and yet He’s also called us to seek humility and associate with the humble. Any further thoughts on navigating that tension? [Read more…] about Community, Excellence, and Joy, Part 2 (Closing Interview, Faithful Is Successful series)

Community, Excellence, and Joy, Part 1 (Closing Interview, Faithful Is Successful series)

university asia photo
Photo by mripp

As we wrap up the Faithful is Successful series, ESN caught up with the book’s three editors for an interview. Nathan Grills, David E. Lewis, and Josh Swamidass reflect on community, faithfulness, and other themes of the series below. Enjoy Part 1 of this interview, and stay tuned for Part 2!

1. ESN: We’ve been delighted to see the thoughtful conversations that have sprung from this series on the blog and elsewhere. As ESN works to foster deeper conversations and community, what advice would you give on how to nurture and sustain a community of Christian scholars? [Read more…] about Community, Excellence, and Joy, Part 1 (Closing Interview, Faithful Is Successful series)

Faithful Is Successful: Continuing Conversations (Scholar’s Compass)

acorn photo

This week wraps up our Scholar’s Compass series on Faithful is Successful. When we started way back in February, my area was looking like Narnia’s hundred-year winter, and now trees have burst into leaf all around us, while flowers spring from the ground. The growth I see all around me is a great image of all the ways God has grown the conversations at ESN through this series, and we’re delighted and thankful.

And the growth isn’t over. Here are several ways conversations or paradigms started through the series are encouraging us toward further growth. We welcome you to join the conversation: [Read more…] about Faithful Is Successful: Continuing Conversations (Scholar’s Compass)

Learning to See (Scholar’s Compass)

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When I teach students to look at art, the first question I ask them is “what is it?” By this, I do not mean “what do you think you see?” but “what do you actually see?” – Sarah Awad, “Art Identity: Christian. Artist. Stranger.” In Faithful is Successful.

Sarah Awad is writing about art here, and her words are deeply relevant to Christian artists. But at the risk of wresting her words out of their context, I think there’s something academics outside the arts can learn from her reflections on how professional artists look at a painting or a sculpture. When we look at anything—a literary text, a chemical structure, an animal habitat, an account from history—do we try to see what it is, not just what we expect it to be? [Read more…] about Learning to See (Scholar’s Compass)