Corner Interactions

2011-10-18T19:54:00.000-04:00

Two of my favorite movies are Ever After and The Dark Knight, and for the same reason: At some point during each movie, I say, "Oh, yeah; this is a {Cinderalla|Batman} movie." I honestly forget that each film is based on a modern-day mythological figure/story.

The interesting thing is that I don't forget what each movie is based on because they stray from their inspirations, but because they take a familiar story (a wicked step-family, a fairy godmother, a criminal clown, and a criminal hero) but because they take those elements and make them so compelling (an overlooked stepsister, Leonardo DaVinci, an ameture anarchist, and two vigilantes) that I feel like I'm seeing them for the first time. My "Oh, yeah" moment is filled with a new appreciation for a story that has grown familiar and commonplace in my mind.

I wonder if Christians' lives are supposed to be the same way. Perhaps it's a good thing when our coworkers & friends say, "Oh, yeah; [s]he's a Christian," not because we've strayed from Jesus's calling but because we've lived out that calling in a way that hasn't been seen before, and that brings a new sense of wonder.

...then again, maybe we are!

2011-09-27T00:01:00.000-04:00

I got into a facebook debate last week with a friend of a friend who was offended by Protagoras' statement that "[hu]man is the measure of all things," often (as was the case that sparked this debate) used to open an introductory Humanities course. This friend-of-a-friend was consoling the mutual friend that he would just have to deal with it (presumably as part of Christian suffering).

I offered (with a glasses-smiley) that one could opt to be a Christian humanist.

The friend-of-a-friend retorted with a "challenge" for me to define "huminist" and "Christian."

I replied with the consideration (often employed by Christians in the academy) that "humanism" is simply a stance that humans are worth studying, and that Christians (of any definition) can join in this stance based on their belief that humans are created in the image of God.

The friend-of-a-friend has yet to respond.

But my answer still, of course, leaves the pesky first-day-of-the-semester quote hanging in the air. Christians have some reason to dislike it. After all, we believe that we are our favorite idols. And humanism without God (just like anything without God) can turn against God and, ultimately, against humanity. We might even be bold enough to say God sets the standards of the universe, and not humans.

Of course, I can never think of God's commandments without thinking of the two most important:

"1. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

2. Love your neighbor as yourself."

Then it hit me: What is the "measure" employed in these commandments? How do you know you've kept them?

It's us. However big a human's heart, mind, soul, and strength, that is exactly how much that human is supposed to love God. However much and in whatever ways a human loves him/herself, that is how much that human is supposed to love his/her neighbor.

Are human beings the measure of all things? That might be an intractable question! Even still, it's an interesting hypothesis, and seems to be true (in some sense) when it comes to God's top two commandments.

Believe, believe, and believe

2011-09-22T00:01:00.000-04:00

Happy 100th post!

It seems to me that Christians and scientists both become very upset around the word "believe." Here are three possible meanings that word can have:

1. "Do you believe in evolution?" In this question (presumably posed by a creationist), "believe in XYZ" means something like, "to think think idea XYZ is true." But the scientist's answer to this question is always, "No," because that's not what a scientist means when (s)he uses the word "believe." Because the scientist (typically) considers that the theoretical, observational, & experimental research that has gone into developing, confirming, and refining the evolutionary model has been sufficiently rigorous to justifiably warrant (nay, necessitate) a certainty in the model. Belief is not necessary, the scientist says (perhaps in a scoffing tone), because of sufficient supporting evidence.

2. "Do you believe in God?" In this question (presumably posed by a scientist), "believe in XYZ" means something like, "to hold idea XYZ to be true, regardless of a lack of evidence." A Christian would technically answer this question with, "yes," but this is not what Christians mean when they say they "believe in God"---or, if they're feeling specific---when they say they "have faith in God." To paraphrase James's warning, "You believe there is one God. Good for you! Of course, even the demons believe and tremble, and that faith does them no good!" Believing that God exists, Christianity says (perhaps in a chilling tone), gets you nowhere.

3. "Do you believe God?" I am eternally thankful to a good friend from summer project (hosted by what was then known as Campus Crusade for Christ) for pointing out this distinction. When Christians (usually) say that they believe in God, they mean that they "believe God"---"trust God." Far from "belief" in evolution (which is no belief at all), and from ascent to God's existence (which even the Father of Lies admits), Christian belief is an orientation of the heart, mind, and will. Christian belief is "banking our hopes" (thanks to John Piper for that one) on all that Jesus is and all that He has done for us. Trusting God, Christianity says (definitely in a hopeful and eager tone), changes everything.

So, how can we (Christians, scientists, those in the intersection of those sets, and those not in either set) be more careful with the concept of belief?

What do we need from campus ministries?

2011-09-15T00:01:00.003-04:00

On Wednesday of this week, I had a great chat with a good friend of mine who is heading up a city-wide campus ministry under the auspices of the United Methodist Church. He asked a question I've not been asked:

How can our ministry serve the faculty at this university?

The sky's the limit! I thought in response, with a quirky smile. I told him I would dream up possibilities and let him know.

I have some ideas of how I'd like to answer this question, but I'd like to hear what others think. How do you think a campus ministry can serve the faculty of their university?

Not supposed to be here

2011-09-13T11:44:00.001-04:00

I've been greatly enjoying the Bible reading plan for slackers & shirkers. I find it gives me time to think about what I read, since I don't rush through each book but still have something to read every day.

A few weeks ago, I read about the Gibeonites, crafty fellows who conned their way into the Israelite community to avoid being destroyed. These were people who weren't supposed to be there. Joshua had orders from God to eliminate the people of Canan---a hotly debated topic that seems tempered by the striking observation that God never seems to condemn the Israelites for letting them live or the Gibeonites for deceiving Joshua.

Granted, Joshua 9:14-15 says that "The Israelites... did not inquire of the LORD. Then Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live." But if this is supposed to be a condemning commentary, it sure is weak (especially given the many scathing indictments of some of Israel's actions).

Also granted, the Gibeonites played a pretty mean trick on Israel. But again, there's not really any condemning commentary on their actions.

In fact, Joshua 21:44 concludes the military campaign with, "The LORD gave them rest on every side according to all He had sworn to their fathers. None of their enemies were able to stand against them, for the LORD handed over all their enemies to them," making it seem like the Gibeonite deception was how God delivered His people from them as an enemy.

Regardless of one's take on how the Gibeonite debacle could have/should have unfolded, the point is that these folks were not supposed to be there. And once they were in the community, they were in. (Consider God's vengeance for the Gibeonites that Saul killed.) They may have spent the rest of their lives feeling like and being treated like outsiders, but they were in.

I think Christian faculty often feel the same way---both in their universities and in their churches (though hopefully none of used any trickery to get here!). We're not "supposed" to be in either place, but we are, because this is where God---just as sovereign as He was over the Gibeonite incident---wants us to be.

The kind of books we need right now

2011-08-25T00:01:00.000-04:00

I receive a number of wall posts on facebook with recommendations or queries about whether I’ve read a certain book relating Christianity to science. Some are theologically conservative, some liberal; some are Scripture-based, some science-based, and some philosophy-based; some address the higher education setting, and some grade school; some take the tactic of setting up a conversation between “science” and “religion,” while others take a very hostile stand behind their well-drawn lines.

I’ll admit: I haven’t read most of these books. But I do think they all have something important in common: They’re not what we need right now.

Take, for example, a recent recommendation: Tipler’s The Physics of Christianity. The book description on amazon reads:

A highly respected physicist demonstrates that the essential beliefs of Christianity are wholly consistent with the laws of physics.

Frank Tipler takes an exciting new approach to the age-old dispute about the relationship between science and religion in The Physics of Christianity. In reviewing centuries of writings and discussions, Tipler realized that in all the debate about science versus religion, there was no serious scientific research into central Christian claims and beliefs. So Tipler embarked on just such a scientific inquiry. The Physics of Christianity presents the fascinating results of his pioneering study.

Tipler begins by outlining the basic concepts of physics for the lay reader and brings to light the underlying connections between physics and theology. In a compelling example, he illustrates how the God depicted by Jews and Christians, the Uncaused First Cause, is completely consistent with the Cosmological Singularity, an entity whose existence is required by physical law. His discussion of the scientific possibility of miracles provides an impressive, credible scientific foundation for many of Christianity’s most astonishing claims, including the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, and the Incarnation. He even includes specific outlines for practical experiments that can help prove the validity of the “miracles” at the heart of Christianity.

Tipler’s thoroughly rational approach and fully accessible style sets The Physics of Christianity apart from other books dealing with conflicts between science and religion. It will appeal not only to Christian readers, but also to anyone interested in an issue that triggers heated and divisive intellectual and cultural debates.

Aside from the Babel fish argument, here's my issue with works like this: "he illustrates how the God depicted by Jews and Christians, the Uncaused First Cause, is completely consistent with the Cosmological Singularity, an entity whose existence is required by physical law." Physical law "requires" the existence of just about (and probably absolutely) nothing. I'm no cosmologist, but a quick literature search for "cosmological singularity" (whatever it is; again, I'm no cosmologist) shows that its necessity is far from certain in the physics community, but this author thinks it sounds like Christianity, so he latches onto it with unwarranted certainty. (Granted, Tipler has published about the cosmological singularity, so his subscription to it as a true idea is understandable to some degree.)

(By the way, Reasons to Believe does the exact same thing with Scripture: Whatever verses sound like physical law, they say, must have definitive physical significance, while neighboring verses that almost seem to contradict physical law must be metaphorical.)

What I think we really need at this point is an agreed-upon framework of Christian scholarship that can direct our investigations and undergird our discussions. Is it Christ-like, for example, to co-opt an uncertain and unproven physical theory (in this case, the cosmological singularity) to give the Christian masses an artificial sense of certainty? What happens, then, when that physical theory is definitively disproven? Didn't the church do the same thing when it latched onto Aristotelian astronomy that placed the earth at the center of the universe and the planets and sun in perfectly circular orbits? That certainly didn't end well.

I'm not saying a study like Tipler's isn't worthwhile, and I'm not saying you shouldn't buy his book. I applaud what I think are his genuine intentions to encourage Christians and heal some of the damage between Christianity and science. But I think that a healthy framework of Christian scholarship is a prerequisite to studies such as this one. The damage is not just a conceptual discord between a few tenants of Christianity and a few scientific principles; there is also a vast intellectual, emotional, and cultural rift between the university and the church (which are both rifted from the main culture) that requires some serious structural undergirding if it's ever going to be bridged. I think that framework can be developed (if Christian scholars will put their minds and hearts and publications to it) and I think that rift can be bridged with that framework as a foundation.

What needs to go in that framework? What kinds of foundational questions about Christian scholarship do we need to address to make works like Tipler's timely? Well... what do you think?

Pray for us... on October 15

2011-08-23T00:01:00.002-04:00

So glad to get back to the blogosphere! As the fall semester ramps up (mine starts this week), I'm asking for readers to pray for Christian faculty, and faculty & teachers in general... on October 15.

Why October 15? Well, let's take a journey...

I once asked for prayer for effective first impressions for the sake of the gospel just before the semester began. I might ask for the same thing this semester, but since then, I've come to realize two things...

1. While many Christians will pray for professors & teachers at the beginning of the semester, there's at least a small sentiment among non-academics that says something like, "Pray for them? Didn't they just have the entire summer/all of December off?" (Granted, anyone who has talked to me over the last four months knows I didn't have an easygoing summer after being asked by my university to serve as Blackboard administrator.) I'm not going to address the issues of nine-month versus twelve-month contracts and hourly pay versus salary and limited classroom access and the need to catch up on scholarly expectations that impact teachers' and professors' lives, but I will acknowledge that, to an outsider, it probably does seem a little odd for us to feel such a weighty need after summer, and that we typically do come at the beginning of the academic year with renewed energy.

2. While the beginning of the year is important, as I mentioned above, we do generally come at it with a relatively high level of energy. And here's the second thing I realized: The other time (besides the beginning) that Christians typically call for prayer for teachers & professors is at the end of the semester or academic year. "Lord, help them to finish well," I've heard more than one pastor/elder pray. This most recent year, though, it occurred to me, "I started finishing around the middle of the semester. That's when I needed prayer and support."

The middle of the semester is when the despair sets in, when you stare down the gaping chasm of how ineffective you've been this semester (prompted by mid-term grades, students asking the same questions every week, students asking no questions every week, receiving last semester's course evaluations, realizing that you haven't budged on that to-do list on your board while tenure evaluation creeps closer), leading to the existential crisis of wondering if this pursuit is worth spending your life on. The situation never really is as bad as you feel, but that feeling (as my wife likes to remind me) is real. The end of the semester actually has a natural burst of energy thanks to the relief of escaping that chasm once more, such that the low point in motivation and energy and faith is somewhere in the middle.

So, this semester, I'm asking you to pray for teachers & professors... on October 15. If you want to pray for them now, that's super! But around about October 15 is when we'll need it in a very poignant way. So, go ahead and open your calendar, create a new appointment, set the date for October 15 (If you make it an all day event, be sure to set the reminder for a non-integer number of days, so it won't ding at midnight.), and maybe even paste in the link to this article.

And if you feel like it, maybe set aside some time that day to take out a teacher or professor you know (whom you probably won't have seen very often when October 15 rolls around) for lunch or dinner or coffee. (Breakfast is great, too, but be prepared to wake up early...) There's a major criticism of prayer these days that those who believe in prayer don't actually do anything to help the situation they're praying about. (I have a good deal of empathy for this criticism, but that's another topic for another day.) If you're praying for teachers & faculty to be encouraged and energized, offering time with a friend outside the academic world is a great way to be an answer to your own prayer request.

Well, I need to go open my calendar to October 15...

Here's what I said...

2011-03-26T16:46:00.000-04:00

Earlier this week, I posted about how I was given the opportunity to deliver the invocation and benediction prayers at my university's faculty recognition dinner. I appreciate the feedback and prayers that so many friends supported me with.

Below is the text of what I prayed. The invocation is mostly selections from Ecclesiastes; I wrote the benediction as a response to the question, "What do I want to pray for?" After writing them, I realized that they are almost exactly what I would have prayed at a Christian event, which encouraged me that I was being genuine. I received a lot of positive feedback and thanks from my colleagues afterward, which encouraged me that I had served them and honored them. (Of course, if anyone was offended, I doubt they would have said so right at the end of the event!)

