Emerging Scholars Blog

InterVarsity's Emerging Scholars Network

Is Reality Secular?

Engaging Students in the Subject of Truth

Mary Simpson Poplin, Professor of Education, School of Educational Studies, Claremont Graduate University.
Mary Poplin, PhD, Professor of Education, School of Educational Studies, Claremont Graduate University.

To further “flesh out” Is Reality Secular? Testing the Assumptions of Four Global Worldviews? (InterVarsity Press, 2014), I asked Mary Poplin, PhD, Professor of Education, School of Educational Studies, Claremont Graduate University, to offer a follow-up series focused upon practical illustrations, stories, and resources. This is the “teaser” which includes a call to join the Emerging Scholars Network (ESN) in refining our resource material over the course of the coming academic term.

Mary Poplin: Many students, particularly in the humanities and social sciences are being taught that truths are nothing but individual or social/cultural constructions of reality that change over time and are used to wield power over others. A skeptical young coed asked Dallas Willard in one of his last talks, “What is truth?” His answer was that truth is reality and reality is what you run into when you are wrong. [Read more…] about Engaging Students in the Subject of Truth

Takeaways from “Is Reality Secular?”

Mary Poplin's Is Reality Secular? What is the nature of reality? (InterVarsity Press, 2013).
Is Reality Secular? Testing the Assumptions of Four Global Worldviews by Mary Poplin (InterVarsity Press, 2014).

Welcome to the third post in a series in which we explore with Mary Poplin her 2014 publication Is Reality Secular? Testing the Assumptions of Four Global Worldviews? (InterVarsity Press). In earlier posts Mary provided:

In this piece Mary Poplin responds to my question, “What do you desire to be the top takeaways for readers of Is Reality Secular?” In future posts Mary will offer particular illustrations of engaging in and “toolkits” to enter/sustain dialogue with those who embrace (even advocate) competing worldviews.

Mary: First, I want to plant into everyone’s mind the fact (or for secularists, at least the suspicion) that reality is not secular. It is not adequate then to work only within the secular mindset. Christian faculty must engage this; what is true and what is false in my field – because all dominant theory and research have been secularized for half a century and more. I hope Christians will ask others to consider the same question; I find very few people realize that secular thought dominates our culture and fewer have asked themselves if this is really true. [Read more…] about Takeaways from “Is Reality Secular?”

Snapshots of Four Global Worldviews (Mary Poplin)

Mary Poplin's Is Reality Secular? What is the nature of reality? (InterVarsity Press, 2013).
Is Reality Secular? Testing the Assumptions of Four Global Worldviews by Mary Poplin (InterVarsity Press, 2014).

Note: In the first post of the Is Reality Secular? series, Mary Poplin shared what led her to write her new InterVarsity Press publication.

Tom: I have found Is Reality Secular? truly serving as a “resource for living in and actively influencing our culture without being overtaken by it.” Thank-you Mary. To assist the Emerging Scholar who has not yet had the opportunity to read and discuss your new publication, please give a brief snapshot of the four global worldviews with which you interact.

Mary: I have simply divided worldviews into the four primary ones – the two secular worldviews of material-naturalism and secular humanism and the worldviews of pantheism and monotheism (represented almost entirely in the book by the Judeo-Christian framework).  Each of the three non-Christian worldviews counters a different member of the Godhead. [Read more…] about Snapshots of Four Global Worldviews (Mary Poplin)

Mary Poplin on “Is Reality Secular?”

Mary Simpson Poplin, Professor of Education, School of Educational Studies, Claremont Graduate University.
Mary Simpson Poplin, PhD, Professor of Education, School of Educational Studies, Claremont Graduate University.

Mary Simpson Poplin, PhD, Professor of Education, School of Educational Studies, Claremont Graduate University, has been (and continues to be) a significant encouragement to and ministry partner with the Emerging Scholars Network. Even before receiving a copy of Is Reality Secular? Testing the Assumptions of Four Global Worldviews (InterVarsity Press, 2014), I knew that it was important to highlight Is Reality Secular? on the blog  (See three early posts: 1, 2, 3). Over the course of the past several months, I have had the opportunity to engage Mary in an extended conversation regarding her new publication resulting in a blog series. Thank-you Mary!  To God be the glory!

So without further ado, let’s dive in by asking . . .

Tom: Why did you write the book, Is Reality Secular?

"Finding Calcutta" cover
Finding Calcutta: What Mother Teresa Taught Me About Meaningful Work and Service by Mary Poplin (InterVarsity Press, 2008). Click here for an ESN blog series.

Mary: Actually I think I just never stopped writing the Appendix of Finding Calcutta after it went to press in 2008. The editor asked me to add a section to explain where I was in my intellectual crisis at that moment. I resisted at first because it changed the conversation entirely, but it did prompt me to keep writing as I was digging myself out of the hole of “plausible arguments” I had accepted. [Read more…] about Mary Poplin on “Is Reality Secular?”

Is Reality Secular? Part 2

The Matrix (1999)

What is real? . . . If you’re talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain (43)

Material Naturalism

With the above quote from The Matrix (1999), Mary Poplin introduces Part 2 of Is Reality Secular? What is the nature of reality? (Post on part 1). Morpheus’ words and the exploration of Material Naturalism bring back memories not only of a decade of conversation at Carnegie Mellon University as an InterVarsity Campus Field Staff (1996 – 2006), but also nearly a lifetime of my own internal wrestling. So how does Mary Poplin engage:

  • Everything is a Thing (Chapter 5)
  • Science as the Only Truth (Chapter 6)
  • The Purposeless Universe Emerged from Nothing (Chapter 7)
  • No Miracles Allowed (Chapter 8)
  • The Ethics of Things upon Things (Chapter 9)?

I particularly appreciate the insights she offers from the dialogue between Alvin Plantinga and Tom Nagel. Below is her conclusion to Chapter 5: Everything is a Thing.
[Read more…] about Is Reality Secular? Part 2