We’re continuing our series of posts considering the Covid-19 pandemic from the perspective of the various ‘aspects’ proposed by reformational philosophy. We’ve already considered perspectives of economics, aesthetics, religion, ethics and history; this week I want to consider the lingual aspect of the pandemic – the way in which our Read more…
Ethical decision-making: when might we choose to continue wearing masks if the law doesn’t require it? Image by Julián Amé from Pixabay, used with permission This is the next in a series of posts reflecting on the Covid-19 pandemic through the lens of the various ‘aspects’ of reformational philosophy. This week, I want to offer some tentative Read more…
This is the third in a series of posts considering the Covid-19 pandemic from the perspective of the various ‘aspects’ proposed by reformational philosophy. Last week Alicia Smith considered the religious aspect of the pandemic – the way it has revealed the underlying influence of religious attitudes and priorities on collective thought and action. This week, I’m Read more…
We enter Holy Week this year just a few days after the year-anniversary of the UK’s first lockdown. What a difference a year makes. It’s become a staple of the national conversation in recent weeks to observe the transformation in attitudes, plans and expectations from last March up to now, the Read more…
Image: my laptop – I’ve been spending a lot of time here lately… Over the past term, I have been joining educators around the country in getting to grips with new ways of teaching. I’ve been learning the skills of video-editing and web design, finding out about theories of e-learning, Read more…
Like many who are not schoolteachers, NHS staff or other key workers, in these recent weeks I have been getting used to spending most of my time at home, getting very acquainted with Zoom and the various tools we are using for online teaching at the university where I work. Read more…
A few months ago I passed a milestone in my own post-PhD academic life, by starting a full-time academic contract. For several years I’d been juggling two part-time contracts at neighbouring universities, adding up to roughly full-time hours and with a higher than usual concentration of teaching, so in terms Read more…
Intellectual servanthood ‘Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”’ Mark 9:35 ‘“Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes Read more…
Looking outside as I write this, I see that the nights are drawing in and there’s the beginnings of a chill in the air, which can mean only one thing: autumn term is nearly upon us. Inevitably, then, the minds of many academics will fast be turning away from ongoing Read more…
In this post I’d like to reflect on a tension that I consider to be quite widespread within academia. ‘Critical thinking’ is often extolled as one of the core virtues necessary for the intellectual life: much university-level teaching is geared towards developing this skill, and it is viewed as foundational Read more…