Invocation:

A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own work. This, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?

What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race [and university faculty in particular]. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their work—[all their teaching, all their scholarship, and all their university service]—this is the gift of God.

And so, God, I pray that tonight would be a time of encouragement, rest, and renewal, so that we could bring to a satisfying finish this academic year of opportunities that You’ve given to us. Amen.

Benediction:

God, I thank you for all of the reasons we have to celebrate tonight.

Thank you for colleagues like Captain Terrell* and [new POY]** who exhibit such care for their students and enthusiasm for their fields.

Thank you for our administrators and staff who guide this university.

And thank you for the opportunity to interact with the world you have created and the students that you have brought our way. Give us a weekend of good rest and the strength and passion to finish this semester well. Amen.

*2010-2011 Professor of the Year

**2011-2012 Professor of the Year, named just minutes before the benediction

What would you say?

2011-03-22T00:01:00.001-04:00

This week, I was asked to deliver the invocation and benediction at my university's faculty recognition dinner (taking place Friday, 3/25). This honor typically falls to a Dean/VP/someone-way-higher-up-than-a-pretenure-faculty-member.

Such an activity always presents an interesting choice (for people of all faiths or no faith): If I pray specifically after my own faith, I run the risk of alienating and/or offending others; however, if I make a vague "catch-all" prayer, I feel personally insincere (and run the risk of alienating and/or offending those of my faith).

To describe it another way, I have to ask myself the questions: Have I built up enough trust with my colleagues that, if I pray specifically to my own faith, they will trust me to not be proselytizing? Or do I still need to build up their trust by not running the risk of offending them?

I have an idea of how I'll take this opportunity to "be all things to all people;" please pray that I'll have a clear sense of how to do so and deliver honor where honor is due.

I'd also like to see what the blogosphere thinks. (Yes, this is a can of worms, but you need those to catch fish.) So, what would you say?

Writing Season

2011-03-08T15:35:00.000-05:00

("Wighting Season," for Elmer Fudd?)

For me, this semester has been the Semester of the Paper. Not the Semester of One Singular Paper (if only life were that simple, anymore), but the Semester of the Idea of the Paper. I am teaching a Physics Seminar course, with the goal of publishing an article with the students; I have worked on two versions of a paper (one addressed to a research mentor and one written with that mentor as a coauthor) about the same project (whose pilot study I haven't yet finished); I have reviewed a paper (on a completely different type of topic) from a collaborator in another state; I've written & submitted a grant proposal about a third project and am preparing a paper proposal about that same project; and, the Monday after Spring Break, I have to submit an abstract (and oversee a student's abstract) to a summer meeting. If you take a look at my whiteboard at home (well, one of my whiteboards at home), you'll see an even longer list of writing projects for the summer.

It always amazes me how the writing process does not necessarilly mirror the research process. A project that failed miserably at each step and was salvaged at the last minute by switching around research goals can sound like a masterpiece; on the other hand, a project that was well planned, well researched, and conducted exactly as scheduled can still come to a screeching hault at the very end and prove to be unsalvagable and unpublishable.

We as Christians base our faith on the result of many individuals' writing processes; no Christians I know of believe that the Bible's authors were somehow mystically guided through some perfection-inducing trance. It would seem that the biblical authors were very much themselves when they wrote these texts. What was Paul's planning & revision process (either on paper or in his head) like when he wrote his letter to the Romans? (Or, given his predeliction for interrupting himself to venture onto tangents, did he not plan & revise at all?) How often did Luke have to revise his outline & thesis as he interviewed witnesses? What kind of sifting process did Solomon go through to pick out & organize Proverbs?

It's amazing to think that, in all of these different writing styles & personal approaches to writing, God crafted together a set of materials for us to base our faith & lives on.

Broadening our sympathy to deter hopelessness

2011-03-01T18:20:00.000-05:00

Last week, I posed the question of what motivation leads to withdrawal (and ultimately dissipation), based on the thesis of The Fabric of Faithfulness that a burden of responsibility leads to engagement (and ultimately multiplication).

The answer (as usual) was to keep reading...

[T]he years between adolescence and adulthood are a tumultuous time, anywhere and everywhere. Many students, perhaps most, emerge from their university experience ready to take on the world; the idealism of youth, we call it. But then somewhere along the way the reality of life in the fast lane of adult responsibility hits--sometimes like a ton of bricks, sometimes like acid rain. In a thousand ways they see how hard it is to be faithful to family, at work, in politics. Day in an day out they experience disappointments in every part of life--every part of life--and see how hard it is to be hopeful (and therefore responsible) actors in human history as they try to be neighbors to those next door and to those around the world. --The Fabric of Faithfulness, page 33 (italics is Garber's; underlines are mine)

So, it would seem that disappointment (bred by hardship) leads to hopelessness which induces an abandoning of responsibility--AKA withdrawal.

And it seems to me that we make the disappointment more painful and the hopelessness bleaker when we are sensitive only to hardships that are similar to those with which we are familiar. How often do we hear of someone's struggle in life, only to respond with, "Well, you're not as far along as I am, so you've got it easy?" (And how many times have we used that response on a student!)

Garber says that cultivating responsibility requires a community who cares. So, how can we expand our range of sympathy to include those in our community whose struggles seem foreign to us?

Responsibility leads to engagement, ??? leads to withdrawal

2011-02-24T00:01:00.002-05:00

The Emerging Scholars Blog is hosting a discussion of Steven Garber's The Fabric of Faithfulness. I read this book a couple years ago, and am enjoying a reread.

One of the main themes (or, at least, how I would word it) of the book is that a burden of responsibility leads to engagement. My wife Amy and I were discussing this theme last night, and considered how such responsibility-based engagement, when pursued in a healthy community of fellow engagers, leads to a multiplicative cascade. The "community of fellow engagers" is one of the three goals that Garber encourages his readers to pursue (along with a worldview that inspires responsibility and a mentor to nurture that worldview).

We pictured the process as:

responsibility --> engagement --> multiplication/cascade

Yet many Christians and churches seem to exhibit disengagement, and feel their energies being sapped and dissipated. We came to the question of, "If a burden of responsibility leads to engagement, what kind of motivation leads to withdrawal?" In other words, what would replace ??? in the picture:

??? --> withdrawal --> sapping/dissipation?

What do you think?

Encouragement Mistiming

2011-02-22T20:18:00.000-05:00

It's Week 8 of the semester - The week when...

...my students have learned all the skills they need to learn, but have to be reminded daily that they still apply.
...I have to lay down the law with some students and challenge them to manage their time better.
...I have to tell some students that they should consider withdrawing from a course.
...any special projects I wanted to start but haven't will have to wail until another semester.

This is the point in the semester when I have the greatest need of encouragement...

...and yet it's when encouragement is at its lowest. The irony is that those outside the educational world tend to think of offering encouragement at the very beginning of the semester (when we're running on the steam of excitement) or at the very end (when we've given up steam on the present semester and are hoping for a better run next time).

When have you experienced an encouragement mistiming?

Have we been here before?

2011-02-08T00:01:00.001-05:00

This past weekend, my wife and I discussed our level of interaction during the day, concluding that it was not enough. I pointed out that I have a good fifteen minutes in the morning during which I eat breakfast, get dressed, and gather my things for the day--during all of which she could interact with me if she woke up about half an hour earlier than has usually her custom since she started law school.

This morning, she got out of bed as I was fixing for myself a bow of cereal. I offered to fix her a bowl, but (with one eye opened) she replied that it was too early for her to eat. So, I ate my breakfast while she sat beside me with one eye opened.

Suddenly, I heard the "whooshing" sound of a LOST flashback. "We've been here before," I said, "only last time, it was in reverse."

Five years ago, when we first got married, I was the one in graduate school and she was the working stiff. She asked me to wake up early enough to eat breakfast with her. I would wake up, but usually felt it was "too early to eat" (granted, this was 7:15 instead of 6:45), and so I would sit silently next to her while she (wide awake) ate her breakfast.

I pointed this out to her this morning. Suddenly (five years later), we understood each other.

When have you seen roles reversed, leading to a greater understanding of another person from earlier in your life?

Emotional Flashcards

2011-02-04T12:03:00.000-05:00

I've posted a couple times about my emotional flashcards project. Here are some pictures of the cards in action...

I see this card more often than I'd like--but at least they're not frustrated!

This student often has trouble making up her mind how she feels... At least she's not bored or anxious!

Emotional Flashcards, Take 1!

2011-01-20T00:01:00.001-05:00

Here's a picture of my first batch of emotional flashcards:

The front side lists the emotion; the back lists a short definition, a three-letter summary (e.g., "Grr!" for frustration). The students hold up the appropriate card when they feel its emotion.

The students used them in class on Tuesday. A few observations...

I cannot describe how deeply my heart sank when I got my first white card ("BORED")!
I cannot describe how high my heart jumped when I got my first purple card ("CURIOUS")!
Some students try to hold up three at a time! The use of clickers will alleviate that possibility...

Trying a second round on Thursday...

[Back after a while] An exciting new project!

2011-01-17T20:13:00.000-05:00

Wow--what a whirlwind few months I've had. I'm glad to finally have some time to post again, and I'm hoping to post more regularly this semester.

I'm very excited for tomorrow: I'm going to try out a new in-class strategy that came to me last week during the American Association of Physics Teachers meeting. I'll post pictures later, but I've created a set of emotional/affect flashcards (or "emoticards" as I'm calling them for now) that depict the top 6 emotions that students seem to experience while studying physics. The students will be able to hold up these cards during class discussion to indicate to me how they're feeling about the material. (Fans of The Big Bang Theory will find this idea strikingly familiar.)

I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes!

Ideas That Have Ruined Me: Criticality and Doubt

2010-10-21T17:36:00.000-04:00

1.5 weeks without a post? Beginning a sentence--nay, a blog entry--with a number? It must be mid-term...

I posted earlier that one of the ideas that have ruined me is the importance of criticality and doubt in thinking.

I discovered this importance in Pascal's reason-based doubt-proof-submission paradigm outlined in the Pensees. He argues that reason employs the tactics of doubt (trying to disprove something that seems dubious or potentially dangerous to believe - the tool of the skeptic), proof (trying to concretely and inescapably affirm something that seems intuitively reasonable or advantageous to believe - the tool of the mathematician), and submission (accepting a truth by faith - the tool of the theist); to abandon one or two of these tools would result in philosophical shipwreck.

(Note: Given this scheme, "doubt" is not equivalent to "unbelief"---which the Bible identifies as the root of all sin---but simply a questioning of validity. A Christian would certainly want to "doubt" a heretical statement, in that sense. It's more closely akin to modern-day "critical thinking.")

What has struck me as I thought about this paradigm over the last few years is that I have neglected the discipline of doubt for most of my life. (I always dreaded those "critical thinking" questions in English class growing up.)

Now, I can't stop questioning ideas, be they about physics, theology, or how to best carry my books on my way to class!

Even this week, I've spent a good three hours brain-dead over how to prove to my class a simple physics principle used in every introductory textbook. (I'm omitting the particular details here partly out of a desire for relevance and partly out of embarrassment.) I keep reexamining the argument critically, and can't seem to escape!

But this is where the submission comes in: Because of God's commitment to me, I believe I will escape the circle of doubt. (Well, at least over important things; I suppose it doesn't matter if I swim in doubt over unimportant things. --> There - I doubted my own statement again!)

Which tool of Pascal's trifecta have you ignored? Which have you overused?

Ideas That Have Ruined Me - Follow-Up on "Going to Heaven"

2010-10-06T12:18:00.000-04:00

I mentioned last week that I've been ruined by the idea that Christians spend eternity on the new earth, and that God comes to us (rather than us leaving a doomed world behind to float in the clouds). A related idea that has also ruined me (though not in my original list) is the thought that I honestly don't know what an unfallen world would look like.
We often make comments that suggest we do know what the restored creation will look like:

"I can't wait 'til heaven, when I'll be talented enough to sing," I read a friend's post on facebook once.

"I can't wait 'til God tells me everything I've ever wanted to know and I can understand it instantaneously," I've often said.

And my personal favorite was R. C. Sproul's off-handed comment in a video I once saw: "Entropy is a great little result of the Fall."

It amazes me that we are so self-derogatory that we think that what we perceive to be insufficient talent is a consequence of our sinfulness, or that having to learn is a mark of imperfection. If even God is described as "learning" in the Bible (yes, I'm aware of the danger of taking such verses out of context, and that's not what I'm doing here--hence the quotation marks), why should our process of learning be a source of shame?

[And I'm still trying to understand how the integral of (1/T) with respect to Q (because that's what entropy is) could be a result of sin... I suspect Dr. Sproul was simply reaching for an illustration.]

What aspects of human life (or the universe in general) do you often attribute to the Fall? Is it necessarily so?

Ideas That Have Ruined Me: "Going to Heaven"

2010-09-30T22:01:00.000-04:00

I blame Andy Crouch for forever ruining my ability to not cringe when Christians refer to what will happen when they "go to heaven."

It was while reading his discussion in Culture Making of the end of the narrative in Revelation that it first really struck me that the end of the story takes place on the renewed earth, complete with a renewed city, renewed trees, gates leading out into the big wide world and letting the nations--still identified as nations--enter. It is to this renewed earth, John describes, that heaven comes down. At the end of the story, then, we don't go up to spend eternity with God in heaven; He comes down to spend eternity with us on earth.

I also blame Andy Crouch for the number of times I've kicked myself that I didn't see this sooner. After all, that's the story of the entire Bible! In Genesis 2 & 3, God comes down to visit Adam & Eve--they don't have to leave the earth behind. In John 1, Jesus comes and "pitches His tent with us" (literal wording for "dwelt among us").

So, why, I've wondered for the last couple years, do we sing so much about what will happen "when we all get to heaven," and how "this world has nothing for me," or even, "this world is not my home?" Granted: The second is likely referring to the world as the system of sin that governs human culture (at least, that's how I sing it--but even then, Crouch argues, we still need culture), but when I hear statements like the third, I can't help but conclude that the writer somehow thinks that this big 6000-km-radius ball of mostly molten iron with a surface gravitational acceleration of 32 ft/s^2 and atmosphere of primarily nitrogen is the wrong place for us. "This is my Father's world"--I want to shout--"and it's also mine!"

