AI-generated art of VR-equipped man ignoring beggars

If AI heeded a neighbour…

A guest post by Mark Gilbert In the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), two upstanding me…

an impressionistic wall painting

A degree of critical thinking

What are universities for?  There may be more answers to this question than there are academics in a…

A hand holding a lighter in front of a wooden panel engraved with the words, 'We shall not cease from exploration'

Vision and revision: listening to T.S. Eliot

T.S. Eliot's poetry can give us not only aesthetic pleasure or academic challenge, but real pathways…

Reforming Economics

Reforming Economics?

“If it is to be governed essentially by the ground motive of the Christian religion, a scientific pr…

A podium

Pride and Jealousy, in Academia and Elsewhere

A guest post by Prof. Paulo Ribeiro Pride and jealousy are both complex emotions, but they differ in…

A Reformational perspective on manuscript studies?

A Reformational perspective on manuscript studies?

This year, I’ve been doing my research at a noted respository of medieval manuscripts – …

University of Havana entrance

Having an Alma Mater

This is the text of a sermon I preached at our university chapel recently (with slight modifications…

A big statistical equation

No Statistics in the Kingdom of God?

I’d like to share a great blog post by Adam Mastroianni at Experimental History. Entitled &#82…

‘Men of ability’ and the incarnate Christ

‘Men of ability’ and the incarnate Christ

I’ve recently been trying to learn more poetry off by heart. We were required to do this once …

Nativity scene

God with us

For me, the season of Advent expectation this year comes hot on the heels of a new arrival within my…

Photo by Kirill Tonkikh on Unsplash

How Well Can AI Work, and Why?

Andrew Basden concludes his series on a Christian understanding of artificial intelligence. My first…

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Why are Humans Important in AI?

Andrew Basden continues his exploration of artificial intelligence. AI (artificial intelligence) can…

A gloved hand holds up a petri dish with cultured bacteria visible in squiggly lines

What scholars and saints have in common

This week Bob Trube of Emerging Scholars Network writes on attentiveness as the hallmark of both hol…

A very large gold clock with a black locust-like sculpture on top, framed in a stone archway

The Chronophage and the Scholar

Do you ever feel like your time is being nibbled away – like no matter what you do, how carefully yo…

Photo by Mary Winchester on Unsplash.com

Can other animals be human?

About three years ago, I became a dog owner for the first time. We have a small, fluffy creature who…

Close-up evoking an electronic body

Can AI be human?

Andrew Basden takes a look at some of the big questions around artificial intelligence. “The d…

El Greco's "Christ Driving the Money-Changers from the Temple"

The heresy of orthodox economics

Orthodox free-market economics, rooted in principles of self-interest, individualism, and limited go…

Reflections on a postdoc year in Canada

Reflections on a postdoc year in Canada

I’ve recently got back to the UK after spending a year living in Toronto, Canada, for a postdo…

Lady Justice holding scales with one side empty

The “no evidence” fallacy

A news story currently being covered here in the UK concerns serious serial abuses by a healthcare w…

Creative Commons 3 - Alpha Stock Images - http://alphastockimages.com/ (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Christian Economics?

Economics is the subject I most wish I had studied earlier than I did. Although my school offered an…

history

Biblical – Not Biblicist – Scholarship

Maybe you’ve wondered this too: how does my faith relate to my scholarship? It might be easy to affi…

Detail of a medieval manuscript page. A square illustration shows an old man with a crozier blessing a kneeling woman in front of a small house.

A prisoner for Christ? Dealing with a difficult story from Christian history

The research postdoc I’ve been carrying out in Toronto this year has enabled me to start a new…

How ‘Biblical’ is “Biblical Critical Theory”?

How ‘Biblical’ is “Biblical Critical Theory”?

Christopher Watkin’s new book, Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes …

The Importance of Culture for Academics

The Importance of Culture for Academics

Last week, the most recent Postgrad Initiative email was sent out which introduced the ide…

A person sketching a mountain

Is this a good school? The perils of far-fetched objectivity

It was at the start of this year that Ruth Perry, the headteacher of a primary school in Reading, to…

In Conclusion: First Steps in Becoming a Good and Faithful Questioner

In Conclusion: First Steps in Becoming a Good and Faithful Questioner

My dear postgrad friends, We are quickly approaching the end of this academic year, according to our…

AI-generated image by DALL-E

Artificial intelligence in the image of God?

Image: AI-generated by DALL-E* I had a chat with a robot the other evening. The OpenAI project has r…

When Questions Question You

When Questions Question You

Dear Toby/i, I’ve been thinking about the off-hand comment you made in our seminar last week – when …

Tom McLeish

Prof. Tom McLeish

Sad news emerged last week about Tom McLeish, professor of natural philosophy at the University of Y…

Biblical Critical Theory? Digging into new resources with Good News for the University

Biblical Critical Theory? Digging into new resources with Good News for the University

I'm kicking off a new series today which we hope will both alert you to another initiative in the fi…

Scholarship as Christian Courage

Scholarship as Christian Courage

Dear Martin/e, This academic year, I’ve been reflecting with you on the topic of questions when it c…

Blue sky through a cave mouth, rotated

Creation’s incredible intelligibility

Understanding is a wonderful thing! I hope you’ve had many light-bulb moments in your past edu…

The Questions Within You

The Questions Within You

Happy New Year Paul/ette! Thank you for your courage in our seminar today! Many eager and anxious st…

Connections for 2023

Connections for 2023

At the start of this new year, I’d like to offer you my selection of online initiatives that y…

The Discipline of Discernment

The Discipline of Discernment

Postdoc life as a liminal space

Postdoc life as a liminal space

Do You Know Who’s With You?

