Emerging Scholars Blog

InterVarsity's Emerging Scholars Network

shalom

Book Review: Educating for Shalom

educating for shalomEducating for Shalom, by Nicholas Wolterstorff, Grand Rapids: Wm. B Eerdmans, 2004.

Summary: This collection of essays and talks written or given over a 30 year period traces Nicholas Wolterstorff’s journey of thinking about Christian higher education, the integration of faith and learning, and his growing concern that education result in the pursuit of justice and shalom.

Nicholas Wolterstorff is an emeritus professor of philosophical theology at Yale, having previously taught on the faculty at Calvin College, a Christian college in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The collection of essays and presentations that make up this collection were written or given over a 30 year period and chronicle how Wolterstorff’s conception of the task of Christians in higher education to connect faith and learning has changed over this time period. [Read more…] about Book Review: Educating for Shalom

Faithful Is Successful: Learn to Discern (Scholar’s Compass)

seed packets photo
Photo by Pictoscribe

“One does well to listen to the “quiet, still voice” of one’s conscience in daily decisions. When something does not feel right, it usually is not.” ~ Soo Chuen Tan, “Investing As a Calling,” Faithful Is Successful (2014)

Reflection

Soo Chuen Tan seems to have found what many have spent years seeking . . . not wealth nor earthly wisdom, but peace in the will of God. It has taken me a couple of decades to get to this place. I left a highly secure job as a high school teacher in a beautiful suburban setting, teaching subjects that I loved most to share. Life was ideal and my income was strong. Yet, God had other plans. Within five years, my husband and I had four children and in the sixth year my mother had a paralyzing stroke the month before my husband was to start graduate school. I had decided that it was time for me to resign and to focus my commitments on my family. [Read more…] about Faithful Is Successful: Learn to Discern (Scholar’s Compass)

Living Toward Shalom

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But seek the shalom of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its shalom you will find your shalom. —Jeremiah 29:7

In the last week of March, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship’s Graduate and Faculty Ministries (GFM) staff team will come together for our annual national staff conference. I am looking forward to this year’s exploration of Living Toward Shalom.

As you may guess, we have a number of significant pre-conference readings and learning assignments designed to prepare us not only for our learning together, but also what the Giver of Shalom might want to do among us and through us for one another and the University. A glimpse . . . [Read more…] about Living Toward Shalom

Finding Light in the Darkness: Reflections on Recent Decisions in Missouri and New York

Gethsemane - Matthew 26:36-46

Image: Christ on Gethsemane, Jesus MAFA

Isaiah 61:1-3b, 8

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair. [Read more…] about Finding Light in the Darkness: Reflections on Recent Decisions in Missouri and New York

Devotions: Beatitudes (7) — God’s Peace Corps

You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family. — Matthew 5:9, The Message

Peaceable Kingdom

Perhaps no other saying from Jesus needs attention as this one in our very dangerous and destructive world. World and area events point to the need for “peacemaking.” What is a peacemaker? Can the ordinary believer be a peacemaker? The answer, says Jesus, is a resounding YES! The church group to which I belong actually has “peacemaking” as one of its core values:

We value all human life and promote forgiveness, understanding, reconciliation and non-violent resolution of conflict.

Such peace is not merely a cease-fire or a cessation of hostilities or even a truce. While the Jewish citizens of Jesus’ day enjoyed what was called the pax Romana, an external peace, the first century Christian writer Epictetus gave this comment:

While the Emperor may give peace from war on land and sea, he is unable to give peace from passion, grief and envy. He cannot give peace of heart, for which man yearns more than even for outward peace. [Read more…] about Devotions: Beatitudes (7) — God’s Peace Corps