One of the most gratifying and rewarding experiences in both my spiritual and intellectual life was taking a year to read the Bible from my own discipline.Read more…
Discernment
Discernment in Proverbs is the means to foresee potential results from our decisions. Read more…
Daniel: Notes for Bible Study Groups, Part 4
Why does a book of the Bible spend so much time on a king who isn’t following God? Check out Kathy Cooper’s study notes for some ideas. Read more…
Daniel: Notes for Bible Study Groups, Part 3
“There’s a difference between being functional in a culture and assimilating into that culture.” —Carl EllisRead more…
Daniel: Notes for Bible Study Groups, Part 2
How do Daniel and his friends respond to efforts to assimilate them into Babylonian culture? And also to a crisis for all the wise men of Babylon? Kathy Cooper shares notes for Bible study groups. Read more…
Seeking God’s Wisdom in Strange Places
The author guidelines for Scholar’s Compass posts advise beginning with “a quotation from Scripture or a Christian writer”. The first quotation above is neither. It is an extract from the Instruction of Amenemope (variously named Amenophis, Amenemopet, or Amen-em-apt), an ancient Egyptian work of uncertain date giving advice of a practical and ethical kind from a father to a son. Read more…
Gates and “Keys” (Scholar’s Compass)
Most days, on my way to the library, I have to pick my way through a narrow passageway between Senate House (the ceremonial headquarters of Cambridge University where degrees are conferred) and Gonville and Caius College, dodging speeding cyclists, tourists stopping to take photos, and long crocodiles of schoolchildren. Read more…
Wisdom: Cosmic, Practical and Playful (Scholar’s Compass)
In the first post in this series, I introduced the mysterious figure of Lady Wisdom, a key character in the nine chapters that introduce the book of Proverbs. This figure, gendered as female, stands in the streets and calls the passers-by to feast at her house, eating her bread, drinking her wine, and learning from her to “walk in the way of insight” (Proverbs 9:1-6). Read more…
Dining with Lady Wisdom (Scholar’s Compass)
The figure of Lady Wisdom, as depicted in the nine chapters opening the book of Proverbs, is a mysterious one.Read more…
Navigating Wisdom: How Wisdom Calls Out in the Streets
David Carlson wraps up his series by exploring how wisdom cries aloud in every subject. Read more…
Scholar’s Compass Navigating Wisdom: How I Discovered Wisdom Literature
David Carlson explores what he learned about the academic life from biblical Wisdom Literature. As a pastor in a university town, he encourages scholars in the pursuit of wisdom, which lets us express biblical truth through observation and conversation.Read more…
Book Review: Hear, My Son
Proverbs 1-9 is an extended address on the value of wisdom from a father or elder teacher to a son or student that introduces the wisdom sayings of the remainder of Proverbs. In Hear, My Son: Teaching & Learning inRead more…
Book Review: Jesus The Sage
My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom areRead more…
Devotions: Wisdom – Timing
“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who areRead more…
Devotions: “In-spite-of” Wisdom
“For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.Read more…
Devotions: Wisdom – Applicability
“My son, do not lose sight of these—keep sound wisdom and discretion, and they will be life for your soul and adornment for your neck. Then you will walk on your way securely, and your foot will not stumble.” (ProverbsRead more…
Devotions: Wisdom – Convergence
“And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it . . .’ (Genesis 1:28) The crowning glory of creation is humankind made in the image of the Creator God. Rather than a myth orRead more…
ESN Devotions: Wisdom Series
Of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, 200 chiefs, and all their kinsmen under their command (I Chronicles 12:32, ESV). Biblical wisdom in a university or higher education context, or any context for thatRead more…
Book Review: A Public Faith
Miroslav Volf (Henry B. Wright Professor of Systematic Theology / Founding Director, Yale Center for Faith & Culture)* believes it is possible to be unapologetically Christian, or otherwise religious, in a pluralistic world without resorting to violence or, alternatively, isolating yourself intoRead more…
Psalm 90: The Wisdom and Way of Dwelling in the Lord (Thomas Trevethan)
I am reprinting this Bible study, originally written by Thomas Trevethan for InterVarsity Faculty Ministry — the original can be found here. Tom is a veteran InterVarsity staff worker who has served at the University of Michigan for many years, now working with facultyRead more…