1. I recently traveled to Berea College and the Ohio State University to speak about the Emerging Scholars Network. Read all about my visits here, and check out this blog post to see why these two very different schools are both important to ESN’s mission.
2. My article Faith and Faculty has been published on the InterVarsity home page. In it, I share my own story of meeting Christ at college and explain why we need more Christian faculty at secular universities.
Easter Eggs
Do you think of worship, hospitality, or celebration as spiritual disciplines? If you’re like me, you associate the idea of “discipline” with things that are hard, like fasting, daily prayer, intense Bible study, and so on. But if a discipline is something that trains us to live and think rightly, then what better response to the resurrection can there be than over-the-top celebration?
In fact, celebration holds a place of honor in both of my top two books on spiritual disciplines. Richard Foster, in Celebration of Discipline, places celebration at the conclusion of his classic work, while Adele Ahlberg Calhoun puts Celebration at the very front of her Spiritual Disciplines Handbook.
Here’s what Calhoun writes about Celebration:
The world is filled with reasons to be downcast. But deeper than sorrow thrums the unbroken pulse of God’s joy, a joy that will yet have its eternal day. To set our hearts on this joy reminds us that we can choose how we respond to any particular moment. We can search for God in all circumstances, or not. We can seek the pulse of hope and celebration because it is God’s reality. Heaven is celebrating. Right now the cherubim, seraphim, angels, archangels, prophets, apostles, martyrs and all the company of saints overflow with joy in the presence of their Creator. Every small experience of Jesus with us is a taste of the joy that is to come. We are not alone — and that in itself is reason to celebrate. (Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, 27)
The Hickerson Family, all dolled-up for Easter
Here are a few ways that my family and I celebrated the resurrection of Jesus:
All in all, a great day of celebration. And I didn’t even mention the eggs.
How did you celebrate Easter?
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Cross-posted from the Emerging Scholars Blog
Byron Borger at Jubilee 2009
I spent the weekend at Jubilee, the annual student conference of the Coalition for Christian Outreach. Jubilee has a great reputation for emphasizing the theology of vocation – a reputation which was confirmed, by the way – but I didn’t expect the high level of fun generated by the conference. Saturday evening featured a hilarious (and moving) monologue from actress and writing Susan Isaacs (author of Angry Conversations with God) and a can’t-possibly-be-true-except-he-brought-pictures talk from Bob Goff, president of Restore International and good friend of Don Miller.
Photo: Byron Borger at last year’s Jubilee, but he looked basically the same this year. From livingjubilee via Flickr. Click for a larger image.
Occasionally, these streams of fun and vocation combined, such as the first night. In quick succession, seven speakers presented pecha kucha, a speed-presentation format of 20 slides, changing automatically every 20 seconds, whether the speaker is ready or not. The pecha kucha presenters included:
As Benson Hines (who was also there) said on Twitter,
Lord, let me be as passionate about my calling as Byron Borger is about his.
More about Jubilee and some upcoming articles after the jump Continue reading
The good work of my InterVarsity colleague (and fellow ESN blogger) Tom Grosh has been recognized by his local paper. Tom is hosting an Emerging Scholars Network event later this month, “The Sociology of Faith,” featuring Christian college professor Donald Kraybill of Elizabethtown College. Kraybill will draw upon his academic expertise as a scholar of Amish culture, as well as his personal experiences, in discussing the impact of Christian faith on one’s work and study.
“Each academic discipline raises different questions for (Christians who are involved in those disciplines),†he explained. “I’ll be talking about some of the issues I’ve struggled with as a Christian and as a sociologist (and about) the ways that I, as a Christian, can teach sociology.†He added that he will focus on ways that individuals can work through issues such as the ones he experienced.
Pray for Tom as he finishes organizing this event. Pray, too, for the students, faculty, and church members who will attend the event and for Donald Kraybill as he prepares his talk.
Also, read Tom’s latest post on the ESN blog, What are you picking up for Lent? We’re used to the idea of giving up something to grow closer to God, whether for Lent or some other reason, but what about adding something to our lives?
In InterVarsity and many other Christian organizations, we’re used to thinking of Christians as a minority – even a persecuted minority – within the academy, particularly at the more prestigious universities. For example, responding to a common question asked by many faculty and graduate students, we recently published an essay by Ken Elzinga of the University of Virginia titled “Being Open About My Faith Without Turning People Off.†There is another way of looking at Christianity in the university, however.
Photo credit: Interfaith chaplaincy banner at Nichols College, by Svadilfari via Flickr. Click for larger image.
Last week, my friend Julie forwarded me a link to Tricia Seifert’s article, “Understanding Christian Privilege: Managing the Tensions of Spiritual Plurality†(PDF). Comparing “Christian privilege†to the more commonly used terms male privilege and white privilege, Seifert identifies several areas of university life in which structure or assumptions favor Christianity over other religions, such as:
Seifert offers some practical advice for addressing Christian privilege, and also suggests that Christian privilege affects the learning community:
The responsibility of educating the whole student includes creating a community in which all students feel safe to practice and share their spiritual beliefs and supported in learning about the spiritual beliefs of others. To create such a community, educators need to help students develop the ability and willingness to question educational practices and programs that privilege the spiritual identity development of one group over others. Students have made great strides in questioning other forms of privilege, such as male privilege and white privilege. The changing demographics of our college and university campuses and their increasing spiritual plurality necessitate a commitment to helping the campus community recognize and confront Christian privilege in the same way that it has confronted other forms of privilege.
Take a few minutes to read Seifert’s article (it’s about 6 pages) and consider what you think about the idea of Christian privilege.
Some questions for discussion:
How would you respond to Seifert’s article?
Do you agree that there is Christian privilege within the academy? Why or why not?
How do you think religious plurality affects the campus learning community?
How can Christians best contribute to the religiously diverse community at secular universities?
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