Adam McHugh provides a very reflective and open-minded resource in his Introverts in the Church: Finding our Place in an Extroverted Culture (Intervarsity Press, 2009). As I began to digest it, I soon thought of two books published in the past few years—one, Susan Cain’s Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking (Penguin, 2012) and second, more tangentially related, Angela Duckworth’s Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (Scribner, 2016). As it turns out upon my investigation, Adam McHugh has been a contributor to the Quiet Revolution blog (www.quietrev.com), an online resource led by author Susan Cain. While McHugh has also published more recently with IVP (The Listening Life: Embracing Attentiveness in a World of Distraction, 2015), his title that has been out for nearly a decade now contains some personal account of his own struggle during the time of his preparation for pastoral ministry, struggle which nearly prompted him to take the step of resignation from the ordination process following seminary study, and potentially shutting the door on a future in ministry. He relays the connection he experienced early on with the persevering, studious characteristics needed in the academic aspect of graduate school; and yet, while enjoying close relationship with others, he struggled to maintain the pace of public interpersonal interaction that is often called for in the work of ministry. [Read more…] about Book Review: Introverts in the Church
Introverts
Week in Review: Show Me the Money
What are you reading, watching, thinking about this week? As usual, here’s a few which have been on our mind. Let us know your thoughts on any/all of them. If you have items you’d like us to consider for the top five, add them in the comments or send them to Tom or Mike.
1. Who pays for higher education, in the U.S. and around the world? Scott Jaschik interviews (by email) the authors of Financing Higher Education Worldwide (D. Bruce Johnstone & Pamela N. Marcucci. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010) in Financing Higher Education Worldwide (Inside Higher Ed. 6/24/2010).
2. Who pays for continuing education in the medical community? The question being explored in this article extends beyond the medical community and various related research fields. What does it mean to be truly free from [industry] bias? How does someone in a field which involves the application of research in real world contexts avoid flirting with becoming a mouthpiece of industry? Do you agree with Dr. Francis S. Collins, N.I.H director,” who criticized the move as a “breathtaking sweep to squash something that is really important to us, which is the science that’s going on in the private sector.â€
Dr. James O. Woolliscroft, dean of Michigan’s medical school, said leading faculty members “wanted education to be free from bias, to be based on the best evidence and a balanced view of the topic under discussion.â€
While the financing in question amounts to as much as $1 million a year at Michigan, commercial payments for industry speakers and courses nationwide come to about $1 billion, nearly half the total expenditure for such courses.
The debate over whether the medical profession should develop an industry-free model of postgraduate education is a delicate one. A conference at Georgetown University on Friday, called “Prescription for Conflict,†will highlight the arguments on both sides through presentations by federal health officials, professors from leading medical schools, hospital executives and a Senate investigator. — Natasha Singer & Duff Wilson. Debate Over Industry Role in Educating Doctors. NY Times. 6/23/2010.
3. What is the cost of For-Profit Education? New Grilling of For-Profits Could Turn Up the Heat for All of Higher Education (Paul Basken. Chronicle of Higher Education. 6/22/2010). Interesting case. Worth following the discussion Washington, D.C. How do Emerging Scholars intersect with the changing field of higher education?
Click “Read more” to read about Wendell Berry, social media, and UK basketball. [Read more…] about Week in Review: Show Me the Money
Week in Review: Reporting Edition
Here’s the top five articles, books, websites, etc., that we’ve been reading or thinking about the past week. Let us know your thoughts on any/all of them. In addition, if you have items you’d like us to consider for the top five, add them in the comments or send them to Tom or Mike.
1. Have you experienced, participated in, or witnessed
Tweckle (twek’ul) vt. to abuse a speaker only to Twitter followers in the audience while he/she is speaking”?
Any thoughts on how Tweckle (or the possibility of it) affect conference (and classroom) dynamics? Any practices which you’ve found (or think could address) to decrease its influence? — Conference Humiliation: They’re Tweeting Behind Your Back (Marc Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 17, 2009). Note: on the other side, I’ve seen plenty of positive commenting on conferencing/events.
2. A number of Chronicle of Higher Education articles on news/journalism including:
- Academe and the Decline of News Media (Forum, November 15, 2009)
- I’ve Read the News Today, Oh Boy (Ben Yagoda, November 15, 2009)
- Journalism Schools Can Push Coverage Beyond Breaking News (Nicholas Lemann, November 15, 2009)
- University-Based Reporting Could Keep Journalism Alive (Michael Schudson and Leonard Downie Jr., November 15, 2009)
- We Need ‘Philosophy of Journalism’ (Carlin Romano, November 15, 2009).
3. Belle de Jour reveals herself…as a research scientist. The anonymous blog and television show Secret Diary of a Call Girl – written from the perspective of a high-end prostitute – were much bigger in the UK than on this side of the pond. The mystery of “who is Belle de Jour?” ended this week, when Dr. Brooke Magnanti confessed that she had turned to prostitution as a way to pay for her PhD. Magnanti now works for The Bristol Initiative for Research of Child Health. Magnanti says it was good work:
Dr Magnanti told the Sunday Times she worked as a prostitute from 2003 to late 2004, and found it “so much more enjoyable” than her shifts in another job as a computer programmer.
How ironic that Magnanti studies child health. Tanya Gold of the Guardian says don’t be misled: most prostitutes in the UK live pretty awful lives.
The report found that 70%–95% of the interviewees were physically assaulted while working as prostitutes. 60%–75% were raped while working as prostitutes; of these, more than half were repeatedly raped. 65%–95% meanwhile were sexually abused as children; the line of continuity between being used as a child and being used as an adult is clear.
Around the world, prostitution is often a form of slavery, as CNN reported this week. Urbana‘s Advocacy and Poverty track is going to focus on the issue of modern day slavery and sex trafficking, and the work of Christian organizations against this evil.
4. Big Man on Campus – Time profiled Gordon Gee, president of The Ohio State University, anointing him as the best college president in the nation. (Here is the rest of their top 10 list.) Earlier this year, Gee told universities they face “reinvention or extinction” at the American Council on Education’s annual meeting.
To avoid “slouching into irrelevance,” he said, universities must structure themselves horizontally, rather than vertically, change the way they reward faculty and staff members, and learn to better collaborate with each other. While partnerships with business, elementary and secondary schools, and governments are crucial, he said, perhaps the most important links are between universities.
A Call for “Intentional Upheaval.” An article, adapted from the American Council on Education’s Atwell Lecture, delivered on February 8th by Dr. Gee, president of The Ohio State University, is available here. 11/17/2012. 8:26 AM. Update.
Books
5. Tom’s been recommending Introverts in the Church: Finding Our Place in an Extroverted Culture (Adam McHugh, InterVarsity Press, November 2009) to a number of people, including members of the academic community. Below’s a quote from Chapter 1, available on-line through InterVarsity Press. An excellent author interview can be found at Adam McHugh on ‘Introverts in the Church’.
The pragmatism that we have inherited fosters an action oriented culture. Evangelicalism values the doer over the thinker. The evangelical God has a big agenda. It’s as if the moment we surrender our lives to Christ we are issued a flashing neon sign that says “GO!†There is a restless energy to evangelicalism that leads to a full schedule and a fast pace. Some have said that, in Christian culture, busyness is next to godliness. We are always in motion, constantly growing, ever expanding. …“American religion is conspicuous for its messianically pretentious energy, its embarrassingly banal prose, and its impatiently hustling ambition.†[Eugene Peterson]