What are universities for? There may be more answers to this question than there are academics in a typical philosophy department. And surely we do need different answers according to who asks the question. The challenge to justify the existence and importance of my academic activities has confronted me increasingly Read more
This is the text of a sermon I preached at our university chapel recently (with slight modifications for context). What do Moses and Daniel have in common? Reading the account of the birth and upbringing of Moses in Exodus chapter 2 recently made me see a connection with the life Read more
This is the title of a conference I have just returned from in Liverpool – and also, I would say, the result. The Hope Ecumenical Network was launched last week with a two-day international meeting that brought together representatives from at least fifteen universities and colleges with Christian identities, and Read more
‘A Christian University Is For Lovers’, runs the provocative title of the final chapter of this book, James K.A. Smith’s first sally in his three-part ‘Cultural Liturgies’ project. Lovers of what? – you might ask. Of knowledge? Of the life of the mind? Of theology? Smith’s answer is: lovers of Read more
Bruce Wearne encourages students to reflect upon institutional relationships in academic life and the effect of higher education reform. I first developed the above diagram as a part of my response to what was happening at Chisholm Institute of Technology (CIT) in Melbourne back in the 1980s. CIT was part Read more
As part of our series on the idea of a Christian university – and in these tense times of academic “industrial action” – I want to share a review of “What are Universities For?” by Stefan Collini (Penguin, 2012). The appearance of a Penguin paperback about the purpose of universities indicates considerable Read more
Rudi Hayward completes his review of “Tracing the Lines: Spiritual Exercise and the Gesture of Christian Scholarship” by Robert Sweetman (Wipf & Stock 2016). The first part of this review ended with the paradox that either Christian scholarship is understood as so integrally Christian as to endanger the sense in which the Christian and non-Christian are engaged Read more
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
Christians hold a wide range of views about what kinds of Christian organisation should be created. At one extreme, the Church is seen as the primary or even the only Christian organisation, its ordained leaders merely lending their authority to a limited range of other Christian initiatives – which thus have a denominational character (at least if you’re Read more