Faith & Academics
"Finally, someone recognizes my calling to serve God as a professor," one university
faculty member sighed in relief. Christian professors have a very unique and
strategic role of service to God within the university, but they often feel
isolated and discouraged. Faculty colleagues are sometimes aloof or even hostile,
and the Christian community sometimes does not seem to value theoretical research
or the life of the mind. The God-is-dead mentality has ruled on campus for decades.
Largely, in today's unaffiliated universities (and sometimes in religious ones),
philosophical inquiry seldom allows for faith in the supernatural. The physical
sciences assume a priori a naturalistic worldview that renders God irrelevant
and the humanities have been taken over by multiculturalist-postmodern thought.
Christ-professing professors often find themselves marginalized and deprived
of free speech rights.
However, a quiet trend toward bringing religiously informed thought back
under the umbrella of higher education is gaining momentum. Faculty Commons
(formerly Christian Leadership Ministries) the creator and host of LeaderU.com,
will host academicians for the National Faculty Leadership Conference (NFLC)
June 27-29 2008 in the Washington, D.C. area. The NFLC is open to college
and university professors and administrators and to those in graduate school
preparing for a professorship.
If you are not a university faculty or staff member, do you know one? Please
tell any Christian professors you know about this strategic conference. At
the NFLC, Christian scholars will explore academic integration—the balanced
and appropriate blending of a personal faith in Jesus Christ with the pursuits
of teaching, research and writing. They will learn ministry skills to appropriately
reach students and colleagues with the claims of Jesus Christ. Professors
will meet others in their own academic discipline as well as like-minded professors
of all disciplines from across the nation and several other countries. Meanwhile,
explore the "outrageous idea of Christian scholarship," as one of our Special
Focus authors puts it. .
—Updated by Paul Hartgrove, Editor/Webmaster, Leadership
University
Featured Articles:
The Christian Scholar in the 21st
Century
Alister McGrath, Ph.D.
Dr. Alister McGrath of Oxford University explains the history of evangelicalism
in the university and in academic scholarship. He outlines why evangelicalism
abandoned the academy in the past and how it can regain a foothold in the
university once again.
On Integrating Your Faith
Rae Mellichamp, Ph.D.
The difference between the Christian who happens to be a professor and the
professor who happens to be a Christian can be measured by how well one has
thought through the issue of how the Christian worldview resonates with his
or her academic discipline.
The Calling of a Christian Professor
Walter Bradley, Ph.D.
From the Biblical precedents for a professor's calling to addressing common
fears about having a public faith and specific ways in which faculty can minister
to students and colleagues on campus, Dr. Bradley speaks from years of experience
and draws from numerous personally tested ministry strategies.
Faith and Scholarship
Rich McGee, Th.M.
Rich McGee, director of research and publications for Christian Leadership
Ministries, illustrates why faith can and should be the cornerstone of the
university and not the doormat, as it has often become.
Ministering in the Secular University: A Guide
for Christian Professors and Staff (full online book)
Dr. Rae Mellichamp
In the past 100 years, Christianity has been relegated to the unimportant
or trivial regions of the university. Today, there is no place in the university
for Christian thought--no place in the curriculum for Christian ideals and
no place in the university's research enterprise for Christian ideas. The
issue must be addressed on two fronts--an intellectual front and a personal
front. The intellectual front has to do with the appropriate role of Christianity
in the university. The personal front has to do with how Christian academics
attempt to impact students, associates, and individual universities for Christ.
This book is for the serious Christian academic concerned with having an impact
for Christ in the university.
Laboring for God
Mike Sorgius
From the weekly devotional of Christian Leadership Ministries written by the
National Field Director. "Sometimes, we fall into the trap of separating the
'spiritual' from the 'secular' callings we have. But God has ordained all
honorable labor as His gift to us, and a central arena of our lives to bring
glory to Him." See archived MMM's at www.facultylinc.com/local/mmm.nsf.
Professors Who Integrate Academics & Faith:
The Courageous Christian Professor
Jim Jones, Ph.D.
The personal story of a professor who decided to take a stand for his faith
on campus.
Toward Integrating Your Life and Your
Work
Edward Harris, Ph.D.
Does your work matter to God? Is your vocation an integral part of who you
are as a Christian? The answers have implications for all believers in secular
vocations, especially those in academia.
When Worldviews Collide
Armand Nicholi, M.D.
A professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Nicholi has developed
an undergraduate course at Harvard comparing the worldviews of C. S. Lewis
and Sigmund Freud. This article contrasts their viewpoints on life, pain and
death. Nicholi's class provides a fine example of integrating faith with the
teaching role of professors.
God Grades the Papers
Carol Valentine
"As professors, we affect so many more lives than most people do," writes
Carol Valentine. She shares how she maintains her Christian witness in the
university.
Related Links:
FacultyLinc.com
http://facultylinc.com
FacultyLinc, a Web portal where Christian professors access ideas, encouragement
and proven strategies for ministry while integrating their faith with their
unique calling as scholars. Professors can share ideas within and across disciplines
with others around the globe. Features include ministry "best practices," a
discussion forum and "virtual" Faculty Offices—mini-Web sites they can
easily build themselves to highlight their writings, biographical information
and testimonies and use as a ministry contact point for students and Internet
visitors.
Academic Integration Pages
http://www.leaderu.com/aip
Christian Leadership's Academic Integration Pages is designed primarily
for articles which address the complex relationship of integrating one's Christian
faith to the academic disciplines, for discussion of philosophical and theological
issues which arise within the Christian faith related to academic integration,
for exemplary models of Christian academic integration, and for articles primarily
from (but not limited to) a Christian perspective that deal critically with
the philosophic and academic credentials of a Christian perspective of the
disciplines. See our introductory articles by Dr. Alvin Plantinga and Dr.
J.P. Moreland.
Christian Professional Societies
http://www.leaderu.com/cl-institute/cssc/survival14.html
Extensive list of Christian associations, missions, ministries, societies
and affiliations for academics. NOTE: although we include contact information,
updates have not been possible. If more up-to-date information is required
or if any links are bad, please research them through a search engine like
Google.com.
The Real Issue
http://realissue.org
The quarterly of Christian Leadership Ministries, the faculty ministry of
Campus Crusade for Christ International, aimed at Christian professors who
wish to integrate their faith with their teaching, research and writing. See
the current edition, subscribe to the e-zine that announces each new issue
and (eventually) see all past issues online in full.
For now, see archives online here at LeadershipU.
Click through past issues for themes like Christianity and science, postmodernism
and technology.
We would love to get your