Rudi Hayward reviews Tracing the Lines: Spiritual Exercise and the Gesture of Christian Scholarship by Robert Sweetman (Wipf & Stock 2016, 177 pages) With this book Sweetman wants to participate in, and take forward, a conversation about the meaning and possibility of Christian scholarship. His starting point is that being Christ-followers should mark our life Read more
Will Allchorn leads the Leeds Postgraduate Christian Fellowship and recently completed his PhD in political science at the University of Leeds, where he now has teaching responsibilities. “But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the Read more
In the first of our occasional series of perspectives on the creation/evolution controversy, Abigail Motley reflects on the growing harmony between her faith and her ecological research. ‘Nothing makes sense in biology except in the light of evolution.’ Undergraduate biology lecturers love referring to this quote, the title of an essay written by Theodosius Read more
Mark Surey writes on the importance of listening: I have seldom met a scholar who is not fascinated by and excited about his or her field of study. That level of interest, combined with the God-given capacity to contribute, to a large extent forms the basis for a call to scholarship. It really helps Read more
The third part of Bruno Medeiros’ series on Listening as a spiritual scholarly discipline: “He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: Listen! …” Mark 4.2 “Give ear and hear my voice, Listen and hear my words.” Isaiah 28.23 In my previous post I noted how Jesus’ disciples responded to Read more
The second part of Bruno Medeiros’ series on Listening as a spiritual scholarly discipline: He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: Listen! … Mark 4:2 Give ear and hear my voice; Listen and hear my words. Isaiah 28:23 In an earlier post, I evoked John Stott’s theological concept Read more
Richard Vytniorgu is a PhD candidate in English Literature at De Montfort University with Midlands3Cities (AHRC). You can find him at www.richardvytniorgu.com. I’m supposed to be on holiday. And on holiday we (sometimes) relax: we take stock of our lives and ‘where we are right now’. Relaxation and recuperation are implied Read more
Richard Vytniorgu offers an alternative perspective on scholarly freedom. Alicia Smith’s recent blog posts on Rilke and Scholarly work under God affirm the importance of academics’ work. But they prompt me to ask some questions. Alicia’s language is saturated by an emphasis on the ‘sovereignty’ of God. She speaks of ‘working under the supreme agency of Read more
Rudi Hayward reviews A Shot of Faith to the Head. I have a lot of enthusiasm for this book, which contains a lot of philosophy in a popular and accessible way. It is a response to the ‘new atheism’ but not in a defensive mode; rather, Mitch Stokes takes the most common criticisms Read more
Bruno Medeiros recently completed his PhD in psychology at the University of Cambridge. Originally from Paraíba in Brazil, he is interested in the social psychology of health and community. He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: “Listen! …” Mark 4:2 Give ear and hear my voice; Read more