Here's the top five articles, books, websites, etc., that we've been reading or thinking about the past week. Let us know your thoughts on any/all of them. In addition, 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. The Big Questions: Have our colleges and universities lost sight of their purpose? (Jerry Pattengale, Books & Culture, November/December 2009) critiques Education's End: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on … [Read more...] about Week in Review: Big Questions Edition
universities
The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship: Discussion 1
George Marsden, Notre Dame's Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History Emeritus, wrote The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997) to take a step toward clarifying what the ancient enterprise of relating faith and learning might mean in the academy today (preface). How can this be accomplished in a time when the university has lost the ability to have substantive conversation regarding not only religion, but also anything that goes beyond the practical to the larger issues … [Read more...] about The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship: Discussion 1
Is there a Christian intellectual presence on your campus?
A few different strands of thought came together for me this morning in the form of a question. Let me throw out the question first, and then elaborate. Is there a public Christian intellectual presence on your campus? Here are the threads that came together for me. First, in our recent book discussion of John Stott's Your Mind Matters, Stott describes a kind of intellectualism that is very public. For example, in chapter 3, he "examines six spheres of Christian living, each of which is impossible without the … [Read more...] about Is there a Christian intellectual presence on your campus?
Can New Symbols Change Academic Culture?
Two weeks ago, I was at InterVarsity's Cedar Campus for our 2009 Midwest Faculty Conference. John Sommerville, professor emeritus of history at U. Florida and author of The Decline of the Secular University, was the featured speaker. He spoke about the influence of secularism on the ideas and structures of the university (as he has previously written in the Chronicle), but also discussed new opportunities for Christian scholars in a "postsecular" university. The third of his four talks addressed a key question: How … [Read more...] about Can New Symbols Change Academic Culture?
Book Review: The Decline of the Secular University
C. John Sommerville is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Florida. In 2006, Oxford University Press published a little book of his called The Decline of the Secular University, a selection from which was featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education. He will also be the featured speaker at this summer's Midwest Faculty Conference, so I thought I should read his book before spending a week with him in the cabins along Lake Huron. Sommerville summarizes his book as follows: My thesis in what follows … [Read more...] about Book Review: The Decline of the Secular University