InterVarsity Alum: Dr. Lendol Calder on “Uncoverage” is an apt video for us as we begin a new term, asking ourselves how we dialog (dare I even say provide a framework for studies in a particular discipline) and learn from (or even teach as) “the experts”.  Yes, I think this perspective is applicable beyond the field of history 🙂 Stay tuned . . . [Read more…] about Time to “Uncover”
history
Interview: Marc Baer on “Mere Believers”
William Wilberforce defined Christian as “a pilgrim travelling on business through a strange country.†— Marc Baer
Through his presence at and presentations for a number of InterVarsity Graduate and Faculty Ministry gatherings, it has been my privilege to get to know Marc Baer, Professor and Chair of the Department of History, Hope College (Holland, MI). As such, it was with great enthusiasm I took up the opportunity to read his Mere Believers: How Eight Faithful Lives Changed the Course of History (Eugene: Cascade, 2013) for the Emerging Scholars Network.
To offer an inside scoop to Emerging Scholars, I asked Marc a few questions regarding the inspiration, format, and intended purposes of Mere Believers. Note: As with previous interviews, I take full responsibility for the related pictures and links.
Tom: Marc, I’m excited to learn about Mere Believers: How Eight Faithful Lives Changed the Course of History. Please share with Emerging Scholars why you wrote Mere Believers.
Marc: Tom, two decades ago I heard a piece on the poet W. H. Auden on the Mars Hill Audio Journal. Even though I had used his poetry in a modern British history course I taught, I didn’t know he was a Christian. So I began thinking about a book that would tell the story of significant modern Britons—the society I’ve been studying for 45 years—who were believers. In particular, because I came to Christ a few weeks after passing my Ph.D. comprehensive exams I’ve always been intrigued about adult converts. So I narrowed the focus of the project to such people. Because I teach a general education senior seminar at Hope called Exploring Faith and Calling I was also interested in revealing how my subjects discerned what work they were to do; and because it’s my sense that the new atheists haven’t bothered to carry out any historical research I wanted to show what positive cultural consequences resulted from my subjects coming to Christ. Finally, I had never before written anything for a general audience, and I wanted to try my hand at that.
Tom:Â Anything else that would be helpful to know about the format of Mere Believers? [Read more…] about Interview: Marc Baer on “Mere Believers”
Emerging Culture – God’s Work in History
Earlier this week in Engaging Society, I shared some of the vision for the Emerging Scholars Network Blog in 2014. To take this another step, below is an exploration of God’s sovereign work through historical eras and the call that is before us. I encourage you to watch, share, and discuss Emerging Culture – God’s Work in History (10 min, 5 sec).
Emerging Culture – God’s Work in History from InterVarsity twentyonehundred
Book Review: Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind (2)
Working in university ministry with grad students, I am often asked the question of just how this thing of integration of faith and learning is supposed to work. Mark Noll‘s Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind (Eerdmans, 2011) is a landmark answer to this question. In one sense, his answer is the very simple, Sunday school answer — Jesus. Yet behind this simple answer is some very profound theological thinking. Noll not only sees the life of the mind encouraged through our union with Christ, which unites all things in him, but in careful reflection upon the classic Christian creeds that help us understand the person and work of Christ — as one of the members of the Trinity, as fully God and fully human, and as our atoning sacrifice. [Read more…] about Book Review: Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind (2)
The First Thanksgiving: What Makes Good History?
The dead are not dead insofar as we are bound together in the communion of saints, living and dead, and therefore our conversation cannot be limited to those who now live.
Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon[1]
Robert Tracy McKenzie[2] begins Chapter 1 of The First Thanksgiving: What the Real Story Tells Us About Loving God and Learning from History (InterVarsity Press, 2013) with a sampling of the classroom answers he receives to the question, “What makes a good history book?” As I continue to read Chapter 1, I have come to understand the larger question as “What makes good history?” That is, “How do we research, embrace, and live in proper relationship to the ‘real story’ of those who have gone before us?” AND how much more important the answer becomes when approaching those people and events which shape our self-understanding (individual and corporate — a theme touched on in Andy’s “Ants and Thanksgiving” post) as we together live our short lives in the present “context”, shaping and entering the future. . . .
To encourage the exploration of the history of Thanksgiving with family, friends, and colleagues, I offer to you The First Thanksgiving – An Animated Short, Robert Tracy McKenzie on The First Thanksgiving, and Robert Tracy’s blog Faith and American History. Enjoy 🙂
[Read more…] about The First Thanksgiving: What Makes Good History?