Fides Quaerens Intellectum

A few days ago a I picked up highly acclaimed atheist Christopher Hitchens’ book god is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (no, that’s not a typo…he chose–or perhaps the publisher did– a lower-case “g” in coming up with his title). Hitchens, a visiting professor of liberal studies at the New School for Social Research [...]

Last evening the 2nd class in IMPACT 360 (www.impact360.net) history graduated. Exhausted but joyful, a new class of alumni has launched. Book after book, article upon article, and lecture followed by Socratic discussion on everything from evidence for God’s existence to the purpose of a college education, not to mention all the community service hours [...]

This past week a 19 year-old student sat in my office troubled by a certain aspect of her past, namely the fact that she descends from a long line of conservative Pennsylvania Dutch pacifists. For a few weeks at IMPACT 360 (www.impact360.net) we’ve been working through systems and issues in ethics, and it was only [...]

It’s no secret that academia is, and has been, dominated by politically and socially left-tilting faculty members. For years now David Horowitz has been the most prominent voice on this issue, and indeed at times has been a voice crying in the wilderness. This is not an argument for conservatives to avoid higher education or [...]

This past week at IMPACT 360 (www.impact360.net) saw the awakening of students’ critical thinking capacities as those were brought to bear on the subject of ethics. Too broad? For sure. This was an introductory module to ethics–specifically an introduction to the major systems of ethics, including deontology, utilitarianism and virtue ethics. We also covered moral [...]

Last evening a tornado ripped through the campus of Union University (www.uu.edu), IMPACT 360′s (www.impact360.net) academic partner. Having talked with one of our alums who is now taking his degree at Union, they are estimating the damage to the campus physical plant to be in the tens of millions. The good news is that no [...]

C.S. Lewis once wrote “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” An encounter I had recently while staying in Pennsylvania reminded me how true this really is. I had been doing dissertation research in PA earlier this [...]

  Although I’m not an unqualified George Barna fan (his persuasiveness really tanks when he tries to do theology instead of survey research), I do find much of his research on evangelical faith and its outworkings to be helpful.  A 2006 study done by his group gets at the heart of why IMPACT 360 (www.impact360.net) [...]

IMPACT 360′s (www.impact360.net) guest professor this week is Mr. John Stonestreet.  Stonestreet is Associate Professor in the Bible Department at Bryan College (www.bryan.edu)– teaching courses on worldview, apologetics and cultural exegesis–and is the Director of Summit Ministries, Eastern Region (www.summit.org).  He’s teaching on how Christian worldview ought to impact our understanding of bioethical challenges in this day [...]

In my years of working with college students–from freshmen to seniors–at least one thing is clear:  they usually don’t know what to do with their leisure time.  If  they’re not in class or working on a paper, then they’re probably plugged in to their ipods, or perhaps chatting or gaming on the internet.  Maybe even a [...]