As I mentioned in Friday’s Week in Review, my InterVarsity colleague Tom Trevethan pointed me to a recent post by Fuller president Richard J. Mouw on Duke’s Call & Response blog.
Mouw asks:
What difference does it make to open class with prayer?
InterVarsity's Emerging Scholars Network
As I mentioned in Friday’s Week in Review, my InterVarsity colleague Tom Trevethan pointed me to a recent post by Fuller president Richard J. Mouw on Duke’s Call & Response blog.
Mouw asks:
What difference does it make to open class with prayer?
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. Mary and the Modern University (First Things): In light of the false perception that religion has little to do with thought, R. R. Reno (Theology, Creighton) asks:
What, then, does Christianity add to academic life? What should make teachers and students at Catholic colleges and universities–and other Christian institutions of higher education–confident in the intellectual integrity of their enterprise?
Reno offers the surprising suggestion that we look to Mary’s response to the Annunciation:
When the Angel of the Lord comes to Mary, she is told a truth–the truth of human destiny–that she cannot understand. Her response: “Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.â€
Good stuff. (HT: Kenny Benge)
Photo credit: B Tal via Flickr
2. Vocational concerns in higher education. In addition to the material covered in The End of Philosophy? – check out the Sociology The Satisfaction Gap (Scott Jaschik. Inside Higher Ed. 8/17/2010). The article comes face-to-face with the question of how to prepare students for graduate school. In particular, student formation along with appreciation of student (possibly faculty) fancies/interest doesn’t bring to the attention of students how much research stats comprise the work of Sociology. Comment from Tom: Maybe it also indicates some loss of direction of taking some the bigger picture into consideration when engaged in Sociological research and interpretation. I’ll survey my friends in Sociology. Feel free to also post your thoughts.
Lou Gehrig, international admissions, and Richard Mouw on praying in class after the jump.
[Read more…] about Week in Review: Mary Meets Lou Gehrig Edition
Tonight, as part of Biblical Seminary’s Conversations on Christianity & Culture lecture series, Andy Crouch speaks on Playing God: Christian Reflections on the Use and Misuse of Power. What are your thoughts on the topic? Any questions I should ask the author of Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling (InterVarsity Press, 2008), winner of Christianity Today’s 2009 Book Award for Christianity and Culture? I’ll take some notes and share what he presents.
PS. Culture Making is one of my Favorite book[s] on Christ and culture … Crouch provides an excellent springboard for conversation by the larger Evangelical community in his writing (book, blog, Christianity Today) and speaking. Due to the variety of contexts for the conversation, it’s very hard to respond to Mike’s question inquiry for a favorite book. In my life, some combination of the writing of Richard Mouw [He Shines in All That’s Fair: Culture and Common Grace (Eerdmans, 2002), When the Kings Come Marching In: Isaiah and the New Jerusalem (Eerdmans, 2002 revised edition)] and Abraham Kuyper [Lectures on Calvinism (Princeton Theological Seminary, 1898) supplemented by Peter Heslam’s Creating a Christian Worldview: Abraham Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism (Eerdmans, 1998)] stimulated a larger perspective shaped by my education at Grove City College [See Must Reads for an American College Education?]. I’m feeling another post coming on and the PS being longer the original post. Better stop now. More later 😉
I occasionally get asked how much good ESN’s mentoring program can really do, since mentors and mentees are generally on different campuses and rarely, if ever, meet in person. A great example of the potential of long-distance mentoring appeared in my inbox this morning. [Read more…] about Mentoring at a Distance