Technically, I’m on vacation this week, but — just for you — I’m taking a vacation from my vacation to write a quick blog post. Since I’m on vacation, though, I’m not going to spend that much time on this post. So, without further ado, here are our 10 most read posts of 2010:
- Where did you find your megaphone? (May 6) — Our first post in a series from PhD candidate Janine Giordano about her experiences with one foot in the evangelical church and one foot in the academy. Bonus: her 2nd post in the series, On Fitting in-With the Scholarship, was the 5th-most read post.
- Amish Grace & Pop Culture (March 5) — Tom Grosh reflects on the transfiguration of Donald Kraybill‘s scholarly book on the Nickel Mines shootings into a Lifetime channel movie-of-the-week.
- ESN interview: Alissa Wilkinson (June 7) — I speak with Alissa Wilkinson, associate editor for Comment, faculty member at The King’s College, and founding editor of The Curator, about her understanding of vocation.
- Best Books for Graduate Students? (Feb. 1) — ESN solicited your suggestions for the best books that all graduate students should read.
- Supreme Court Rules Against CLS (June 28) — I broke down the Supreme Court’s ruling in CLS v. Martinez and shared a plethora of links about this landmark case about religious student organizations at public universities.
- Christians and Conflict in the Academy (April 19) — Interestingly enough, my preview of CLS v. Martinez, as well as a discussion of the departure of Old Testament Studies giant Bruce Waltke from Reformed Theological Seminary over comments he made about evolution and Genesis.
- Changing the World with James Davison Hunter (August 2) — My reaction (not really a review) of James Davison Hunter‘s book, To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World, unquestionably one of the most important books for Christians published in 2010.
- Coming Soon from InterVarsity Press: Constantine, Science, Business, and More (Sept. 30) — In the first of what we hope to be many visits, IVP’s Nick Liao stops by to provide a preview of new books coming out from IVP.
- Interview: Jimmy Lin, Medical and Scientific Doxologist (May 17) — ESN interviewed Jimmy Lin, a man of many degrees-in-progress: MD, PhD, Masters of Public Health, MA in religion. Jimmy calls himself a scientific doxologist, and we discussed what that term means and why it’s so important to Jimmy’s sense of vocation.
- Chasing Wisdom with Nathan Foster (June 2) — Part 1 of Tom Grosh’s interview with Nathan Foster about his book Wisdom Chaser: Finding My Father at 14,000 Feet. Tom and Nathan discuss the book, which deals with Nathan’s relationship with his famous father Richard Foster, but they also talk about how Nathan discerned a call to higher education (he serves as Assistant Professor of Social Work at Spring Arbor University).
Note that these are only posts published in 2010. You might also want to check a few of our older posts that have become perennial favorites:
- What’s the purpose of a university?
- Why Get a Ph.D. in the Humanities?
- Colleges ignore life’s biggest questions
- Wendell Berry on the University
- Bobby Gross: Living the Christian Year
Enjoy!
, maps out a method of reading the Bible that recognizes both its authority as inspired Scripture and our contemporary context. McKnight observes that we all “pick and choose” the passages of Scripture that we focus on. The keys, he argues, are reading the Bible within its overall Story (picked up from McKnight’s earlier book, 
), listening to the person of God speak through the Bible, and trusting both the Spirit and the Great Tradition of the church to help us discern the proper interpretation and application of specific passages. McKnight helpfully distinguishes between reading the Bible through Tradition (which fossilizes the interpretations of the past and elevates the Tradition to authority over Scripture) and reading with Tradition (which honors and listens to the Tradition, but also challenges it when appropriate).