Campus Gleanings, October 14, 2008
A few campus-related notes for your perusal.
1. New Worldview Book and Conference: Mike Goheen and Craig Bartholomew’s new book Living at the Crossroads: An Introduction to Christian Worldview (Baker Academic 2008). This new book explores the interface of mission and worldview arguing that such a combination helps us to see how to live at the tense crossroads of the Western story and the biblical story. The book concludes with discussions of what this might mean for business, politics, creativity, sport, education and scholarship.
The conference uses “Living at the Crossroads” as a launching pad for an exploration of what mission and worldview mean for the Christian university today. The university was largely a Christian invention and it has always played a strategic role in the mission of the church. Universities remain as influential as ever but in our global, consumerist culture what should be the priorities of the Christian university? See call for papers:
http://web.me.com/wdnorman/Paideia_Centre_Home/Call_for_Papers.html
2. Campus Ministry articles: by Willimon, Wuthnow, and Kuess. The first two are from www.thewitness.org. The Kuess article is “a vision for campus ministry in the 21st century” and offers a good summary of Garber’s book and some of his own “shift” suggestions.
3. Related Websites: Jason Postma alerted me to an incredible web-site coming out of the Mars Hill Graduate School .
http://www.theotherjournal.com/section.php?name=examination
He also put me onto an important article that talks about student compartmentalization of their faith identity--the "lockbox" theory. See
http://fulleryouthinstitute.org/2008/10/the-lockbox-theory%E2%80%99s-implications-for-your-students/
4. CRC Pages article on our newest campus minister, Mike Buma: http://www.crcna.org/news.cfm?newsid=827 and another one on the work of the Lettingas at UNBC http://www.crcna.org/news.cfm?newsid=606
5. Note for your medical students: Spirituality and Health conference in Calgary , Sept. 2009 (see call for papers). Paul Verhoef gave this to me and we’ll ask him for a report on its multi-faith quality. Regardless, consider the fact of this conference very affirming to your work! Interdisciplinary research is an opening.
The intro says: "Over the last ten years, a growing number of research based studies have shown a compelling relationship between spirituality, spiritual practices and positive health outcomes. In spite of this conclusive research, the value of spirituality and spiritual practices remains a largely untapped resource within the health care arena. This conference aims to validate the critical importance of this resource not only for the recipients of health care services and their families, but also for healthcare practitioners themselves."
6. Emerging Adulthood book list. Try and read one book from the list attached to get into the conversation on “adultolescence”.
7. Agenda for Rick VanMannen’s “Faith and Politics” conference at U of Alberta. I thought you might like to see what he’s up to and check the names he is bringing in.
Peter Schuurman
