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Top ESN Posts of 2021

“Clifton Hill line at exit from Princes Bridge showing combined signal and tension structure.” by Public Record Office Victoria is marked with CC PDM 1.0

It has been a wonderful year at the Emerging Scholars Network! We’ve enjoyed great online roundtables, conversations, and book club discussions. The Early Career Track at the American Scientific Affiliation’s annual meeting built on our great partnership with that organization. We partnered with the Christian Scholars Foundation in announcing a $25,000 grant. We realized our dream of publishing our Scholar’s Compass posts in booklet form for use by individuals and groups.

Our blog has been a centerpiece of the Emerging Scholars Network. We’ve been blessed with great writing about the Christian scholar’s journey in the academy. This year was no exception. These were the favorite posts of 2021, based on views. If you missed any the first time, they might make for some great holiday reads.

10. An Artist Looks at Genesis: The Garden We Long For. Cam Anderson, an artist and former Graduate and Faculty Ministry Director wrote a wonderful series of reflections on the first chapters of Genesis from an artist’s perspective.

9. Vaccines: Try A Little Empathy. A writer for the Centers for Disease Control contributed this article, which could be helpful in some family conversations over the holidays.

8. Jesus, The Depth of our Reserves in Seasons of Weariness. Sara Chang gave these reflections for a group of Graduate and Faculty Ministry staff. She discusses the “double weariness” most of us have struggled with during the COVID pandemic–so pertinent amid a new wave.

7. Advent Reflection One: How Long, O Lord. This was the first of our current Advent Reflections series, written by the Vice President of GFM, Bobby Gross. I hope you will read the whole series if you have not already!

6. Incarnational Presence: The Incarnation Principle. Julian Reese, a GFM staff in Tennessee wins the award of the only person to have two in the top ten! This was the second in his Incarnational Presence series, a model for faithful Christian presence and engagement in our departments.

5. Incarnational Presence: An Introduction. This was the first post in Julian’s series. He quotes a non-believing faculty member at the beginning of the article: “But if you can become some kind of renewing presence, we’ll almost have to take that seriously. That, I think, is part of what Graduate/Faculty Ministries has done here at UT.” The series elaborates how we might become that presence.

4. A Christian Mathematician’s Apology: Integrating Faith and Mathematics. This was part of a longer article that Union University mathematician Matt Lunsford shared with us. Here is a post with all four articles and a bibliography.

3. Vocation: Discerning the Work to Which God is Calling Me. Former GFM staffer Jeremy Hatfield offers some very helpful guidance in discerning the call of God in our lives.

2. A Prayer for Graduate Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Cornell graduate student Rebecca Gerdes shared this wonderful prayer that obviously gave voice to many of our prayers!

1. Critical Race Theory: An Overview and Appraisal. Critical race theory has been a contentious issue this year. We asked Jeff Liou, whose doctoral research was on critical race theory and who serves as InterVarsity’s National Director of Theological Formation, to offer this appraisal. The article also offers several discussion questions for group.

We hope you enjoy this collection and that it whets your appetite for what we will post in 2022! And consider writing for us!

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2018’s Most Visited ESN Blog Posts

Drumroll . . .

Photo of Thor from Avengers: Infinity War
A display of superhuman power from Thor. (Photo © Disney)

  1. Science in Review: Thor, Thanos and Theology by Andy Walsh
  2. A Prayer for Those Finishing a Semester by Hannah Eagleson
  3. How should Christians in the sciences choose an epistemology? by Jim Stump is part of the STEAM Grant/Faith Science Series. Stay tuned for when the booklet goes to print.
  4. How Do You Talk About Faith with Secular Colleagues? (STEAM Grant Faith/Science Series) by Robert Kaita
  5. Apply for the ESN Urbana 18 Fellows Program. What a privilege to serve the Emerging Scholars at the Urbana Student Missions Conference. Stay tuned for a full report!

[Read more…] about 2018’s Most Visited ESN Blog Posts

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Our Top Posts of 2012

Thank you for making 2012 a great year for the Emerging Scholars Blog! Among our posts published last year, our top 10 most read posts includes a typical mix of advice for graduate school, spiritual formation, and, well, aliens:

  1. Nicholas Wolterstorff: Advice to Those Who Would Be Christian Scholars
  2. Henri Nouwen: From Loneliness to Solitude
  3. 13 Ways of Looking at Graduate School: Part 1
  4. Who’s Afraid of Angels and Aliens, Alienation and Etcetera?
  5. What is the biggest challenge to today’s apologist? (part of our interview series with Jim Sire)
  6. Who are your favorite poets?
  7. What Do Academics Think of Evangelicals?
  8. What is the greatest challenge facing the church today?
  9. $100 Scholarships to help Emerging Scholars Not Miss Urbana12
  10. Henri Nouwen: What’s the cure for loneliness?

Overall, our top 5 posts for the year (by number of readers) includes some old favorites:

  1. What’s the purpose of a university?
  2. Finding a Postdoc in the Sciences: Nailing the Interview
  3. What I Wish I’d Known About Graduate School: Surviving the Workload
  4. Nicholas Wolterstorff: Advice to Those Who Would Be Christian Scholars
  5. Jesus Didn’t Choose Scholars…

Happy New Year, and happy reading! BTW, if you’re looking for more of our top posts, check out our Top Posts page, which is automatically updated with the most read posts of the month, year, and all-time.

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Top Read Posts of 2011

scholar
Huh? What’s that you say? (“A Scholar,” Rembrandt, 1631)

Periodically, we like to look back to see what our most popular posts have been.  We did this in 2009, in July 2010, and again last December. You can also see a running log of our top posts. Popularity isn’t everything, but Tom and I like to keep tabs on what generates interest and spurs conversation.

Here are the most popular posts we published this past year.

  1. Jesus Didn’t Choose Scholars…  (which was also our most commented-upon post of the year)
  2. What I Wish I’d Known: Balancing Life and Graduate School (along with #3 and #6, part of Hannah Eagleson‘s guest series about graduate school)
  3. What I Wish I’d Known About Graduate School: Surviving the Workload
  4. What I Wish I’d Known About Faculty Life: Departmental Politics, Etc. (along with #9, part of Kevin Birth‘s series on faculty life)
  5. Why Bother with Advent? (the first post in our Advent series by Charlie Clauss)
  6. What I Wish I’d Known about Graduate School: Intro
  7. What have you been watching over Christmas Break? (in which Tom Grosh re-entered the Tardis)
  8. Head, Heart & Hands: Fragmented Faith and Fragmented People (Intro/Chapter 1)
  9. What I Wish I’d Known About Faculty Life: The Tenure Track, Etc.
  10. How Do Christian Faculty Integrate Their Faith and Work? (which included a link to an academic paper about the  InterVarsity Midwest Faculty Conference)
What were your favorite posts of the past year – from our blog or others? 

 

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Top Posts

  • A Prayer for Those Finishing a Semester
  • The Message of Genesis 1
  • Faith and Reason, Part 2: Augustine
  • C.S. Lewis on Scripture. God's Word in Human Words. Part 1 of 2
  • Faith and Reason, Part 3: Aquinas

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