This earth is our home--and it will be, for all eternity. That's what makes it so amazing that God would move heaven here to be with us.

Granted, if you see me in church, I'll still sing most of the lines about "heaven," but only because "new earth" just doesn't fit rhythmically. :-P

Ideas That Have Ruined Me

2010-09-29T10:15:00.001-04:00

Below is a list of ideas that have "ruined" me--i.e., ideas that have forever altered my way of perceiving and thinking about the world around me and how I interact with others' perceptions and thoughts. I hope to write more about each in the coming weeks.

At the end of the Bible's story, believers spend eternity on the renewed earth, not "in heaven." This has forever changed my reaction to much Christian music and thinking.
The importance of criticality and doubt in thinking, thanks to Pascal's reason-based doubt-proof-submission paradigm.
"All truth is God's truth," thanks to Calvin.
"Calling is the truth that God calls us to Himself so decisively that everything we do, everything we are, and everything we have is invested with a special dynamism and devotion lived out as a response to His summons," thanks to Os Guinness. (My apologies if the wording is out of order, as I'm writing from memory.)
"An intellectual is someone who loves ideas... A Christian intellectual is [one who does so] to the glory of God," thanks to James Sire.
"Learning results from what the student does and thinks and only from what the student does and thinks," thanks to Herbert Simon. In my mind, this idea has spent the last six months in an intergalactic collision with the idea that the way we "do church" is not specifically prescribed in either the Old or New Testament.

What ideas have "ruined" you?

A Shift in Focus

2010-09-23T17:07:00.000-04:00

When we read the greatest commandment ("You will love the Lord your God will all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all your strength," as quoted by Jesus), we usually tend to put the emphasis on the four "all"s. God deserves the complete dedication of our entire being, the commandment says.

Meditating on this commandment in this way has helped me immensely in my walk with God. But I think we can also gain a lot of insight by focusing on the "your"s.

I am called to love God with my heart, with my mind, with my soul, and with my strength. I don't need someone else's heart, mind, soul, or strength. Though God knows I wish I had them, I don't need someone else's emotional intelligence or expressiveness, or someone else's intellectual capability and fortitude, or someone else's endurance and threshold for pain. I can love God in the way that He wants with what makes me who I am.

(Someone might argue that the "you" in this verse is plural, intended for God's people as a whole, and that I'm letting American individualism creep into my thinking. I think the commandment applies in both the singular and plural sense. I wonder, after all, how the second greatest commandment--"You will love your neighbor as yourself"--would be interpreted in a plural manner.)

I find this thought very comforting. I spend too much of my thinking time wondering how someone I admire would respond to a situation, or word an e-mail, or make a presentation; but I can love God in those situations with my personality & internal construction. I don't need someone else's.

Are Introductory Physics Problem Dehumanizing?

2010-09-21T11:44:00.000-04:00

In my alphabetical album iPod listen-through, I'm currently in the middle of "The Eclipse and Reappearance of the Human in Higher Education," a series of talks hosted by the Christian Study Center of Gainesville in 2008. (Apparently, I need to clean out my podcasts.) It's been refreshing to relisten to these conversations (especially hearing the voices of people from Gainesville I haven't seen in some time).

But for the fist time, I turned the question of whether higher education is dehumanizing on my own field of interest: physics education. The first thought that came to my mind was the classic argument between physics professors and their introductory students about all these problems in our textbooks that ask students to ignore friction and air resistance. (Consider the comic above and the classic "spherical cow in a vacuum" joke.)

Students constantly complain that these problems are useless; physics professors insist that anything that takes place in the real world is too difficult for introductory physics.

While I make this argument every semester (Once, I tried to circumvent the argument by asking the students to consider an experiment on the airless moon; I then had to spend half an hour convincing my students that there is no air on the moon...), it occurs to me that one could consider the imposition of these artificial conditions to have a dehumanizing effect on the student.

Think of just a couple implications of a frictionless airless world: First of all, we couldn't live in this world, so our idealized experiments have no humans to operate or watch them. Second, we couldn't walk in this world, because friction is necessary for walking.

If you couple these implications with the stripped-down nature of the objects under consideration in physics problems (purposeless blocks on inclined planes that lead nowhere, spheres and triangles suspended from pulleys for no reason), you quickly find yourself immersed in a human-less (perhaps human-stifling) world.

I think I need to go revise the problems in my own textbook...

What We Think We Know & Believe

2010-09-14T00:01:00.001-04:00

After many delays, I'm hoping this marks the return of Corner Interactions for the Fall 2010 semester!

I've got many exciting things going on this Fall, including participating in a book club with other JU faculty to read "How Learning Works" by Ambrose, et al.

The first chapter is about how students' prior knowledge about (or related to) a subject area impacts (for better or worse) their learning in that subject area. Prior knowledge & beliefs help learning if they are activated, sufficient, appropriate, and accurate. (Programmers & inductive Bible-study people will notice the AND there.) However, if prior knowledge & beliefs are unactivated, insufficient, inappropriate, or inaccurate, they're actually detrimental to the learning process. (Programmers & inductive Bible-study people will notice the OR there, and notice that a rough statistical estimate suggests that prior knowledge & beliefs harm more often than they help.)

(You might notice I included "beliefs" with "knowledge," which are not terms we usually pair together in academia. However, research increasingly indicates that what a student believes about a subject drastically impacts how well they learn it. I'll write more about that later...)

The authors provide the simple example of students learning the concept of "negative reinforcement" in behavioral psychology, in which students very often associate "negative" with bad, concluding that negative reinforcement is actually a form of punishment (thereby ignoring the "reinforcement" part of the term, which is less familiar).

It seems to me this concept is also true spiritually. Our preconceptions (of what we know & believe to be true spiritually) drastically impact our reception (or rejection) of more spiritual truth. Perhaps, even, the majority of our disagreements as Christians come from unactivated, insufficient, inappropriate, or inaccurate prior spiritual knowledge & beliefs?

Struggling with Service

2010-07-20T11:07:00.000-04:00

This Sunday, my church's senior pastor presented a great challenge about service and hospitality. He made some great comments, including (paraphrased)

Burnout is not a result of doing too much but of wrong motivation.
Availability/life station should be a factor in our service, but not an excuse for not serving.
We should not let our gifts pigeonhole us into a certain venue of service.
Our gifts need development through use.
The best way to discern our gifts is to start serving and see what people notice about us. (Could this be considered a genetic algorithm? But I digress provocatively...)

It occurs to me that, not only does the church struggle to put these truths into practice, but the university does, as well. Service is one of the "Big Three" when it comes to faculty expectations (along with teaching and scholarship), and faculty (Christian and non-Christian) also struggle with motivation-based burnout, a sense of unavailability, pigeonholing themselves, lack of development, and lack of self-awareness.

If Christian faculty proactively learned to adopt these principles in serving the church and the university, one can only imagine how it would revolutionize our example to other believers and our witness to the academy.

How have you struggled with service? How have you dealt with motivation, availability, self-awareness, and development?

What should an ECC elder believe about the creation of the universe?

2010-07-06T12:40:00.003-04:00

This was the question posed to me as an essay assignment (only one page!) at a leadership development class at my church (ECC).

I found this question very interesting not just because of its relevance to my professional life, but because it was the only question on the assignment list phrased in terms of "What should an elder at ECC believe" and because, in my opinion, it offers the most room for disagreement and debate out of all the questions on the list.

I'm pasting in my answer below.

Beliefs

An elder at Eastside Community Church (ECC) should believe…

God made the universe good.

God made the universe out of nothing.

The universe is separate from and dependent on God.

The universe reveals God's glorious character (including, but not limited to, His wisdom and sovereignty).

The universe inspires worship of God.

The universe glorifies God, even apart from the worship it inspires.

The universe was placed under humankind's care.

Humans, specifically, are part of creation, are radically different from the rest of creation, are created in God's image (in particular as creators and cultivators), and are the pinnacle of creation.

The universe is fallen.

The universe will be restored.

God's truth and nature's appearance do not always seem to agree.

Many of these Beliefs are depicted pictorially in Figure 1.

Applications

Based on these Beliefs, an elder at ECC should…

Actively engage and support the efforts of congregation members to understand, care for, and cultivate creation.

Affirm the significance of human beings, especially in light of our present day's dehumanizing intellectual and moral culture (which is desperately seeking an answer to this problem).

Assess present-day challenges (from the external world and from within the church) to these Beliefs and respond accordingly.

Open Issues

On the following list of creation-related issues, an elder at ECC should allow disagreement and encourage healthy, informed discussion among the elders and within the congregation. In such discussion, an elder (and all Christians) should seek to understand how each opinion can be seen to glorify God. To be conversant in these issues, an elder should strive to understand relevant scientific research & biblical interpretation and adopt the appropriate terminology.

The interpretation of quantum mechanics.

The age and development of the universe.

Evolutionary theory.

The origin of humans.

The origin of carnivorism/omnivorism.

The development of language.

God's relationship to time.

Figure 1. Pictorial representation of the Beliefs summarized in this essay.

-----------------------------

Your turn: What should a leader at your church believe about your field of study?

The Moral Dimension of the Mind, a la Sire

2010-06-08T11:32:00.001-04:00

I've been rereading Sire's Habits of the Mind, and just finished his challenging Chapter 5: The Moral Dimension of the Mind. In it, he lays down the truth that should haunt all Christians:

We only know/believe what we obey. Or, we are responsible for living based on what we know.

Thus, Christian intellectuals bear a great deal of responsibility.

Here is the great dichotomy that I found on this reread:

We fail in our responsibility as Christian intellectuals, and so Christian intellectualism needs the gospel. But living out the gospel (the actions he describes as aspiration--setting our minds on what is good--and mortification--denying our flesh) requires Christian thinking (and therefore Christian intellectualism). Each necessitates the other.

In general, in fact, the only way to respond to the gospel is in obedience, and the only way to obey is to believe the gospel.

But what does all of this have to do with being a Christian physicist? I came up with a few answers...

I need to connect physics to worship.
I am a teacher, and not just a physicist. (This thought also led me to consider the differences between the terms "physics teacher," "physicist teacher," and "teacher physicist." I'll tease out those differences in another post some day...) I need to value my students, their learning, and their future.
Physics is applied to help creation. (I normally say, "help humanity," but with all the thoughts of the oil spill floating around in my head, and my multi-year-long fascination with the Cultural Mandate in Genesis 1, it occurred to me that I needed to expand my understanding of my own sphere of responsibility. Again, probably more about this in a future post...)

Summertime

2010-05-19T09:33:00.000-04:00

...and the bloggin is easy. Apparently not, since I haven't posted most of this month! I think I'll post sporadically over the summer. It's been a good year but my brain is tired...

A few personal updates:

My five year anniversary with Amy Lane is this Friday!
I started teaching Aviation Physics as a hybrid course last week. I've never taught (or seen) a hybrid introductory physics course. So far it's going well. (Of course, we haven't hit free-body diagrams yet...)
I'm listening through Beethoven's Symphonies, as conducted by Leonard Bernstein. I'm halfway through #5, and find it sad that the second movement is so often upstaged by the first.
I'm trying something very different in my Electromagnetic Theory I course in the Fall; more on that later...
I'm re-reading Sire's Habits of the Mind. As always, when I re-read a book, I find myself wondering why I highlighted some of the things I did, and why I didn't highlight others. Sire & Newman are right: The mind is like a mountain climber...

See you around!

Expo Pics and the Questions that Matter

2010-05-04T08:57:00.000-04:00

The EPA Expo weekend before last went great! We're very proud of our students. You can find pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/110636788435437003869/EPA_EXPO_2010#.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

LOST is quickly drawing to a close. There are three regular episodes left before the two-hour finale. As the title of the show implies (and as conversation with any LOST fan will reveal), LOST is a show that raises many questions. What happened to so-and-so when she disappeared? Why did That Guy kill That Other Guy? What is The Monster? (For those of you who stopped watching mid-stream: No, we still don't know!)

There are perhaps 1,000 little questions that LOST has yet to answer, and many of us are wondering how the writers are going to answer them in only 5 more new hours of programming. I'm beginning to wonder if they intend to answer any of the little questions.

In fact, that seems to be their point as we head toward the finale: Not all questions matter equally. (In fact, one character even explicitly stated this back in Season 4: "Why don't you ask the one question that does matter?") They want us to focus on the big questions, which right now are basically boiled down to: What is the Monster? What is the Island? Who is Jacob?

While this frustrates me as an academic (I should have the ability to find the answer to any question, no matter how obscure!), I wonder if I need to be reminded that this is, in many ways, how God works.

In Scripture, we don't get the answer to every detail-oriented question: How many angles & demons are there? Was John the Baptist really saved before he was born? How old is the universe? What is "gopherwood?"

And from the point of view of the main themes of Scripture (the "Monster," the "Island," and "Jacob," if you will), these questions don't ultimately matter.

And perhaps this is not contrary to an academic mindset. After all, don't we teach our students to pick out the main ideas & themes of a work? Don't we want them to identify and readily employ the primary equations of a section?

Looking forward to May 23!

I'm off to Washington!

2010-04-22T14:38:00.001-04:00

(I've enjoyed saying that all day...)

Tonight, I leave with a group of students and faculty to participate in the EPA's National Sustainable Design Expo. Our students are presenting the results of their (EPA funded!) residential water reuse system. I'm looking forward to it!

You can pray...

for our safety.
for this to be an opportunity for me to live out God's love and grace to my students & colleagues.
for our students to represent their project and their university as they compete with 41 other teams for a second phase of funding.

I'll post pictures to my Picasa page.

Have a great weekend!

Bloggin' Bout my Generation, Part III

2010-04-20T09:43:00.000-04:00

So... what's the answer to this generation dilemma?

I don't have a foolproof solution, but I do have a suggestion.

My generation needs to transition from feeling challenged to feeling called.

We needed challenges. We needed to be pushed out of our comfort zones. We needed to be inspired to sacrificially serve God. We needed See You at the Pole rallies and Newsboys concerts and Summer Projects. Even those of us who haven't gone into "full-time ministry" needed them. (Perhaps we're the ones who needed them the most.) Those experiences, I believe, have made us unique, and we need to not be ashamed of that uniqueness.

