Contextualization as an Ethical Practice: Part 1—The Socialized Body of the Biblical Scholar Posted on February 28, 2014 by Gregory CuéllarFor seminary students, lingering too long in the ancient historical distance can lead them to trivialize the text’s contemporary social relevance. Hence, how do we encourage and sustain discussions about pressing social issues alongside lessons on scientific biblical interpretive methods?…
Reading Philosophy in Christian Communities: Part 2—On The Importance of Philosophy for Seminary Education Posted on February 25, 2014 by J. Aaron SimmonsIn the first post in this series, I argued that invitational dialogue is the most promising way for Christian communities (whether ecclesial or academic) to appropriate philosophical inquiry. In this post, I will turn my attention to seminary education in particular and argue that reading philosophy should be an important aspect of such ministerial training….
Sipping the Firehose: The RSS Post! Posted on February 24, 2014 by A+ Brooke Lester, CuratorThe Web is huge, and everything is all over the place. You want to collect just the stuff you want, and put it in one place. What you want is “RSS.” “Really Simple Syndication” is both old and new: old, because it’s been around for 15 years or more; new, because every day somebody discovers RSS for the first time and wonders where it has been all her life…
Reading Philosophy in Christian Communities: Part 1—On Appropriating Philosophical Inquiry Posted on February 14, 2014 by J. Aaron SimmonsI went to college at an evangelical Christian liberal-arts institution. When I was an undergraduate, there was no philosophy major at my school and no professional philosopher on the faculty (this situation has, gratefully, changed since then). In fact, there was only one introduction to philosophy course offered and it was taught by a theologian. My professor was incredible and I credit him, nearly entirely, with my own choice to become a philosopher. Toward the end of the course, however, I told my professor that philosophy had hooked me and I wanted to go further in studying it. As we were finishing up our conversation that day, I asked him why the institution did not have a philosophy major since it seemed to be so deeply relevant to thinking well about religious life. He smiled and said: “Because the administration is scared of turning our students into atheists.” Though I expect he was being ironic, his comment struck me deeply that day and it has continued to trouble me ever since…
Integrating by Parts Posted on February 11, 2014 by A+ Brooke Lester, CuratorSomething there is that doesn’t love a silo. A curriculum is divided into fields are divided into courses are divided into units are divided into assignments. Ever review a student’s final paper for a course and find that, somehow, she didn’t succeed in using the knowledge and skills that she _actually did develop_ throughout the course? That final paper was constructed in a silo. There are a lot of factors from which the silo problem has been constructed and maintained. But, it’s pretty disheartening to imagine our learners going into their vocations and building silos around the challenges they find there…silos with high walls that keep out all the knowledge, intuition, skills, and habits that they’ve poured themselves into developing. My institution’s response-in-progress to the silo problem is a capstone project to the M.Div program, the “Final Integrative Paper…”