Fides Quaerens Intellectum

More on the CA roundtable I mentioned in the last post–USC philosopher and author Dallas Willard was with us. Much of the discussion focused on how to impact the secular university, and, among other ideas and observations he offered,  Dallas had this to say: “I’m most concerned about [the Christian] students who are going out into the world believing that they are intellectually second rate. I would really like to see something that would help.”

The point:  there are some GREAT campus ministries out there doing fantastic evangelistic and discipleship work.  But who is out there coming alongside millennials to help them understand that their faith is not something merely to be put alongside their coursework, and showing them in intellectual fashion that God’s Word and his world are inextricably intertwined?

A number of us from the foundation had the opportunity to meet with several education leaders last weekend in California.  One of the participants, a long-time veteran in the field of higher education and former seminary president, made the observation that “the culture of the institution is the hidden curriculum for the students.”  More to come on this one.

JP Moreland, my former philosophy professor who is still very much a mentor to me, made his annual pilgrimage back to IMPACT 360 this month, and we got into a discusssion of “real” education.  Here are a few of his thoughts:

“…as I’ve said before, we are not human beings seeking a spiritual life; we are spiritual beings seeking a human life.  Now what does that mean?  That means at the very core of our identity is [Read more →]

Millions of young Christ-followers began their university journey this month.  How will they fare with regard to their worldview and overall approach to life?  Statistics [Read more →]

Marana (my wife) and I recently returned from a cruise vacation to the Bahamas, the purpose of which was to celebrate the completion of the Ph.D. that I started back in the fall of 2000.  Fantastic experience (the cruise, that is); ready to go back.  One afternoon a small advertisement on the wall of the men’s room caught my eye:  “Money won is twice as sweet as money earned.”  Of course Royal Carribbean’s [Read more →]

Each year Del Tackett, author of the Truth Project, comes to facilitate student learning.  I’m always struck by his genuine concern for the millennial generation and the unique challenges faced by its emerging leaders.  Here are his reflections following his spring 2010 visit.

About a year ago one of our students asked me a question that I thought ranked fairly high on the profundity scale, especially given that she was only 18 years old.  “What are the things we do on this earth that we will take with us into eternity?”  As she clarified her question, I discovered that it had been prompted by the previous evening’s outside-the-classroom learning experience: a half-hour stroll through a graveyard.  Her reflections on that experience revealed that she was seeking desperately to understand [Read more →]

Church-related liberal arts colleges historically tack to the left and eventually separate from their founding denominations.  James Burtchaell, a Catholic scholar and author of The Dying of the Light:  The Disengagement of Colleges and Universities from Their Christian Churches (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1998), has outlined the way in which this usually takes place.  How much of this accurately represents a college or university near you?  As one of my graduate mentors would often say, “you be the judge.”  JDB

James Burtchaell’s 9 steps of Alienation in Christian Higher Education

1. A period of stagnation is evident in the life of the institution; a dynamic typically attributed to “depressive influence” by the institution’s sponsoring denomination.  This is then often followed by a time of social unrest and intellectual turbulence in both the denomination and the institution, because [Read more →]

This post is courtesy of Bethany Pickett, IMPACT 360 alumna from the class of ’09  She is currently working on her B.A. at The King’s College in NYC. Nice going Bethany.  -JDB

Last week, I found out Richard Dawkins was going to be speaking at a local Barnes and Noble. I couldn’t miss this opportunity to hear him speak in person. To get in, you had to buy his newest book, “The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution.” I was already planning on buying the book, so this was ideal. I got there at 4:30 and waited in line to [Read more →]

The hot-off-the press issue of the Biola magazine (I did my M.A. at Biola U in CA) features a provocative article–”Is Prayer a Priority in a Twitter World?”  It references the recent study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life which shows that younger folks (ages 18-29) are the least likely group of American adults to pray on a daily basis–only 48% actually.  For millennials whose primary method of communicating is texting and tweeting, it’s no surprise that this is the case.  One of the Biola profs quoted in the article observes that “many young people have been conditioned to treat prayer as a bite-sized activity to squeeze into their lives–and have difficulties spending extended amounts of time in prayer.”