But to hold onto our uniqueness, we need a sense of calling. Os Guinness defines calling as "the truth that God calls us to Himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have in invested with a special devotion and dynamism lived out as a response to His summons and service." Challenges come in lumps (sometimes mountain-sized lumps); calling is continual. Challenges lead to growth in fits and spurts; calling leads to a journey. Challenge brings change from the top down; calling brings change from the bottom up.

Here's to praying we become a generation that answers its call. Not a call to abandon our "normal" lives in exchange for something "better," but to live out our extraordinary relationship with God in our "normal" lives. I think that's how God wants us to change the world, and I think He's prepared this generation of Christians to do it in a unique way.

The other side of the question is how the church can help us do that. I don't exactly know. But I hope current and future church leaders will see this need and dream of ways to encourage a new, called generation.

RTS Professor's Resignation

2010-04-17T00:27:00.000-04:00

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/04/09/video

I have mixed reactions to this article.

On the one hand, I respect RTS's right to govern what is taught in their classes. I think they (along with every seminary and Christian higher education institution) have a duty to the church and to God to preserve the truths of Scripture and equip the church's leaders to be lovers of truth and shepherds of people.

On the other hand...

This issue was not brought up in an RTS class. It was not being taught as what the students "should believe." And even if it were brought up in class, being a lover of truth means understanding concepts that you don't agree with.
Evolution is a very nonessential issue, and not one worth losing a valued colleague over. RTS has promoted the cone of certainty for so long... Have they decided to abandon it?
What kind of example/precedent does this set? Who else at RTS is in danger of falling out of favor? How should church's who value RTS as a spiritual & intellectual trendsetter react to similar viewpoints among their leaders & congregation?
If this professor is worried about the church losing its relevance... Shouldn't he be encouraged for his concern and willingness to step out on the prophet's limb?

Bloggin Bout My Generation, Part II

2010-04-15T08:48:00.001-04:00

Earlier, I talked about how my generation of Christians doesn't generally fit into the church.

The great irony is that, in a lot of ways this lack of fitting in comes from the church, itself.

Think about what the church (youth groups, college ministries, Dawson McAllister retreats, See You at the Pole Rallies, etc.) told my generation growing up:

"You need to step out of your comfort zone."
"You've got to reach your campus for Christ."
"He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot live without."
"Serving God is worth any sacrifice."
"You have to power to tell your sphere of influence about the gospel."
"Your generation can change the world for Jesus."
"Your generation is going to see Jesus return."
"You should go on a mission trip every summer."
"You've got to serve out of God's strength, and not your own."
"You're too busy not to pray."
"All of life is ministry."
"All of life is worship."

My generation of Christians learned to live out those truths in high school and college. But now that we've grown up, two things have happened: 1. It's much harder to live out those truths in real life (in which your boss doesn't care whose strength you're serving in), and 2. Many Christians in the earlier generations find these ideas foreign. To many of them, the Christian life is about "family" (by which they mean "children") and "morality" (by which they mean "watching the right movies"). They've never cosidered their comfort zone or their sphere of influence; they have little if any vision about changing the world; they think of ministry and worship as something that happens only on Sunday morning.

I know what you're thinking at this point: This is not true of every Christian older than we are. After all; it was Christians older than we are that laid down these challenges. For that, I am eternally grateful.

But, I think the fact remains that the church challenged my generation in a way that no generation has been challenged in a long time. And we're now at a point where we can continue to live in that sense of challenge and take risks to follow God, or we can resign ourselves to "normal life." The first sounds thrilling. But the second looks tempting when I'm tired and when I see others doing it.

Undergraduate Corner: What have you learned?

2010-04-13T20:26:00.000-04:00

At the end of each semester, I ask my students to write me one page of text describing the three most important things they've learned in my class. The things the learned can be about physics, math, engineering, science in general, life in general, etc.

I think it's important for them (and all of us) to reflect on what they've learned, instead of just rushing off to Summer Break to crash on Mom & Dad's couch.

(This question also benefits me, since I make copies of their answers to go in my yearly evaluation & tenure portfolio! I find they provide a nice complement to the course evaluations.)

So... what are the three most important things you've learned this semester?

Bloggin Bout My Generation, Part I

2010-04-08T00:01:00.000-04:00

(Image from www.xkcd.com.)

I was born in July of 1981. By nearly all sociologists' demographics, that puts me right in the middle of the transition between Generation X and the Millennials. And I could see the difference in high school: Most of my older classmates seemed characterized by apathy, emptiness, and nihilism, while most students just a year behind me in school (though only a few months younger) seemed characterized by an almost unending optimism that they could take on the world and win. On the few occasions that I saw them interact, it was like watching Kurt Cobain duke it out with Ross from Friends.

I've never really felt as though I fit into either category. I appreciate the GenXers' honest outlook on life (though I could never understand how they got out of bed each morning), but I also wish I could have the Millennials' optimism (without feeling like I was deceiving myself). I've always felt that, as a Christian, it's my nature to transcend any categories that human wisdom puts me into. (Of course, the fact that I'm an introverted nerd who teaches physics and writes blogs like this one doesn't help me fit in, either.)

These feelings (identifying equally with each generation while feeling equally alien to each generation) lead me to think a lot about the Christians my age. We've definitely come "into life." We're past the "staring out" point in our careers; college is long gone; we're (generally) not going to Newsboys concerts anymore (Are they even still around?); we've forgone seeking "spiritual mountaintops" in favor of enough faith to make it to work each morning; we've got some money in our 401-k's (and hoping it will stay there); and we're trying to be involved in the local church as adults.

I think it's this last characteristic (amid the swirling vortex of all of them) that's giving us the most trouble.

We don't really know what previous generations of Christians think of us: When we were growing up, they seemed to think we were all pregnant drug addicts. On the other hand, they seem to be watching us, like we're the new gila monsters at the zoo.

We don't really know how to make friends at church. (Adults don't seem to do those icebreaker games we learned in Youth Group.)

We don't know where we can serve or whom we should ask about it.

When we do meet someone new at church, we don't know what to talk about.

How can my generation find its way through this challenging time? Should we try to forge a new identity for ourselves? Should we try to be like the previous generations? Should we just "be ourselves," as we were taught at school? Should we disconnect until others initiate with us?

10 Marks of the Early Church

2010-04-07T11:18:00.000-04:00

I seem to be having trouble posting on Tuesdays of late! I have an idea for a series of posts cooking, so in the meantime, here's a link to a great article I found this week:

http://www.pastorfairchild.com/2007-02/05/10-marks-of-the-early-church/

What I find interesting is the emphasis on humans being created in the image of God as the foundation of their convictions. Can we say that's the foundation of ours, today?

Commonality, Part II: The University and the Church

2010-04-01T13:41:00.000-04:00

The university and the church have a lot more in common than most people think.

For example, this week, my univerity is hosting a faculty & student symposium for members of the campus community to present their work.

It's amazing how different "research" looks in different fields. In the sciences, we spend as little time as possible on background so that we can show as much of our original work as possible. Meanwhile, presenters from the College of Business seem to spend the majority of the time on their title slide (this shocked me) talking about the background and motivation and then speed through their original work. I've also seen Dance students who's talks seem to be entirely historical research, without showing what a scientist would consider an original thesis.

They're all very different---so much so that they hardly seem to understand each other---but they're all equally part of the academic enterprise.

It's very much like the church.

Commonality

2010-03-25T21:41:00.000-04:00

Whom do you feel like you have more in common with?

Person A: This person has made many of the same decisions as you in life. They have pursued a similar career, for many of the same reasons. They have many of the same goals as you. They come from a similar family & social background as you. They hold many of the same opinions and convictions as you.

In fact, there is only one thing you don't have in common with this person: They have no relationship with Jesus.

Person B: This person has made many of the exact opposite decisions that you have. They have a career that has nothing to do with yours---or perhaps they are even opposed to your career. Their goals seem alien to you. Their family life is radically different from yoursl perhaps it is even offensive to you. They come from a side of town you would never visit. They don't share your most closely-held convictions, and hold convictions that you consider absurd.

But this person is a follower of Jesus.

Whom do you feel like you have more in common with?

The Discipline of Dismay

2010-03-23T21:30:00.000-04:00

My small group is going through Os Guinness' The Call. We recently had a discussion about Guinness' description of what Oswald Chambers called "the discipline of dismay." He describes it as the weightiness that settles in when, after the initial joy of following Jesus has passed, we realize that Jesus may be traveling somewhere we'll find unpleasant.

He gives the example of Jesus setting a course for Jerusalem, telling His disciples several times along the way that He was going there to die. (This setting makes their questions about who is the greatest seem even more ludicrous, but that's another blog for another day.)

It's at this point in the semester that the discipline of dismay sets in for me. There are six weeks left---only six!---and yet following Jesus for those six weeks seems so much more difficult than the previous nine. There are difficult conversations with students who have fallen behind; long-term projects come to an intense head; I get sick; multiple deadlines converge on the same day (and procrastination becomes a long-gone pleasure!); LOST offers more questions than answers...

(Okay; that last one is relatively tame, but it certainly doesn't help.)

It's also at this point in the semester that it's easiest to put false hope in the next semester, to begin planning for the next round of classes, when I know I'll "get it right."

But I need to learn what I can, and grow how I can, during this time. I need to accept the discipline of dismay, and not avoid it.

I'm not quite dead yet!

2010-03-17T08:43:00.000-04:00

I've missed a couple posts because of a cold. (Sick during Spring Break--isn't that always the way?) Let's say I'll see you on the 23rd!

Curiosity, Anger & Fear - My Testimony March 7

2010-03-09T07:43:00.000-05:00

This Sunday, I was given a few minutes during my church's Sunday morning meeting to share about my journey with God. Below is the text of what I shared.

I feel the need to apologize, as the story I’m about to tell you is unfinished. I wish I had an ending to give you, but I’m afraid that hasn’t happened yet. But while I don’t have an ending, I do have an outline for you. I’d like to tell you about my curiosity, anger, and fear.

First, my curiosity. I grew up in church, and I often felt curious and confused. I didn’t understand how what I learned in church lined up with what I learned in school. As an example, I learned in church that the basis of my relationship with God was faith in what Jesus had done, and not in anything I did. On the other hand, in school, I learned that there was a time in history when Christians believed the exact opposite. I wanted to learn where my faith had come from, and why I believed what I believed. In short, I needed to make my faith my own and, as a result, develop my own relationship with God.

As I graduated high school and started college, I learned to read God’s word for myself and apply it to my life. I soon learned that the Christianity I read about in the Bible and the Christianity I had witnessed growing up were not always the same. The God I met in the Bible was gracious beyond what my sin deserved, loving beyond what I could imagine, and cared for me as an individual. I also learned that God has a specific calling for my life, and that He wants me to follow Him by serving others everywhere all the time, and not just at church on Sundays or at college ministry events. I learned to view all of life as an opportunity to glorify God by serving others.

It was this desire to glorify God by serving others that led me to pursue a career in academia. To do so, I had to take on the greatest challenge of my life: graduate school. For those of you unfamiliar with grad school, imagine, over the course of five years, having all of your dignity, physical health, and sanity slowly stripped away.

Life in grad school was harder than I had thought it would be. I knew my studies would be intellectually challenging, but I didn’t expect them to be so emotionally draining. I learned the pain of facing challenges that I didn’t feel strong enough for. I learned that putting my faith in God doesn’t mean that life will be easy. I felt as though God had brought me to a spiritual mountaintop in college, and then, in grad school, crammed me into a dark dank cell. (And that’s quite literal. My office was about the size of a shoebox.) I was often hurried and under pressure to produce results, and I had little time to reflect on what I was learning or to serve others like I had wanted to. I felt disillusioned with my studies, and was sad at my lack of progress in serving others and sharing Christ with my classmates.

I became angry at God.

I did not want to admit my anger. I felt ashamed. I felt like, if I confessed it, there would be no coming back.

I ended up taking my anger out on Amy. I became uncaring and emotionally unresponsive, except for when I was frustrated. I would yell at her for the silliest things, like leaving dirty clothes on the bed or if she got home late from work. I thought that controlling her would somehow appease my anger.

Finally, late into grad school, I confessed my anger to God and to Amy. I wish I could tell you that as soon as I confessed, the clouds parted, the sun shined down on me, and I felt this heavenly sense of freedom. But that’s not what happened. I wasn’t free from my anger at that moment, but somehow the anger didn’t seem to have nearly the weight that it once did. When I confessed, I felt the freedom to slowly begin to slide out from under it.

As a result, I learned that the world doesn’t end when I confess a huge sin. I learned that God doesn’t return my anger with spite. And I learned that God will take the punches from my anger.

Finally, let me tell you a little about my struggle with fear.

Just before finishing grad school, I learned that I have a heart condition called Mitral Valve Prolapse. The short description is that my heart’s mitral valve shakes every time it closes and my heart often feels as though it’s beating twice as fast as it actually is. It’s very distressing, and I often feel nervous and afraid in response to it.

When I learned that I have this condition, I felt very afraid and fragile, like I might break at the slightest touch. This fear has been a struggle, because in many ways, this condition affects me beyond my control, but at the same time, I need to respond to it as best I can. Dealing with this condition has been a lesson about how I cannot control everything in life, but need to turn to God as I respond to what happens to me. It’s difficult not to become angry at God over this, and He’s been very patient as I’ve learned to live with this condition and struggled with my fear and anger as a result.

So, as I said, I cannot offer you an ending. God is still in the process of developing my trust in Him. In spite of my fear and anger, He remains faithful and gracious to me, and does not treat me as my sins deserve. Because of his love, patience, and forgiveness through Christ, I can learn to depend on Him in all circumstances of life.

Ford vs. The Frantics

2010-03-04T18:18:00.003-05:00

My church small group is reading through The Call, by Os Guinness. We recently discussed Chapter 5, "By Him, To Him, For Him," which addresses the "Protestant distortion," which, as Guinness puts it, "[said] that work was made sacred. Whereas the Bible is realistic about work, seeing it after the fall as both creative and cursed, the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries lost the balance. Work was not only entirely good, but it was also virtually made holy in a crescendo of enthusiasm that was later termed 'the Protestant ethic.'"

Guinness illustrates this distortion with a series of quotes from that time.