Do You Know Who’s With You?

Hope for the future of Christian higher education

Hope for the future of Christian higher education

Teaching and learning in Narnia

Teaching and learning in Narnia

Worldviews and Faithful Scholarship

Worldviews and Faithful Scholarship

Lion

CS Lewis: a visionary for our time?

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/c-s-lewis-and-the-inklings-part-2-1.2921632

Imitating the Inklings

Image of music book with autumn leaves

Art in times of crisis

seminar

Love the Questions

Photo by Jan Huber on Unsplash

What to study?

Sustainability as Flourishing

Sustainability as Flourishing

Flourishing trees

Flourishing trees

Hands with a world map on

Feeding the Earth – talks online!

Magna Carta (an official exemplification from 1215, held in the British Library)

When ethical systems collide

Learning by example?

Learning by example?

The Foundation of Christian Scholars(hip)

The Foundation of Christian Scholars(hip)

Hands with a world map on

Feeding the Earth

Faith, Theology, and Philosophy – For All!

Faith, Theology, and Philosophy – For All!

a feedback survey

Assessment, ranking and identity

Swallowed up by life

Swallowed up by life

What is your experience?

What is your experience?

history

What’s Going On Here?

Hyperlinked Bible

What’s Your Story?

Christian sustainability?

Christian sustainability?

Herman Dooyeweerd, I Love You!

Herman Dooyeweerd, I Love You!

The many-sided wisdom of God

The many-sided wisdom of God

Death to 2021?

Death to 2021?

The Myth of Neutrality

The Myth of Neutrality

The life of Covid

The life of Covid

Fighting fire with fire: Politics and the Bible

The Place of Academic Life

The Place of Academic Life

Researching medieval miracles

Researching medieval miracles

How Money Makes You Sad

How Money Makes You Sad

Walking in freedom

Walking in freedom

"Thank you NHS" message painted on road

The Virus and the Soul

Every Breath the University Takes, continued…

Every Breath the University Takes, continued…

Every Breath the University Takes

Every Breath the University Takes

Faith in Democracy

Faith in Democracy

Covid, language, information

Covid, language, information

Keep Calm sign

Is Covid history?

College library building

Why do a PhD? Because God has a plan…

Abraham Kuyper’s view of the natural sciences

Power corrupts but absolute power is kinda cool

Christian Scholarship and Power

Poppy with shadow

A Reformational theory of objectivity?

Person wearing face mask

Ethical decision-making amid the Covid pandemic

Painting of windmill

Aesthetic Experience During Lockdown: Art and Hope

Virus and graph

COVID-19 and Economics

Rainbow

Aesthetic experience in the Covid era

St Michael's Mount

Religion in public in the Covid era

Left and right signposts

Challenging Christian stereotypes

COVID-19 word cloud

Making sense of Covid

Cartoon showing frustration with computers

Navigating Scholarly Disagreement

Congregation in a graveyard

Worshipping in the graveyard

Foggy road

One year on: writing from the middle of the story

Three crosses

A high priest who can sympathise

African Wild Dog

God’s Vision for our Relationship with the Natural World

Forest

Church forests: the Gospel in trees?

Science

Is Science being defrocked?

Demonstration

Power as a Christian Scholar’s Vocation

Man standing in field of grass

Science and Revelation

Laptop keyboard

Technology, inclusion, community

Illustration of a book of nature

Revelation and Science

Hong Kong flowers

A Prayer for the Year

The Spirit of Secularization

Dawn over water

A World in Pining

The Secularization of Science

Seedling

Time to grow?

Thank you blocks

Writing acknowledgements: depending on others

Pumpkin seedling

George MacDonald, Anxiety, and Joy

The territories of science and religion - book cover

Charting the territories of science and religion

Bible on lectern

Solitude and unity: a medieval perspective

Page of text

Academic Publishing: A Necessary Evil?

Deer in the morning mist

Doing Value Studies

Hands clasped in prayer

Reading and praying

Watch

Full time, big time… God’s time?

Pink sky over trees

In Between-Times

Cambridge Scholars Network

The Cambridge Scholars Network

Abstract mathematical symbols

A joined-up cosmos for geniuses?

Desert path

A poem for a new year

Christmas dinner table

On the seventh day of Christmas

Christmas tree

Everlasting Father

Great mathematicians

On the sources of genius

Hand writing with pen

Studying in Babylon?

Painting showing Jesus washing Peter's feet

Intellectual servanthood

In and out of the university

Praying hands

A Student’s Prayer

Snow-covered mountains

Gratitude: Reflections at an Academic Waypoint

Lecture theatre filled with students

Pedagogues or parents?

Hand writing with pencil in spiral bound notebook

Redrafts, patience, and God in the details

Canal boats

A Holiday for the Restless

Diagram showing the opening-up of the law side of nature

A Christian view of scientific progress

Mistakes highlighted in red

Critical thinking and grace

Woman places hand gently on man's shoulder

Practising gentleness in academia?

Christian fishes

Sharing the Good News

Clouds

The Spirit of academic research

Boy studying in empty library

Staying connected to others as a researcher

Marinus Dirk Stafleu

A science of science: Dick Stafleu’s ‘Theories at Work’

Tools and plans

Future planning and God’s will

Students in DPhil gowns

Why do a PhD? For an integrated life

Older posts can be found in the date archives in the sidebar to the right.