Emerging Scholars Blog

InterVarsity's Emerging Scholars Network

religious studies

Listening to our colleagues: Muslim, secular, Christian. Interview with David Vishanoff

muslims photo

ESN continues its series of interviews with authors of Faithful Is Successful, with Oliver Marjot interviewing David Vishanoff. You can read Oliver’s previous post on David’s chapter in Faithful Is Successful here. David Vishanoff is an associate professor in the Religious Studies program at the University of Oklahoma, where he strives to put his theory of sacrificial listening into practice in both teaching and scholarship.His research is principally concerned with how religious people interpret and conceptualize sacred texts—both their own, and those of other religious traditions. He lives in Norman, Oklahoma with his wife, their two teenagers, his parents, and his mother-in-law, in a large home that often welcomes students and friends from church.

1. Oli: What was it that drew you to studying non-Christian religions in the first place?  And why Islam especially?

David: At my Christian college there was no course on world religions. But it seems to me that studying Christianity without studying other religions is not a complete Christian education: a vital part of following Jesus is understanding our neighbours, so that’s what I chose to do. In my experience, the Church is not very good at listening to others – it has enough people to be its mouth, but it needs to grow bigger ears. I wanted to be the Church’s ears. [Read more…] about Listening to our colleagues: Muslim, secular, Christian. Interview with David Vishanoff

Sacrificial Listening (Scholar’s Compass)

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Photo by francisco_osorio

Some Christians have felt that this basic insight into the constructed nature of all human knowledge undermines the absolute truth of Christian doctrines, but I found that it only deepened my Christian convictions about the depravity of human nature and the grievous effects of the fall upon the way we learn and know. - David Vishanoff, “Sacrificial Listening,” Faithful Is Successful p. 215 [Read more…] about Sacrificial Listening (Scholar’s Compass)

Becoming a Thoughtful Christian in the Secular Academy: Part II

University of Montana. Photo taken by John Hundley.

Last week I wrote about my journey as a developing follower of Jesus in a secular university.  I told you that I’d become a stronger Christian during my time in the academic world, and now I want to tell you a little bit about what happened in my mind and heart during that time. This post is, to an extent, a response to Andy Walsh’s question in the comment thread of last week’s post in this series:

You mentioned that your Christian faith is stronger as a result of the experience. Did you find that aspects of your theology changed during that time? To put it another way, were there any shifts in what you believed along with how strongly you believed them? […]  I was just musing that we (Christians broadly) talk a lot about strengthening/deepening our faith, and I wondered if that was a general phenomenon, or if it correlated with particular beliefs. In other words, is it possible to have a strong/deep faith in anything, or are there certain beliefs which are more amenable to that kind of reinforcement.

I came into college a brand-new believer and left a pretty new believer — going on 6 years now, nearly all of which passed while attending the U of Montana. So you could probably guess that my thinking has been shaped a lot by the academic world. And you’d be right. The methodology I began to put to use in school sparked further personal research outside of the classroom. The critical, “outsider” lens, which is generally employed in the secular classroom, caught my attention. Secular scholars have come up with some really tough arguments that I needed to overcome or adapt if I could continue to believe in the creation of the world — however long that process took — and the physical resurrection of Jesus.

Those are two beliefs, creation and resurrection, that my academic research has greatly strengthened. [Read more…] about Becoming a Thoughtful Christian in the Secular Academy: Part II

Becoming a Thoughtful Christian in the Secular Academy

University of Montana. Photo taken by John Hundley.

One month ago yesterday I walked the stage to pick up a diploma in Religious Studies at a secular institution. And I’m a stronger Christian than ever. In the Religious Studies department at the University of Montana I learned how to study history with careful eyes, how to debate subtle philosophy with gentleness and confidence, how to respect professors and peers with opposing views on foundational beliefs, and, perhaps most importantly, I learned how to critically examine my place in and beliefs about the story that I’ve come to recognize, more and more, as truth.

Because of its students’ deep love for The Beatles and its reputation for encouraging “progressive thinking,” the University of Montana is known by some as “Little Berkeley.” As you know, so-called academic progressive thinking doesn’t include positive thoughts of the Christian God. Overt anti-Christian agendas are not uncommon from the front of the classroom. But, as much as you might suppose that such agendas are destructive for the young Christian, these provided the fuel for the examination of my own deep beliefs. One of the most antagonistically atheist professors at the U of M said this in an email correspondence between us some time ago:

The problem is not when interpretations are challenged, but the opposite – when students simply assume a supposedly authoritative interpretive tradition and don’t think and ask about it.

[Read more…] about Becoming a Thoughtful Christian in the Secular Academy

A Christian Reflection on The Oscars and Lent

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The Oscars

On Sunday night more than 1,000,000,000 people participated in the cultural festival that is the 85th Oscar Awards Ceremony.  I can’t even begin to imagine the impact that Hollywood has on our culture’s development, and if there’s an opportune time to catch a glimpse of the dialectical conversation between the influence of the big screen and the values of our current culture, Sunday night’s celebration was it.

The first thing out of the mouth of the spokesman for the winning visual effects team of Life of Pi was this:

“The irony is not lost on any of us up here that, in a film whose central premise is to ask the audience what they believe is real or not real, most of what you see is—well—it’s fake.”

Fake or not, films have an incredibly powerful influence on the shape of our culture.  Directors are the modern day priests. Actors and actresses are our prophets.

The Oscars are, among other things, a celebration of story — the story of our culture.  [Read more…] about A Christian Reflection on The Oscars and Lent