"The man who builds a factory builds a temple. The man who works there worships there" (President Collidge). All right; I can understand & appreciate that. We should worship God in all we do (not just work, but including work).

"Work is the salvation of the human race, morally, physically, socially" (Henry Ford). Yikes! Sounds like someone is trying to drum up motivation to work at an assembly line...

At the same time, we can fall into the other trap of hating work altogether. Consider the following lines from "Kids of Summer" on Meet the Frantics (Are they still around?):

"I don't want to go to work again.
Think it's the only place I've ever been.
And I would rather be at home
Watching TV all alone
Than to be in this.

I feel it eatin' at my soul again.
My candle's burnin' and it's reached the end.
But there's nothing I can say
To make a difference anyway
To get me out of here.

I used to have a heart,
When we were the kids of summer.
But the dyin' had begun,
When you and I were young.

I don't want to go to sleep again.
By six a.m. I'm wishing I was dead.
A couple hours in the sack
Turn around and headin' back
To start the cycle again.

I gotta wear that stupid painted grin
When I just wanna jump right outta my skin.
I need something that is true,
But there's nothin' I can do,
I gotta pay the bills."

How do we find the balance? How do we feel a sense of completing our calling, while at the same time paying the bills (and washing the laundry, and filling up the car with gas, and cleaning the bathroom, and washing the laundry again because you forgot to put it in the dryer after washing it yesterday...)?

Undergraduate Corner: Insightful Book

2010-03-02T00:01:00.002-05:00

On this blog, the first and third Tuesday of each month are dedicated to presenting discussion geared toward undergraduate students, in a series called, "Undergraduate Corner."

What's Wrong With University: And How to Make It Work For You Anyway looks to be an insightful book on undergraduate life. You can find a number of interesting excerpts on the site.

No one ever told me...

2010-02-25T22:56:00.000-05:00

...that I would spend most of my professional life being a cheerleader for other people. Nor did they tell me that it was so tiring.

On Thursday afternoons, I take part in co-managing a student project to complete an environmental innovation project funded by the EPA. Today, the students were in need of a pick-me-up, so I spent most of the class period asking them to describe accomplishments we'd already made in the project, and rewarded them by tossing bite-sized candy bars left over from Valentine's Day. It's one of those moments that is certainly worthwhile, but you don't expect to encounter in your career while slaving away at a PhD.

I suppose that it's not a requirement unique to professors, but also applies to managers and parents and pastors and marketers and missionaries and bus drivers.

Whom in your life have you had to cheerlead, even at the expense of your personal productivity? How do you keep yourself cheered along while doing so?

Carpenter, Skeptic, Savior

2010-02-23T22:25:00.000-05:00

I learned a valuable lesson about skepticism a couple years ago.

My wife and I had just bought our first home (yay!) and decided it would be a great investment idea and a lot of fun to replace all of the carpet with laminate wood flooring. Six months later, we were approximately 10% of the way done, and learned that we didn't find it to be much fun (and, it turned out, we were also eight months away from moving again).

But I learned the value of asking good skeptical questions:

"Is this really a right angle?"
"Was that cut supposed to be measured from the tongue end or from the groove end?"
"These measurements can't possibly be accurate!"

(Okay, that last one isn't a question, but you get the idea.)

I learned that carpenters have to be very good skeptics: They have to know how to ask constructive questions that challenge the status quo to help develop a correct understanding of reality. We have to do the same thing in physics problems (hence my use of a Pascalian group problem-solving strategy), and in studying theology.

It's also important to remember that Jesus was a carpenter, who had to ask such skeptical questions about every cut He made. In many ways, He also applied that same clear-cut understanding to the spiritual world, calling into question those who sat on their spirituality a little too comfortably.

Here's to good skepticism!

Potential Kindred Spirits?

2010-02-18T00:01:00.001-05:00

Things aren't looking good for global warming/climate change activists. Let's look at the record.

Their message isn't welcomed by a society of people who don't want to make changes to their lives.
Their message is based on claims no one completely understands.
The scientific credibility of their message has been compromised by scandal.
The public challenges their claim because of seeming inconsistencies with reality.
Because of these inconsistencies, they've had to expand their claims and change their name.

Yes, it seems like things don't look good for the climate change movement.

But these traits make it very similar to another movement that's in trouble: the young-earth anti-evolution creation science movement (or any variation thereof). These members of these two movements could learn from each other, offer each other empathy. They are, potentially at least, kindred spirits.

The great irony, though, is that Christians provide the climate change movement with some of its most ardent opposition, creation scientists included.

Even if one disagrees with their conclusions (on scientific or theological grounds) or questions their methodology, is it more important to join the broader culture in mocking them, or to spread the gospel by identifying with their challenges? Shouldn't we be capable of empathizing with people with whom we don't agree?

Undergraduate Corner: Dream big, but keep your head in the game

2010-02-16T19:10:00.000-05:00

On this blog, the first and third Tuesday of each month are dedicated to presenting discussion geared toward undergraduate students, in a series called, "Undergraduate Corner."

Today, you'll get to hear from my wife, Amy. Enjoy!

-------------------

Hi. I'm Amy, Brian's wife. He's given me the keyboard today to share a simple, but profound thought I've only recently wrapped my head around, as the title says: dream big, but keep your head in the game.

When I was an undergrad, I had big hopes, long-term year plans, meticulous GPA trackers, and color coded notebooks. I was the unstoppable force immovable objects dread. My goal, simply stated by my roommates so often, was to take over the world and I was going to use a finely sharpened #2 pencil to do it.

My senior year brought a series of life and perspective changing events (injury, boyfriend, breakup ... are some of mine, feel free to add your own to your mental list).

I found myself losing sight of my big dreams in the murky waters of the everyday mundane. Then, in the need for catharsis, I would attempt to catapult myself toward my dream, leaving the dreary day planner behind. I swung between these two extremes for years, along the way running blankly through graduation, first jobs, even marriage.

In 2009, I realized I had settled into a routine based life that lacked forward-movement. Most of my college "deadlines" and "goals" had passed. Just before beginning to wallow in self-pity, I remembered (after some not-so subtle reminders from a certain physics prof) that looking backward while trying to move forward will get you nowhere.

2010 will be a year of new goals set and met, of renewed vision and dreams. Along the way, I think I'll find my good ole #2.

It's Weird Being on This Side

2010-02-11T12:51:00.003-05:00

My Quantum Mechanics students are struggling through what is quite possibly one of the most challenging homework assignments of the semester. It's not necessarily the most difficult (we haven't even gotten to linear algebra yet), but it is probably the one that requires the most amount of work and thoughtfulness.

One of the problems is a scaled-down version of an assignment we wrestled with in graduate school to create plots to compare the behavior of a mass on a spring in classical mechanics with its behavior in quantum mechanics. (Plotting the classical and quantum probability densities for successively higher energy levels, for those familiar with the material.) The results are very illuminating, but it takes quite a bit of work to reach the satisfying conclusion... especially since a single mistake along the way can ruin the end product!

I spent some time after class with them in the library computer lab as they worked on the assignment. I saw in their eyes the same level of concentration & consternation that my classmates and I had displayed when completing this assignment... and I have to say, it was weird being on this side of it.

I know what the final results are supposed to look like, and I know what steps they need to take, and I know what they're supposed to learn along the way. (Granted, I will probably make mistakes as I finish my own solutions to the assignment.) And I am setting them on this task that will take a good number of hours.

It makes me think of how Jesus is described in Hebrews as a sympathetic high priest. I was reminded of the importance of that feature of His relationship to His people. I hope I can mimic it well in my relationships with my students and with others.

Additional (possibly irrelevenat) comment: I looked up "weird" in the dictionary to make sure I had spelled it correctly, and learned that it has the same origin as the word "worth." Do we think of "weird" things as having unique "worth?"

What is Done in Secret

2010-02-09T00:01:00.001-05:00

Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Matthew 6:1-4

As an educator, there's a lot that I have to do that no one ever sees. Grading lab reports, tracking students' grades, setting up on-line materials, fixing typos, scouring for homework problems---It is all prep work that none of my students or colleagues ever see. It also makes for boring dinner table conversation. For example, imagine the following:

"How was your day?"

"It was okay."

"What made it just okay?"

"Well, I was trying to write comments on a student's pre-class reading assignment, and I wanted to say that the expectation value of momentum was definitely zero in this problem, but when I wrote it as <p>, the on-line software interpreted it as an html paragraph tag, and it came out looking strange. It took me about half an hour to figure out why. I'm still not sure how to fix it."

"Oh... okay."

I have to remind myself that God "sees in secret," and that He has a reward prepared, apart from how many people see it or hear about it.

T-Rex on Doubt vs. Skepticism

2010-02-04T00:01:00.001-05:00

http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=544

While clicking through random Dinosaur Comics, I found this little gem about post-modern thinking in a prehistoric context.

Undergraduate Corner: "Who Told You That?"

2010-02-02T00:01:00.001-05:00

On this blog, the first and third Tuesday of each month are dedicated to presenting discussion geared toward undergraduate students, in a series called, "Undergraduate Corner."

I think one of the most underutilized verses in the Bible is right at the beginning: "Who told you you were naked?"

I had a similar question arise last week in my Quantum Mechanics class.

One of my students was growing frustrated with his halting success and many intellectual roadblocks to completing the first round of homework problems. "How can I calculate this thing [the expectation value of x]?" he asked. "I've never even seen this kind of formula!"

I spent the better part of this week thinking over how to help him overcome his frustrations. It is, at first glance, an intimidating formula

but there was something odd about his frustration.

Then, I realized what it was: He was expecting to be able to complete this course using only concepts he already knew.

"Who told him that?" I asked myself. "Who told him he needed to know everything before taking a course?"

I realized, then, that this was a cognitive hurdle that many of my students were troubled by, at all levels of physics.

I brought this up with the student during class on Friday, as the students began to work another set of problems. "Somewhere along the way," I said, "someone told you---and many of your classmates---that you had to know everything before coming into a course. I don't know who did, or when or why, but that's what keeps you from succeeding."

His jaw hit the floor. He realized that it was true---and went on to best a rather lengthy Quantum Mechanics problem, involving many formulas more scary than that for <x> quoted above.

Where did these students get this idea? Who told them they did not---and could not ever---have what it takes?

2010-01-28T00:01:00.000-05:00

http://www.myministryminute.com/following-christ-and-seeking-tenure/

Great thoughts from Sarah Hamersma, an Assistant Professor of Economics at U. of Florida, on Christian faith & the tenure process.

A Journey into a Christian Physicist's Mind

2010-01-26T00:01:00.004-05:00

I go through nearly the same line of thinking every time I hear or sing "God of Wonders" in church. It goes something like this:

First, I wonder if other Christians expect this to be my favorite worship song. I am a physicist, and the song is about God reigning over the universe. It's a good song, I tell myself, but not necessarily my favorite. Should it be my favorite?

Then, I move on to think that no, it's not my favorite; it's not even about my line of physics, after all. I don't really know that much about astrophysics or cosmology.

This is sometimes followed by a distraction into thinking about my friends in grad school who studied astrophysics or cosmology, or a distraction into thinking about my own field of study, in which case Hamiltonians and conductances and double-quantum-dot diagrams float around in my head. This may be followed by a brief sense of panic---I did actually graduate, didn't I? My Ph.D. defense wasn't just a dream, right?

After that distraction, I return to my original distraction with a little bit of unrest: Why aren't there any worship songs about condensed matter physics? Why don't we sing about God reigning over atoms and quarks and wave functions and strings? I might even try thinking of a few lines for such a song.

This is sometimes followed by a distraction into thinking about how the indeterminate nature of quantum mechanics might harmonize with the notion of a sovereign God. This, of course, gets me nowhere.

I then return to my original distraction, chiding myself for being so petty. I shouldn't let myself be distracted during worship! This is a nice song. We used to sing it all the time at my church in grad school... until we sang it for five weeks in a row one time, and we never seemed to sing it again after that.

The last time we sang it there, I recall, was just after the Space Shuttle Columbia exploded. One of the astronauts on board was a Christian, and his family had requested this song as one of the crew's wake-up calls.

It's at this point that I'm a little teary and a little sobered about my petty distractions. Aren't there so many more serious things out there? All right God, I silently pray, I'm free of distractions, and ready to worship!

It's at that moment that the song ends.

Happy 50th blog entry!

A Conversation with Mr. al'Thor (Spoilers!)

2010-01-21T08:19:00.000-05:00

Spoiler Alert: The following blog contains glimpses into the events of The Gathering Storm.

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about the difference between strength and hardness as displayed in Rand al'Thor, the main character of The Wheel of Time. Everyone (readers and characters) agrees that this path will destroy him, but he doesn't seem to realize it.

Well, in the chapter I read last night, Rand acknowledged that his emotional/spiritual path would destroy him, but that he simply doesn't care. In fact, he sees it as inevitable, since he believes he's destined to die at the Last Battle, which is swiftly approaching. His words are chilling:

You all claim that I have grown too hard, that I will inevitably shatter and break if I continue on. But you assume that there needs to be something left of me to continue on. That I need to climb back down the mountain once I've reached the top. That's the key... I see it now. I will not live through this, and so I don't need to worry about what might happen to me after the Last Battle. I don't need to hold back, don't need to salvage anything of this beaten soul of mine. I know that I must die. Those who wish for me to be softer, willing to bend, are those who cannot accept what will happen to me.

A few thoughts:

This is a chilling reminder of the key importance the resurrection plays in the Christian faith. Paul said that without it, our faith and everything we do is in vain.
I quoted earlier another passage from The Wheel of Time: "Men become hard when they should become strong." We, as Christians, believe that the joy of the Lord is our strength, and that the alternative is hardness of heart. Rand's Creator, however, is (in my interpretation, and Lews Therin's) a deistic god, setting the universe in motion and watching it flourish and wither time and again. (I'm hoping I'm wrong, and that the Creator does something dramatic at the Last Battle, but we'll just have to "read on and find out," as Mr. Jordan always said.)
Thus, Rand's attitude above is not the Bible's picture of self-sacrifice (displayed by Jesus and His followers), but what becomes of biblical self-sacrifice when we divorce it from hope and joy.

I'm really looking forward to the end of this book, and the next two to come! But I'm also looking forward to seeing what this hope and joy does in my life this year to motivate me to self-sacrifice.

