At The Ends and Goals of Higher Education in Twenty-First-Century America: Change and the Calling of the Christian Educator, I had the privilege of getting to know a number of Christians who serve Christ in higher education. One such faculty was Dr. Jay McGhee, who serves as Assistant Professor, Department of Natural Sciences, Northwest Missouri State University. In follow-up to our time together, I asked him a few questions regarding his life in higher education. We pray that you will find these words an … [Read more...] about Faculty Interview: Jay McGhee, Natural Sciences
research
When God Talks Back by T.M. Luhrmann
For the past several weeks, I've been reading T.M. Luhrmann's When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God. The book addresses a simple, but profound, question from the perspective of a nonbeliever: how can seemingly rational, otherwise normal people claim to discern God's will, to hear God's voice, and, sometimes, to even see or feel spiritual beings? Luhrmann asks this with genuine curiosity, both personal and professional. A psychological anthropologist who has written previous … [Read more...] about When God Talks Back by T.M. Luhrmann
Does “real thinking” reduce religious belief? [Updated]
Last week, one of The Atlantic's Study of the Day articles spurred a lively conversation on our Facebook Wall. To give you a sense of the study, see the following tweet, which I hope was the result of sloppy nonexistent copy-editing. Even the religious lose faith when they take time to really think: theatln.tc/IdpELp #StudyoftheDay by @hansvillarica— TheAtlantic/Health (@TheAtlanticHLTH) April 30, 2012 (Unfortunately, one can't simply assume that poor editing can be blamed for this laughable tweet, because … [Read more...] about Does “real thinking” reduce religious belief? [Updated]
How Academics See Evangelicals: A Tentative Reading List
Last week, I asked for recommendations for resources on how academics view evangelical Christians. Thank you for all of your great suggestions! In addition to the comments on the blog, I received several more suggestions by email, as well as a generous offer: T. M. Luhrmann, whose book When God Talks Back inspired by post and research project, contacted me and offered to send me a review copy of her copy. I'll be writing at least one post about the book later this year, most likely in June. Image credit: Wikipedia … [Read more...] about How Academics See Evangelicals: A Tentative Reading List
“Science and medicine must be separate from religion”
Thank-you to the friend of ESN who in response to my FB Wall post on George Washington U. Professor Tapped to Lead Tropical-Medicine School - On Hiring - The Chronicle of Higher Education (Audrey Williams June. 6/23/2011), reminded me Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) is not affiliated w/Baylor University (BU). As I hopped on-line, the controversy regarding the relationship between Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and Baylor University (BU) slowly came back to me. It is another difficult institutional history marked … [Read more...] about “Science and medicine must be separate from religion”