New video device: the book
November 1, 2008
… also known as the “Wii Read”:
“Watch out Guitar Hero and Rock Band. There is a new best selling game on the market. Maybe now my students will learn to start reading their textbook and how much useful information is in it.”
“Faculty, students and alumni want voice in selecting next Baylor president”
October 29, 2008
A story posted at the Baptist Standard:
“The Baylor Faculty Senate, the Baylor Alumni Association and Baylor Student Government each passed resolutions in recent weeks urging the schools’ board of regents to include faculty, staff, alumni, students and other constituencies as voting members of the presidential search committee.”
Audio: “Why study church history?”
October 27, 2008
‘Ian the Ruminator’ gave a lecture on this topic, and shares a link to the mp3 at his blog.
Theology program for laypeople now on iTunes
October 24, 2008
The Theology Program, located at Dallas Theological Seminary, can now be accessed via iTunes.
(Michael Patton says some unfairly nasty things about Mac/Apple at this post, but I share the link nonetheless, out of sheer grace. - Admin)
A window into Christian scholarship
October 23, 2008
Andrew Tooley, a doctoral advisee of Dr. David Bebbington, posts a link to Bebbington’s curriculum vitae (pdf), on his blog, Exploring the Study of Religious History. The CV is an impressive document reflecting a level of achievement to which scholars of any field and religious persuasion can aspire.
Bebbington is best known for his work on the history of evangelicalism. He classifies someone as an evangelical who possesses all of the following four characteristics (from his Wikipedia page):
- biblicism, a particular regard for the Bible (e.g. all spiritual truth is to be found in its pages)
- crucicentrism, a focus on the atoning work of Christ on the cross
- conversionism, the belief that human beings need to be converted
- activism, the belief that the gospel needs to be expressed in effort
These criteria first appeared in his book, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s. Some scholars have challenged Bebbington’s work. Others have appreciated and embraced it.
I once had the privilege of meeting Dr. Bebbington and hearing him speak in a small, intimate venue among evangelicals. I was impressed with the sincerity of his faith, and I believe his pursuit of academic excellence is an outgrowth of his faith.
For more information on evangelicalism as a topic of study, see the website of the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicalism, at Wheaton.
David Bebbington faculty page, University of Stirling (UK)
To PPT or not to PPT?
October 22, 2008
Two recent essays weigh the benefits of Powerpoint:
“Data Dump: PowerPointing the Way to the End of Teaching“, by Ivan Kenneally at Culture11:
“As a teacher at a technical institute (and a very good institute at that) it’s impossible for me to ignore that PowerPoint has become the preferred pedagogic crutch for college professors and a basic expectation of their students. But the added technology doesn’t seem to produce any added value for our increasingly fickle consumers of higher education”
… and Brian Lowery at the Preaching Today blog asks, “PowerPoint: Yea or Nay?“:
“The love affair with PowerPoint continued in such a manner that it spilt over from the academic and business worlds into the world of preaching. It wasn’t long before preachers were just as love struck as my professors. And I wondered: Is this a good thing?”
The value of a seminary education
October 20, 2008
By Kevin Bauder, Associate Professor and Chair of the Systematic and Historical Theology Departments at Central Baptist Theological Seminary, Minneapolis. Posted at Rod Decker’s New Testament Resources blog.
“You want people to listen to you? One of the best things that you can do is to finish school.”
Baylor University gives students incentives to re-take SAT
October 16, 2008
Terry Mattingly at GetReligion ponders the (officially Baptist) institution’s motives, and Baylor’s related self-identity crisis.
Should you write a masters thesis?
October 16, 2008
An answer from John Stackhouse, Professor of Theology and Culture at Regent College:
“There is nothing short of tackling a doctoral dissertation or writing an actual book to acquaint you with what it means to conduct frontline academic research and to write a complex academic report on it. If you want a “discernment exercise” to know whether an academic career is for you, try a master’s thesis.”
“Jesus Didn’t Die for a Campus Ministry: The Spiritual Danger of Unchurched Spirituality”
October 14, 2008
An essay posted by Russell Moore, Dean of the School of Theology and Senior Vice President for Academic Administration at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary:
“The reason many college students identify primarily with a campus ministry rather than with a church is not because of any flaw in most campus ministry organizations. It is because, too often, we evangelical Christians have a deficient view of the church.”
Two posts on a related issue, individualism and the (Western) Christian:
Mark Olson: “On Your Personal Jesus”
Mark D. Roberts: “Lone Ranger Christianity“
Are you an ‘enemy of closure?’
October 7, 2008
An intriguing post from the evangelical outpost by Ken Myers on the findings of University of Virginia English professor Mark Edmundson, who says the younger generation of students he teaches are too busy to stop and reflect, being overly eager
“… to study, travel, make friends, make more friends, read everything (superfast), take in all the movies, listen to every hot band, keep up with everyone they’ve ever known. … They live to multiply possibilities. They’re enemies of closure. For as much as they want to do and actually manage to do, they always strive to keep their options open, never to shut possibilities down before they have to.”
Read Myers’s post, “Possibility Junkies.”
Edmundson’s article: “Dwelling in Possibilities.”
Congratulations, Navin! Reverend Mike!
October 4, 2008
… on receiving an official copy of your dissertation, “Waters of Justice and Rivers of Righteousness,” in the mail.
New homeschooler’s forum
October 3, 2008
… at Sharper Iron.
Do we need a Christian university?
September 30, 2008
A lengthy and very well-informed paper by Nigel Paterson is posted at Christian Today:
“The concept of a university was substantially a Christian innovation, yet most modern universities are secular institutions. This paper surveys briefly the historical background which shows how this came about and the institutional landscape of higher education today. Next, biblical perspectives applicable to all Christians involved in higher education are explored. At the heart of the paper, there lies a discussion of the arguments for and against a Christian university, and the characteristics of such a new Christian university, as envisaged, are presented. The paper is intended to provoke readers across the world to thought, discussion and a more informed response to the many possibilities for Christian service within higher education.”
Read the entire thing here.