Undergraduate Corner: When Do We Stop Cheering?

2010-01-19T11:18:00.000-05:00

On this blog, the first and third Tuesday of each month are dedicated to presenting discussion geared toward undergraduate students, in a series called, "Undergraduate Corner."

As a physicist, I'm interested in phase transitions (such as the melting of ice into water or a substance beginning to superconduct), and I see the evidence of a phase transition at every college sporting event I attend: Students scream at the top of their lungs to support their team and distract their opponents (or, in the case of the game I attended last night, harass the coach hysterically), while alumni sit stoically, perhaps clapping when their team takes the lead.

I see the evidence of this phase transition, but have no idea how or when it occurs.

When do these students stop cheering? When do they stop being a vital part of their team's success and turn into silent observers? And, more importantly, why?

We could ask the same question of Christians who lose their fire. When (and why) do we stop cheering on the progress of the gospel? When (and why) do we become silent observers? When (and why) do we begin to care more about what we'll eat for lunch after church than who we can stop and take time to minister to?

I'm writing this as part of Undegraduate Corner because, for far too many Christians, this phase transition occurs either during college, or shortly thereafter. Let's pray that we'll remember that the Christian life is a marathon and a relay race, but not a sprint.

Pascal-esque Experiment, Part II

2010-01-14T00:01:00.001-05:00

I think my Pascal-inspired group problem-solving session went well. The students were very quiet at first, seeming to not know who should speak first as they read over the first problem. A couple of groups didn't even stand up to use the whiteboard for the first five minutes.

But after only a short time, the room was filled with discussion, and the boards were filled with writing.

A few interesting observations:

As always, I find that students think more clearly and write more neatly when they are standing at a markerboard. I think the blood flows to the brain better because the body is more active. Also, seeing your handwriting on a whiteboard makes it all look so much more "official."
As always, I also find that students think more clearly and write more neatly when they are working out a problem with others watching them. You can't simply gloss over an assumption or a math step with other students---especially an assigned Skeptic---watching you.
Speaking of the skeptic role, I heard a lot of chatter between Skeptics and Leaders! What I noticed, though, was that the Skeptic always countered the Leader's statement with another piece of information: "Yes, but we also know that..." or "Perhaps, but the textbook says that..." were typical beginnings of their sentences. They were never skeptical for skepticism's sake, but always challenged the Leader's statement with a purpose and a counterbalancing idea.
Lastly, one student (assigned the role of Scribe) asked what the Scribe was to contribute to the discussion. I hadn't considered this, but quickly realized that part of the Scribe's role was to ask the Leader and Skeptic to clarify their ideas so that the Scribe could write them on the board. This is a crucial role that we often miss in the classroom.

So, did the session work? I think so, but we'll see when I get their homework scores in...

A Very Pascal-esque Experiment

2010-01-13T00:01:00.000-05:00

Pascal said,

One must know when it is right to doubt, to affirm, to submit. Anyone who does otherwise does not understand the force of reason. Some men run counter to these three principles, either affirming that everything can be proved, because they know nothing about proof, or doubting everything, because they do not know when to submit, or always submitting, because they do not know when judgement is called for. (Pensees, 170)

This morning, I'm going to be putting this into action in a new group problem-solving system I'm introducing in my classes, which I read about in Just-in Time Teaching. The students will be randomly sorted into groups of three. Each student is assigned a different role: the Leader, the Scribe, and the Skeptic. Each of these reflects Pascal's actions of affirming, submitting, and doubting, respetively. Each group will receive one or two physics problems and given the majority of the class time to solve.

The Leader is to direct the group's conversation, putting forth ideas and looking things up in the textbook. Only the Scribe is allowed to write anything down. The Skeptic is to ask questions of and poke holes in what the Leader says.

This makes me excited, because it is, quite literally, Pascal in action! I'm excited to see how it works out. Tomorrow, I'll post a synopsis of how it went.

Augustine & Setting up for Success

2010-01-12T08:41:00.000-05:00

Augustine made a great statement about the dichotomy between God's sovereignty & man's responsibility, in the form of a prayer:

Command what Thou will, and grant what Thou commandest.

Paul said it another way:

It is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work according to His good pleasure.

In a very small, but very scary way, professors & teachers imitate God in this way. We set up the requirements for a course---never entirely on our own authority, but usually with a lot more freedom than we recognize---and our preparation of our students is a necessary requisite for their success in meeting those requirements.

It makes me appreciate how perfectly God fits together His particular requirements of my life and His preparation of me to meet those requirements. He always sets me up for success, which makes it even more hurtful to me & others when I don't live out that success.

Are we setting up our students (or employees, or children) for success? Are we spelling out our requirements clearly? Are we providing them with the tools & time they need to meet those requirements? If we're not, what does that say (to us and to them) about our view of God? If we were to set them up for success, how might that set us apart from our colleagues, and give our students a glimpse of the gospel?

The Real Academic Calendar

2010-01-07T12:08:00.000-05:00

This was forwarded to me by a colleague. Very true!

The Real Academic Calendar

By Laurie Fendrich

I just learned from my very smart colleague, Neil Donahue, associate dean of Hofstra’s Honors College, that I’ve been stupidly following the wrong academic calendar in setting up my spring courses. I was structuring the content of my courses around our two-day spring break, our long spring vacation, our study days and the examination schedule. How foolish could I have been? Turns out the real academic calendar follows the successive philosophical stages through which all students necessarily progress.

For the reader’s benefit, I’ve added my own words of explanation to Neil’s academic calendar and have forwarded this to the provost’s office. I’m confident that by next spring our academic calendar will be organized the right way, and look like this:

Idealism

Early January. Because students don’t have very many claims on their attention, it’s good to send out reading assignments even before school begins.

Optimism

February. Students love all their courses, and are gung-ho about doing well. There’s no reason they can’t earn a grade of “A” in just about every course. This is the time when smart professors really pile on the work.

Realism

March. Students have come to terms with the fact that it’s going to be darn hard to get all those “A’s” they originally thought would just fall in their laps. The moment calls for triage: It’s time to figure out whether to drop calculus or the course in the history of mirrors. Also, students need more sleep than they’re getting, and the way to fix that is to sleep through the first half of the early morning class.

Pessimism

April. It’s too late. Whole lives are doomed. Students will never get into law school with the grades you, the vile, wretched, cruel-hearted professor, have been unfairly giving out.

Cynicism

May. The semester ends. Professors never gave students a chance, or considered how hard they tried. The world is stacked against them. What does it matter? There are no jobs out there anyway.

Sybaritism

June. Whatever happened in the past is over and done with. Time to forget everything and party like hell.

NOTE: Summer inevitably passes. With fall, the Sisyphean climb resumes.

Undergraduate Corner: Praying for First Impressions

2010-01-05T16:34:00.000-05:00

On this blog, the first and third Tuesday of each month are dedicated to presenting discussion geared toward undergraduate students, in a series called, "Undergraduate Corner."

As you've probably guessed from the time of year and the lateness of this blog post, the Spring semester is about to begin! Mine begins tomorrow morning at 9:00 am.

And that means that I and other Christian professors get another chance to make a good first impression for the sake of the gospel. We know that a student's first impressions of a professor and the course largely determine his experience the rest of the semester. I often realize all too late into the term that I failed to show my students an honest representation of myself, and that my public witness has suffered because of it.

It's also a time, of course, for Christian students to make a successful first impression on their professors. It's very easy for a student to stand out at the beginning of the semester, simply by asking a question, visiting office hours the first day, e-mailing a question to the professor, or (as one of my students has already done) getting a head start on the first homework assignment.

So, let's pray for each other this week, as we all begin to learn new faces and names, as we forge new relationships that could serve as conduits for the gospel. Let's pray that we'll bear in mind that we don't want to ultimately be remembered as someone who got all the questions right, or spoke up every class, or wrote a killer term paper, but as people who are in love with a living savior, who respond eagerly to His call.

Strength vs. Hardness: A New Years Resolution for Mr. al'Thor

2009-12-31T09:27:00.000-05:00

I received the latest book in The Wheel of Time (WoT) saga for Christmas. (Thanks, Amy!!) I've been reading it in gulps since Christmas (in the midst of prepping for the new spring term---that was a WoT joke) and am almost 300 pages into it.

There's a theme in WoT that has always haunted me since I started reading it: "Men become hard when they should become strong." The contrast (which is all over this latest book) is primarily illustrated in Rand al'Thor, the story's main character, who thus far has opted for hardness instead of strength.

What an amazingly astute and (I would say) biblical insight into the human condition! What a difference it makes in difficult times to seek the strength that God supplies via our faith in His grace instead of walling up our own defenses. And what a picture Jesus is of that strength, without a shred of hardness to be found.

I hope that 2010 finds Rand, and me, and all of us, seeking strength instead of hardness, faith instead of fear.

How have you seen this contrast make a difference? How do you think we can change from being hard to being strong? (And no WoT spoilers---I'm not done reading yet!)

The Terminology of Talking About Humans

2009-12-29T00:01:00.000-05:00

In teaching The Parables of Matthew last Fall, I ran into an interesting question while discussing the two parables found in verses 44-46 of Chapter 13:

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

The question comes from the two possible interpretations of these parables.

One interpretation (the standard interpretation) is that the searcher in these verses is Jesus' followers and that the treasure/pearl is Himself. This makes sense, given the suffering that the disciples were beginning to encounter (thereby "selling all that they had).

The second interpretation is that the searcher is Jesus and that the treasure/pearl is His people. This interpretation also makes sense, given that the rest of the parables in Matthew 13 feature Jesus as the active party and His people as the passive recipients.

(Of course, there's no reason they can't both be correct, and one astute member of the class---thanks, John!---noted that, given the wording that follows, "The kingdom of heaven is like," in each parable, one could argue that the first interpretation is true of the first parable, and that the second interpretation is true of the second parable!)

I'll admit, that second interpretation is attractive to me. I like reading about Jesus being the hero in a story, and I like envisioning the lengths to which He went/goes for His people.

But that interpretation does lead to an interesting question: What does it mean, in the second parable, for the pearl to be "of great value?"

Proponents of the first interpretation say that, because of our sin and His self-sufficiency, God has no need of us, and therefore doesn't view us as valuable; Jesus, after all, in John 17, clearly indicates that He is going to the cross because the glory of God & His relationship with the Father is so valuable to Him. One of the key points in the gospel, to them, is the emphasis of the centrality of God in the gospel, and the supremacy of grace and mercy. While these are invaluable points, these folks run the risk of devaluing humans (and sometimes appear quite cantankerous).

Proponents of the second interpretation say that of course humans have value to God because they are created in His image; Jesus, after all, in Matthew 6 assures His disciples not to worry because God considers them valuable. One of the key points in the gospel, to them, is to help other see how valuable they are in the scheme of things, and to inspire them to turn to God to live out their created & redemptive purposes. While these are also invaluable points, these folks run the risk of inflating the value of humans (and sometimes appear no different than the world's self-esteem gurus).

I'm not going to claim to answer this dilemma! However, I think it's important to note that these two camps seem to be attaching a different meaning to the word, "value."

When this debate emerged in my class, I asked the debaters to consider what they meant when they used the term, "value." Did they mean worth? significance? importance? worthiness? worthwhile-ness? loveliness? When we realized we were at a terminology impasse, the debate died down, and everyone seemed to have something new to think about.

I think it's important that we pursue a clear understanding of our terminology when we talk about human beings. We are, after all, finite beings somehow created in the image of God and one of the greatest paradoxes (a la Pascal) in the universe. No wonder it's very easy for our statements about ourselves to be misunderstood!

When have you run into this terminology problem? How can seeking a clear definition of your terms help you understand what truths the Bible claims about humanity? How can seeking a clear definition of your terms help you communicate those truths to others?

Best Books for Undergrads -- From The Emerging Scholars Blog

2009-12-22T10:50:00.002-05:00

http://blog.emergingscholars.org/2009/12/best-books-for-undergrads-your-picks/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EmergingScholars+%28The+Emerging+Scholars+Blog%29

Enjoy!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-22T09:48:00.000-05:00

I hope you enjoy this season of celebration! I'll be back with blogs next Tuesday!

Pluralism and Relativism in December

2009-12-17T08:14:00.000-05:00

I think there's a bit of confusion in terminology in the church. I hear a lot of Christians praying against "the evils of pluralism in our society," especially during the holiday tidal wave during December. I think the problem is that Christians often confuse pluralism with relativism.

Pluralism simply means that the holder of a worldview tolerates the existence of other worldviews. If a person has an attitude of pluralism, it means that he doesn't interfere with others' rights to believe differently than he. That doesn't mean that the person cannot think of other worldviews as wrong (in fact, he wouldn't have much of a worldview if he didn't), nor does it mean he cannot dialog with others about their worldview and try to convince them of his (again, he wouldn't have much of a worldview if he didn't); it means that he affirms for others the freedom that he enjoys. It's like the saying that arose around the time of the American Revolution: "I may not agree with your beliefs, but I will fight for your right to believe them." To put it pointedly, pluralism is what Christians are thankful for every time we praise God for our freedom to worship Him (which I think comes up in most church services on a regular basis).

Relativism, on the other hand, goes a step further (quite a few steps, really) and says that all worldviews are equally valid. Because we're all equally finite, the relativist says, each of our worldviews is equally flawed. Thus, no one worldview is better than any others. (The irony, of course, is that relativists hold onto their relativism very dogmatically, and are rather intolerant of non-relativists.)

The key difference is that the pluralist can still think that other worldviews are wrong. The key difficulty (and the one that, I think, makes Christians think "pluralism" is evil) is in discerning how pluralism should be lived out.

A big example this time of year is what holiday benediction Christians should use in a secular environment.

Should we say, "Merry Christmas," because, to us, "Happy Holidays" is empty and meaningless?
Should we say, "Happy Holidays," because we acknowledge that the other person might not celebrate Christmas, making that benediction empty and meaningless to them?
If we know the person celebrates a holiday other than Christmas, should we specifically wish them to enjoy in that holiday?
Should we not say anything, and run the risk of appearing uncaring?
Should we just respond with whatever the other person says to us?
If we're in academia, should we just wish them a "Happy Break," since that's the primary benefit we're all looking forward to, anyway?

