As part of my work at Following Christ 2008, I had the privilege of assisting the Humanities track, chaired by Michael Murray and Dora Rice Hawthorne, and joined by Mark Noll of Notre Dame, Hal Bush of St. Louis U., and Paul Moser of Loyola U. Chicago. The final session of the track addressed the question "How Can We Be Agents of Human Flourishing in the Church and the World?" Michael Murray identified three threats to Christian scholars that hinder their role to the church and the world: specialization, fear of … [Read more...] about Human Flourishing in the Church and the World
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Following Christ 08 resources coming on-line
On InterVarsity's main website, one can find two articles Honoring God at Work Human Flourishing AND two audio files Why Aren't We Flourishing? -- Opening Plenary by MaryKate Morse, Professor of Leadership and Spiritual Formation at George Fox University. Time: 35:00 Powerful Faith -- Seminar presentation by Michael Lindsay, a sociologist at Rice University and the author of Faith in the Halls of Power. The seminar in which Michael Lindsay spoke was entitled Exploring Privilege and Redeeming Power. … [Read more...] about Following Christ 08 resources coming on-line
Following Christ mostly, or misplaced objections
Listening to the Day Ahead speakers, it occurred to me that we were focusing mostly on sacrificing time, energy, even the privacy of homes as professors who seek to serve students, but I heard little about issues of wealth. Jesus of course spoke over and over about issues of money but these concerns did not find a place at FC08 alongside stewardship and sacrificial usage of the other resources with which God has blessed us. Are we then only mostly following Christ, or is this a call that is outside the sphere of … [Read more...] about Following Christ mostly, or misplaced objections
Evangelism and caution in the professor-student relationship?
After listening to Professor Ken Elzinga of the University of Virginia on ways to evangelize on and off campus “without turning people off,” I came away both excited and with questions. I am a first year professor at Loyola College in Maryland, a Jesuit institution where Christian faith (and probably other faiths as well) can be much more easily discussed, in contrast to UVa, a secular institution whose heritage is shaped by Thomas Jefferson's strict church-state separation. Elzinga's announcement at the start of each … [Read more...] about Evangelism and caution in the professor-student relationship?
Following Christ 08 – Day 2
One of the main reasons I chose to attend the Following Christ conference and the ESN Day Ahead was to help me discern my place on campus. I do feel called to academia, at least for this season, yet I was not sure exactly how I was to carry out this calling. The ESN Day Ahead turned out to be extremely valuable for junior faculty on the tenure track. I was reminded by the panelists' (Ken Elzinga, Christy Moran, Alec Hill, and Terry Morrison) exhortations to stay physically healthy, keep the Sabbath, find a strong … [Read more...] about Following Christ 08 – Day 2