‘Calling’ or ‘vocation’ is something we mention fairly often at Faith in Scholarship. In modern English it’s mostly used, in both secular and church contexts, to refer to profession: often to a certain kind of demanding, valued profession, such as medicine or pastoral work. Many Christian thinkers have (rightly) reclaimed this kind of value Read more…
Does academic work matter? This is a question most academics come up against at some point in their career, and in day to day life: while most of us at least started because we love our subjects, everyday work in the lab or the library can be monotonous and frustrating, Read more…
In the week after Easter I had the privilege of travelling to the Republic of Macedonia to take part in a conference on ‘The Bible and Literature’. It was co-hosted by the Macedonian Academy of the Sciences and Arts – a research university in the capital city of Skopje – Read more…
In a previous post on the German poet Rilke, I concluded that art can help the Christian scholar ‘to acknowledge and work under the supreme agency of God in the world’. Today I want to go a bit deeper into what that might mean. Agency and a sovereign God First: what Read more…
‘Oh, you’re thinking of doing English at university? You’ll have to be careful about that. A lot of people lose their faith.’ I was seventeen. I had been a Christian for several years, and I had loved books for much longer. I was doing two English A-Levels and thoroughly enjoying Read more…
Today I want to talk about a poem. Archaic Torso of Apollo We cannot know his legendary headwith eyes like ripening fruit. And yet his torsois still suffused with brilliance from inside,like a lamp, in which his gaze, now turned to low, gleams in all its power. Otherwisethe curved breast Read more…
I’ve just come to the end of the second official week of my DPhil. In between all the library inductions, research workshops, and meeting new people, I’ve been doing some thinking about where I want my research to go: the kind of questions I want to ask, and work towards Read more…
You should not keep any animal except a cat… Anyone who wishes may sleep in leggings… They should not snack between meals. These are a few of the more specific instructions given in the medieval treatise for religious recluses now known as Ancrene Wisse, ‘A Guide for Anchorites’, which was the Read more…