I'm not entirely sure how to answer this question; thus, I alternate between answers depending on how a given situation feels. (Does that make me a good pluralist or a bad pluralist?)

But I think we can keep in mind that pluralism---when rightly defined---is a good thing. It's the basis for our beloved freedom of religion. Whatever we say between now and December 25, let's not lose this precious distinction.

When have you seen the difference between pluralism and relativism played out? What do you see as the difference between pluralism and secularization?

Undergraduate Corner: What do you want to be remembered for?

2009-12-15T00:01:00.001-05:00

On this blog, the first and third Tuesday of each month are dedicated to presenting discussion geared toward undergraduate students, in a series called, "Undergraduate Corner."

I managed to go all semester without referring to Tim Tebow on this blog, but here goes...

At the lunch before the Heisman trophy award ceremony, there was a friendly conversation between Florida's Tim Tebow and Texas' Colt McCoy. McCoy---whose team is off to the national championship game---said something to the effect of, "Even if I win the Heisman, and even if my team goes on to win the national championship, I still don't have a plaque at my stadium. How do you do that?"

The conversation led me to think of a question I often ask myself: "How do you want to be remembered?" I think it's a worthwhile question, especially for college students who are in their university culture for such an interesting length of time. It seems like four years is just long enough for someone else to be able to remember you for the rest of his life---for good or for bad.

So how do you want to be remembered? Do you want to be remembered as the person who won all the awards and received all the accolades? Or do you want to be remembered as someone who cared about others and brought out the best in them? Do you want to be remembered as the "religious" person who knew all the right verses? Or do you want to be remembered as someone who lived out the gospel is humility, love, and faithfulness?

McCoy's statement also led me to think of a similarly-structured statement made by Paul in 1 Corinthians 13: "If I speak the languages of men and of angels, but do not have love, I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have [the gift of] prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so that I can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I donate all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but do not have love, I gain nothing."

It seems Paul didn't want to be remembered for his actions, his gifts, and his accomplishments, but for his love.

So what do you want to be remembered for?

Thoughts About the Incarnation

2009-12-10T00:01:00.001-05:00

I was intrigued by this article in Image that talks about the significance of the Incarnation, centered around the quote by Saint Irenaeus: “The glory of God is man fully alive.” It should make some good reading as Christmas approaches.

Why I Dislike Memorization

2009-12-08T00:01:00.000-05:00

One of my favorites aspects of physics is that it requires very little memorization. In fact, if you spend your time in a physics class (intro, upper-level undergraduate, or graduate) memorizing the material, you'll most likely fail the exam. I'm a big fan of open-book open-notes exams because it allows the student to show how well she understands the material---i.e., how closely she has come to personally know, internalize, and relate to it. Learning physics is about personally owning the material, not memorizing facts, numbers, or equations.

Of course, you inevitably come to memorize some things. But even when I recite an equation or derivation from memory, I'm always checking it for reasonableness, making sure the dimensions are correct, and analyzing it to see if there's a better way to express or write it. It's never a rote memorization and regurgitation. That's what makes it beautiful and exciting.

I feel much the same way about memorizing Scripture.

I dislike rotely memorizing verses. Doing so doesn't help me understand them---again, meaning to closely know, internalize, and relate to them. I'd rather personally own the truth, instead of memorizing without understanding.

I think 1 John 2:24 illustrates this contrast well:

See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father

John wants the truth of the gospel to remain in them, in the same way that they remain in the Son and in the Father. This is more than memorization of facts and verses---just like us remaining in Jesus is more than Jesus "memorizing" us.

How have you experienced the difference between memorizing and understanding? How do you think we can pursue both to foster our growth as believers?

Clearing up Misconceptions about Fear

2009-12-03T12:01:00.005-05:00

I mentioned last time that I wanted to try reading some alternative Christmas texts this December. I started with Isaiah 11, which provides a great description of who Jesus is and what He seeks to accomplish.

I was astonished by how twice it describes Jesus as being characterized by "the fear of the Lord."

This is a phrase that many Christians (present company included) tend to step lightly around and that skeptics love to hate. "How can you have a loving relationship with God," they both ask, "and be afraid of Him?"

It's certainly a difficult question to answer (and not one I'm going to attempt to answer here), but here's the more astonishing fact about this passage: It says that Jesus (God Himself, in human flesh) would have "the fear of the Lord."

If it's difficult for us to explain how we can be called to love and fear God, it's even more difficult for us to begin to fathom how God the Son can perfectly love and fear God the Father!

A couple of thoughts based on this:

First, if we're confused or uncertain about what "the fear of the Lord" looks like (and we very often are), we should look to Jesus. He's our example of everything else that human life should be---why not the fear of the Lord? As a prime example, we can see right away in this text that Jesus "delight[s] in the fear of the Lord."

Second, look at what this attitude of fear toward God (however it is harmonized with everything else in Jesus' divine psyche) produces.

Judging the poor with righteousness.
Treating victims with fairness.
Faithfulness to His people.
Peace.

Shouldn't these results be appealing to our socially-concerned skeptical friends? Better yet, do we show them this connection between fearing the Lord (something they don't understand or agree with) and caring for the needy and the hurting (something they often think we don't care about) by living it out?

Undergraduate Corner: Some Alternative Christmas Readings

2009-12-01T08:17:00.000-05:00

On this blog, the first and third Tuesday of each month are dedicated to presenting discussion geared toward undergraduate students, in a series called, "Undergraduate Corner."

If you're like me, one of the biggest challenges you face as you head into winter break is the familiarity of it. The familiarity can be very comforting---heading home, eating Mom's food, going to church with your parents, hanging your favorite ornament on the tree (if your younger brother hasn't already!)---but it can also be very detrimental.

I've written about this before, but the scenario goes like this: If you're a typical undergraduate who's grown up in the church, you've heard the Christmas story read to you upwards of 100 times now. The wording that Luke and Matthew use roll through your ears without really touching your brain or your heart like a song that was popular ten years ago, especially since your home church's pastor is probably reading from the same version he's read from those other 100 times you've heard it. Before you know it, the beginning of the Spring semester hits, and you haven't really felt spiritually refreshed.

So, here's a challenge both for you and for me: Let's try reading on our own some alternative Christmas-related texts from the Bible this month.

Here are a few suggestions; please add your own in the comments section, and we'll build a list to last us all Christmas!

Isaiah 11

Philippians 2:1-11 (You might even just read the entire chapter!)

1 John 1:1-5 (You might even just read the entire letter!)

Revelation 12

Exodus 29:45-46, Leviticus 26:11-13, Ezekiel 37:24-28, Revelation 21 (Note the similar theme with John 1:14.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-27T04:36:00.001-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

I guess I was too stuffed with turkey and mac and cheese to write yesterday. See you on Tuesday!

...and here are the results!

2009-11-24T08:42:00.001-05:00

As promised last Thursday, here are the results from my e-mail experiment:

(Yes, I know my original proposal said I'd plot the number of e-mails each hour, but I couldn't figure out how to get Excel to do that!)

As you can see, there's definitely a correlation here. The question is whether this is caused by one of two hypotheses:

I receive more e-mails when I send more e-mails because the e-mails I receive are responses to the e-mails I send.
I send more e-mails when I receive more e-mails because the e-mails I send are responses to the emails I receive.

If Hypothesis 1 is true, then it would stand to reason that the number of e-mails marked "Re" that I receive should correlate roughly with the number of e-mails I send. This would indicate that I can reduce the number of e-mails I receive by reducing the number of e-mails that I send.

If Hypothesis 2 is true, then it would stand to reason that the number of e-mails marked "Re" that I send should correlate roughly with the number of e-mails that I receive. This would indicate that I can reduce the amount of time I spend writing e-mails by reducing the time I spend reading incoming e-mail.

So, this second chart plots the same data as the first, but now with the number of e-mails marked "Re" sent and received represented by the dashed lines:

So, is Hypothesis 1 true? Are the number of e-mails marked "Re" that I receive (the dashed blue curve) proportional to the number of e-mails that I send (the solid red curve)? Yes.

Is Hypothesis 2 true? Are the number of e-mails marked "Re" that I send (the dashed red curve) proportional to the number of e-mails that I receive (the solid blue curve)? Yes.

In fact, I notice two other things:

The two dashed curves are very well-correlated. So it looks like many of my responses are really responses to responses. Maybe it would be easier just to pop down to the person's office?
The solid red curve and the two dashed curves look very well-correlated, while the solid blue curve is more independent of the other three. Look at the huge disparity at the beginning of the week between the e-mails I receive (the solid blue curve), and the number of responses I send (dashed red curve). What are all these e-mails I'm receiving that I seem to not care about? How much time do I waste each week reading them?

In conclusion, I think I'm going to keep up my e-mail-off-for-an-hour-each-day challenge. It certainly seems like not all e-mail (or time spent on e-mail) is created equal.

What are your thoughts about this data? Have you noticed similar trends in your life? How else can we better discern where our time is going?

You can CLOSE Outlook?!

2009-11-19T00:01:00.002-05:00

I spent last weekend at a great workshop for new physics and astronomy faculty hosted by the American Association of Physics Teachers, the American Physical Society, the American Astronomical Society, and the National Science Foundation. The second-to-last session was titled "Time Management" in the schedule.

The actual title of the session was "Doing What Matters."

As a Christian, I found this title---and the accompanying theme---intriguing. The speaker's main point was, "Your job is not to manage your time. Your job is to pursue what matters."

He offered a challenging way to make sure we have the time to pursue what matters: Turn off our e-mail for one hour a day.

You could feel the entire room seize up when he said this, but we knew he was right. We knew that the reason it takes us a day to grade an exam or a week to "finalize" a proposal or a month to go so say, "Hi," to that colleague we haven't seen all semester is because of the near-incessant "BAY-DOO!" that directs our attention to the lower-right-hand corner of the screen, in the hopes that it will provide us with something more interesting than what we're doing at the moment.

So, I accepted his challenge. I'm writing this on Tuesday night, and for the last two days I've found the "Close" button on Outlook and left it off for one hour at a time.

And it was amazing what I could get done! I got all my notes from the Workshop typed up in what seemed like no time. I was able to take some thoughts from the weekend and outline a few grant proposals. I even got my afternoon lab ready this morning with hours to spare.

I'll close with the following point and a proposed experiment: One of the reasons this discipline works is because the amount of e-mail one receives is directly proportional to the amount of e-mail one sends. Thus, I'd like to propose to graph the number of e-mails I receive each hour this week along with the number of e-mails that I send each ~~hour~~ day. I'll post the results on Tuesday of next week. I invite you to do the same!

Engaging your professor

2009-11-17T00:01:00.005-05:00

On this blog, the first and third Tuesday of each month are dedicated to presenting discussion geared toward undergraduate students, in a series called, "Undergraduate Corner."

How do you perceive your class meetings? Boring? Seemingly pointless? A requirement that you know you have to fulfill in order to get the grade you need to get the degree you want so that you can have a job you don't hate?

How do you perceive your textbooks? Pedantic? Dry? Verbose? A waste of $100+ that could have bought you real food for two weeks?

How do you perceive your homework assignments? Long? Unclear? A waste of trees and ink (or electricity, if conducted on-line)?

Have you ever considered how they're perceived by your professor? They are points of contact---communication from one human being to another---about the one thing in the world that she finds most interesting. They are the opening lines of what is supposed to be a dialogue between you and her.

Another way of looking at it is that they are the foundation of your class's culture. Whether you feel it or not, you are part of your class's culture. In each class, you are a member of a unique subsystem of human civilization that has never occurred before and will never be repeated again.

And here's the thing about communication and culture: They are always two-way. If your professor is the only participant who engages, the communication/culture project is stunted. It fails to be all that it was meant to be, and therefore your experience as a student fails to be what it was meant to be. If this communication/culture project is to be fulfilled, you have to be an engaged participant.

That's right; you have to (gasp) engage with your professor.

Before I get into what this looks like, let me paint another side of the picture for you: Few students engage their professor. Those that do find themselves in a position of respect in the professor's eyes, because they've come and broken the silence that has otherwise existed between them and the students, and---regardless of how preoccupied they are with their own research---nearly every professor appreciates this.

Now think of what it means for you as a Christian student to be the one student in your class to engage the professor. Imagine what it means for your witness for Christ to earn that respect in his eyes, all because you treated another human being how you would want to be treated. (Which, you just might eventually remind the professor, is something that Jesus taught.) Imagine how the kingdom might advance just because you took the time out to visit an instructor's office hours---oh yeah, and you just might get an insight into what's on the exam.

So, how do you engage a professor? The easiest way is to find out how she wants you to engage her. You can find this out in the syllabus or by simply asking.

Does your professor welcome questions in the few minutes before class while she is getting situated?
Does your professor welcome questions during class?
Does your professor welcome questions at the end of class?
When are your professor's office hours?
Does your professor mind if you continue to ask questions after the end of office hours?
Is your professor welcoming to students dropping by during non-office hours?
Is your professor willing to schedule an appointment with you outside of office hours?
Would your professor mind if you read the textbook or worked the homework in her office so that you can ask questions as you proceed?
What on-campus colloquia or seminars does your professor recommend?

All of these questions (which are all rather easy to ask and keep track of) will help you to understand the communication/culture paradigm that your professor has set up. And, asking them is your first (and easy) step toward engaging him. He'll already regard you with more respect and appreciation than before, and you just might begin to find class meetings, textbook-reading, and homework-completing more fulfilling and worthwhile.

How else have you found it to be beneficial to engage with your professor? If you're a professor or instructor, what tips would you give to students to help them engage better?

Academic Calling at Urbana09

2009-11-16T21:29:00.000-05:00

This is definitely not your typical missions conference seminar. I'm looking forward to seeing the results!

Is service part of our "morality?"

2009-11-12T00:01:00.001-05:00

I've been in Matthew 25 a few times in the last couple weeks, having taught out of it in an adult education class at my church last week and hearing my pastor refer to it this past Sunday. In it, Jesus describes how the evidence of saving faith in a person is loving service to others as if they were Jesus, Himself. (Not that the loving service earns their way into God's grace, but that they inevitably engage in loving service because they have received God's grace.)

We often summarize this concept by saying that saving faith leads to obedience, or a godly morality.

