Scholar's Compass is our ongoing online devotional for academics. In it, we ask authors to write about how their academic vocations and their lives as followers of Christ fit together in a simple format: A quote from Scripture or a Christian author, a reflection, a question to think about, and a prayer. Since we launched the series in 2014, Scholar's Compass has been one of our most widely read features. You can browse the whole series here. In this post, ESN author Christian Brady begins his Scholar's Compass series … [Read more...] about Reshaped, Reworked, and Redeemed (Scholar’s Compass Transitions Series Summer 2017)
Scholar's Compass
The Perfection of our Praise: Reclaiming our Inner Folly on Palm Sunday (Scholar’s Compass)
For this Palm Sunday, ESN author and classical college professor Brandon Spun offers a meditation in the tradition of Erasmus's Praise of Folly or G. K. Chesterton's meditations on the lightheartedness of the saints (See Orthodoxy, "The Eternal Revolution," 5 paragraphs from the end of chapter). May it increase your joy in celebrating Christ our King! Scripture He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” (Luke 19:40, ESV) Reflection Palm Sunday clarifies the purpose of … [Read more...] about The Perfection of our Praise: Reclaiming our Inner Folly on Palm Sunday (Scholar’s Compass)
Words of Authority (Scholar’s Compass)
Scripture “See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!” (Gal 6:11, NIV) Reflection I have the privilege of being an engineer who follows the great engineer of the universe. Our great engineer set out the laws of nature so that we can harness them and respond to his command to “subdue” the earth. In large engineering projects such as the construction sites I work on, engineers rely on documents issued by others to make decisions and build things under time constraint. A “for construction” stamp … [Read more...] about Words of Authority (Scholar’s Compass)
The Spiritual Act of Naming: Truth Telling in Writing (Writing As a Spiritual Discipline Series)
Heather Walker Peterson continues our new series, Writing As a Spiritual Discipline. See the first piece in the series here, and see other work by Heather here. Telling the truth is a task entrusted to Adam as he names the animals; it is a responsibility of redeemed humankind which has been told the truth about itself in Jesus. Oliver O'Donovan My desire to write comes from an experience of reading. I read a transforming word. As I am transformed, I wish to influence transformation in a confusing and unjust … [Read more...] about The Spiritual Act of Naming: Truth Telling in Writing (Writing As a Spiritual Discipline Series)
Faith and Doubt in Emily Dickinson’s “This World is not Conclusion”
Image: Daguerreotype of the poet Emily Dickinson, taken circa 1848, cropped and retouched. (Original is scratched.) From the Todd-Bingham Picture Collection and Family Papers, Yale University Manuscripts & Archives Digital Images Database, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. In the public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons. Reflection Emily Dickinson's poem, “This World is not Conclusion” is a paradigmatic example of her ambivalence about Christian faith. It reveals, as many of her poems do, her struggle … [Read more...] about Faith and Doubt in Emily Dickinson’s “This World is not Conclusion”