But when we think of "morality," aren't we usually concerned with negative concepts, such as sexual purity, or not watching "bad movies," or not associating with "bad company" (which, even Paul affirmed, "corrupts good morals")?

Is loving service part of our "morality?"

Do we see feeding the hungry (literally and figuratively) or tending the sick (again, literally and figuratively) or visiting the lonely as "moral" actions?

After all, in Matthew 25, Jesus doesn't say, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For all your friends went to see every Harry Potter movie, and you refused to go."

And isn't this positive morality of service what the world needs to see, far more than our restrictions on ourselves? Isn't this the kind of attitude that makes the difference for a university to be a welcoming place to students (who are very often hungry, sick, and lonely) instead of a standoffish wall of intimidation?

I'm off to Maryland for the American Association of Physics Teachers New Faculty Workshop! See you on Tuesday!

Facts, opinions, and everything else

2009-11-10T00:01:00.001-05:00

I gave my Technical Writing students an assignment in which they were to read each other's mid-term papers and suggest revisions (to their approach, organization, and formatting) to their classmates.

One student raised the issue, "I don't want to write about my opinions."

This gave me pause. Was I asking them to write an opinion piece? I certainly was not asking them to report on facts, as they were simply responding to a paper, not conducting research. But I was not asking for their opinions. So, what was I asking for?

As I mulled over this, I realized that a dangerously simplified dichotomy has been introduced into our educational system: facts and opinions.

Consider it: In third grade, we are handed a list of statements and told to identify each one as a fact or as an opinion, as if every statement in human linguistics could be classified as one or the other. This student knew that he was not writing about facts, and so concluded that he was being asked to write about his opinion.

There is, instead, a broad spectrum of statements between pure fact and pure opinion, including judgments (which I was asking them for), hopes, desires, conclusions, theories, creeds. (Where do creeds fit into this spectrum? Maybe we shouldn't go there right now...)

Take, for example, a physics experiment that results in the red crosses on the following graph:

(Never mind what it's plotting.) We would look at this data and say, "Ooh! It looks like it forms a line! Let me try to fit it." We then create the green line (which has a slope of 1) as a best possible fit to the data, and calculate it to have something like 95% accuracy.

Now, in the lab report for such an experiment, one would say, "The data is fit by a line of slope 1 to 95% accuracy." That would be a statement of fact.

To go one step further, one would say, "This data demonstrates the linear relationship between variable X and variable Y." Here's the question: Is this second statement a statement of fact? Not exactly, because one can't inexorably connect the graph to that statement. But is this second statement therefore an opinion? Not exactly, either, because there's certainly evidence to support it! The second statement could be considered an evidence-based judgment (or conclusion), which isn't really a fact but also isn't purely opinion.

So, how can we encourage our students to think along a spectrum of certainty, instead of merely in terms of absolute fact and opinion? How does the existence of this spectrum impact the way we teach our subjects? How does it impact the way we communicate our faith?

When I have to play the skeptic

2009-11-05T00:01:00.001-05:00

I've worn a lot of hats since I joined the faculty at my university: adviser (officially and unofficially), instructor, tech support, committee member (that's at least 4 hats), team coach, author, copy editor, spiritual encourager, substitute instructor, event coordinator... I'll probably think of ten more tomorrow morning.

There's one hat that I've had to wear that I did not expect to. The skeptic hat.

Christian professor aren't supposed to be skeptics, right? We're supposed to defend the underdog faith-based perspectives. We're supposed to encourage wonder and awe at the universe, and point out the flaws of human reasoning. (Okay; so maybe we're supposed to be skeptical about the skeptics, but only to show the limits of skepticism, right?)

But sometimes skepticism is necessary, even for a Christian professor.

An example that often comes to mind is when students in my physics classes try to draw out metaphysical implications of physical laws. This usually happens when we reach Newton's Third Law (N3L), and someone in the class inevitably tries to argue for some version of the concept of karma based on N3L. "For every action you make there's an equal and opposite reaction, so... what goes around comes around, right?"

I tell them that that sounds nice, except that that isn't what N3L says. N3L is a mathematical relationship, and there's no math to karma. (Enter the skeptical argument.) I encourage them that, if they believe in such a concept, N3L is a nice metaphor or picture for the concept. I further encourage them that, if they also believe in a God who oversees this concept, it stands to reason that this God created N3L in such a way as to illustrate this concept. But there's no definitive logical progression that leads one to believe that N3L proves this concept.

So, I play a nice skeptic, but a skeptic nonetheless.

But perhaps I'm more. My desire, after all, is to uphold not only rationality (which the above argument defends) but also the Christian worldview that holds that spiritual matters are illustrated in creation but revealed in God's word.

Pascal said that, ideally, human reason uses rational proof, skepticism, and faith in harmony with each other to reach the truth. When have you had to switch back and forth between these hats?

Undergraduate Corner: Surviving Winter Break

2009-11-03T07:35:00.001-05:00

On this blog, the first and third Tuesday of each month are dedicated to presenting discussion geared toward undergraduate students, in a series called, "Undergraduate Corner."

The end of the semester is not that far away. In just a few weeks, undergrads all over the country will be packing up their bags, selling back their textbooks, making sure they have that cute lab partner's cell number, and heading home. They'll finally get to sleep (for about 1.5 days straight) in their own bed, eat their favorite meal that their mother prepares (we call ours "Good Chicken"--does that name even need a description?), and spend a few glorious weeks not having to think about Salinger, free-body diagrams, or inelastic demand.

But Christian students may also find it difficult to spend time thinking about God.

Here's the scenario: The Christian college student returns home, and either 1. skips church (understandable given their dire need of sleep) or 2. goes back to their "old church" (is six months ago really that old?) and it simply isn't the same as it used to be (especially if half of their friends from high school aren't there) AND they're hearing the Christmas story which, although powerful, sounds familiar to them and they begin to zone out.

After a very short time, their few weeks of rest have passed, and they return to campus with bellies that are full but souls that are still deflated. And beginning the spring semester (which doesn't even offer the release of football, unless your team is headed to the national championship...) with a deflated soul makes it very long indeed.

So, I'd offer the following advice to Christian students who are just 1.5 months away from winter break:

Pick up a Christian book to read over break. I know you don't think that you'll want to read anything, but you might actually find it restful to use your brain on something other than schoolwork. Might I recommend Knowing God by Packer, which has simple language and self-contained chapters, or The Call by Guinness, which just might stir up your motivation to enter the spring semester with a renewed vigor?
Stay in touch with Christian friends from school. (Besides your cute lab partner...) Spend some time praying together. Share about what you're reading.
Reflect on what you've learned. The end of a college semester is such a rushed time---for students and faculty---such that we rarely have time to think back on what we've learned, how it all relates, how God is showing us His glory in all of it, and how He's using it all to prepare us for a life of service.

What are some suggestions you have for Christian undergrads on their way home?

Theology > Everything Else?

2009-10-29T00:01:00.009-04:00

I've heard many a pastor & theologian make a comment that, despite their best intentions, really irks me.

It goes something like this: "Theology is the Queen of the Sciences."

They're referring back to an adage used centuries ago by the founders of the original American universities, who wanted ministry preparation to be their most important goal. They saw every other field of study as ultimately existing to support & further the field of theology.

I respectfully disagree, for three reasons.

1. Perhaps most importantly, I see no reason for such a conclusion in Scripture. There is no dichotomy between sacred and secular, no higher versus lower callings.

2. Theology is an applied science. It draws on the resources of literary analysis (to be able to read the sacred text), history (to understand the context of the sacred text), philosophy (to logically reason through & assimilate the principles learned from the text), psychology (to analyze the concept of the human as developed by the sacred text), and the physical & biological sciences (to understand the metaphors & creation description of the sacred text). (There are probably other relationships that I'm missing.) If theology is a queen, then she is rather dependent on her subjects for her survival.

3. I think those who make such a statement are making the classic mistake of confusing the glory of God with information about God. Every field that humans study exists for the purpose of glorifying God in worship from His people. Reading a physics book is not an act of worship unless I respond to the God who created physics; in the same way, reading a theological book is not an act of worship unless I respond to the God described in it. The reformers, after all, longed for "the glory of God alone," not "the knowledge of God alone."

I would, therefore, like to submit the following revised version of this well-meant sentiment: "Doxology is the goal of the sciences."

Have you heard similar statements? How do you think Christian scholars should respond to such statements?

What is Christian Scholarship?

2009-10-26T23:59:00.004-04:00

In the preface of The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship, Marsden states that his purpose is to "take a step toward clarifying what the ancient enterprise of relating faith and learning might mean in the academy today." In so doing, he hopes to carve out a place of respect and welcome for Christian scholarship in the academy today.

But what is "Christian scholarship?"

It's a difficult question to answer. But it's an important one, as your answer to that question will color your responses to Marsden's ideas.

Here are a few possibilities:

Christian scholarship is scholarship about Christianity.
Christian scholarship is scholarship about topics that are of concern to Christians.
Christian scholarship is scholarship that seeks the goal of confirming Christian beliefs.
Christian scholarship is scholarship that is born out of uniquely Christian beliefs.
Christian scholarship is scholarship that seeks to understand the relationships between Christianity and other fields.
Christian scholarship is scholarship that seeks to clarify Christian beliefs.
Christian scholarship is scholarship that is conducted by Christians.

Do you see how each of these applies a different flavor to the term?

There's a similar problem, for example, in trying to define what physics is. There are many physicists whose work looks a lot like pure mathematics, or chemistry, or biology, or philosophy, or meteorology, or astronomy, and there are the folks who apply the principles of physics to social networks & economic systems. Ultimately, then, we define physics as what physicists do.

Based on that comparison, I'm inclined to support definition #7 above, with the understanding that implies, includes, and encompasses #1-6.

Thriving or Surviving?

2009-10-22T00:01:00.002-04:00

Faculty Commons recently featured a My Ministry Minute by Joseph McRae Mellichamp entitled, "Going With the Flow – Or Following the Call?" He describes how, in hindsight, he had gone through much of his life haphazardly, rather than with intentionality. He says the difference was coming to understand his sense of calling, that he wants it to be said that he "used [his] position, [his] gifts and abilities, and [his] opportunity to impact [his] university and higher education for good and to reach [his] colleagues and students for Jesus."

I couldn't agree more.

I think another way of phrasing the contrast he makes is that it's the difference between thriving and surviving. I cheer every time I watch WALL-E (which is a lot) and hear the captain say, "I'm tired of surviving. I want to LIVE!" (These cheers are usually accompanied by flashbacks of graduate school.)

I hope that, as a professor, I help create opportunities for my students to thrive, and not just present challenges that make them content with survival. I want to help them live intentionally, and not just put more pressure on them to get by with the minimum.

How have you experienced the difference between surviving/going with the flow/getting by and thriving/following the call/progressing? How have you helped others thrive?

(Speaking of surviving, I just realized that I didn't make Tuesday's post an "Undergraduate Corner." Oops! Looks like I owe you one.)

Great Summary of Marsden

2009-10-21T20:12:00.000-04:00

The Emerging Scholars Blog today featured a great summary of some of Marsden's key arguments in The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship. If you don't have a copy of the book, read these quotes to whet your appetite.

Clearing Up Misconceptions

2009-10-20T00:01:00.002-04:00

I think one of the services Christians in the academic world can contribute is to clarify misconceptions about the Christian faith. This opportunity comes about because

We're forced to deal with our own misconceptions if we're going to pursue our faith & scholarship faithfully, and
We're often given the opportunities to do so in situations we encounter every day.

Take, for example, my introductory physics class last Friday. Fridays in this class are somewhat lighthearted; the students work problems at the board and, time permitting, I answer questions from the week. We got onto the topic of living in a universe with dimensions that we can't see, and I made reference to A. Square in Flatland.

A. Square, I explained, is a square living in a two-dimensional universe who becomes persecuted by Flatland's intellectual/religious authorities for claiming that there is a third dimension that they are incapable of seeing. He knows of this third dimension because he has been visited by a strange being that calls himself a "sphere" that exists in a three-dimensional world.

One of the students commented that A. Square, therefore, is a lot like Jesus.

I said that I understood what the student was trying to say, but expressed my hesitation to agree. I said that a better comparison would be Galileo or Copernicus, and that I didn't think that Jesus was a good comparison, because Jesus did not so much claim to have a revelation as he did claim to be the revelation.

Did the student understand my clarification? I'm not sure. Will it drive him to seek out Jesus as a unique authority on life? I don't know. But I do think it's neat that Christian faculty have opportunities like that.

What are similar opportunities that you've experienced? How has God used them?

Justice, kindness, and humility, with a side of academic success

2009-10-14T23:59:00.002-04:00

He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)

I think about this verse whenever I write my syllabi for the semester, or when students request an extension of a homework deadline, or when I have to respond to an act of academic dishonesty. Managing a course well requires justice, kindness, and humility---and it often feels like pursuing one will obviate another.

It also makes me think of my annual faculty evaluation (and ever-building tenure & promotion evaluation), which has its own triad of requirements: teaching, scholarship, and service (plus the ubiquitous "collegiality" metric). I think that, ultimately, doing justice, loving kindness, and walking in humility are the keys to succeeding at those requirements; in other words, I have an arena in which to pursue the virtues that God wants me to develop, and I'll get good marks from my institution along the way.

A few textual thoughts:

I think it's significant that God calls for us to do justice, but love kindness. I think it helps us approach people & situations with the right attitude, and gives us an insight into God's character, as well.
Micah doesn't seem to think this triad is very weighty. "What is it that's so hard that God wants you to do?" he seems to be asking. "Why would you not want justice, kindness, and humility?"
In the context, Micah has just asked, "How will I come before God [in the temple] and please Him? How can I possibly bring enough to sacrifice [even my own firstborn] to satisfy Him?" Then he answers by describing how he should seek to live these virtues in his life in relationship to others; i.e., it's not how he performs in the worship arena, but in the workaday world and in the community.

Is evolution providing a new morality?

2009-10-13T00:01:00.004-04:00

At the beginning of the semester, I sat in on a very insightful workshop session by Dr. Terry Doyle about Learner Centered Teaching (www.learnercenteredteaching.com). His thesis was based on ideas developed by Dr. John Medina, proposing that we need to rethink our teaching practices based on what we know about how the human brain works due to its evolutionary performance envelope. Medina says,

The brain appears to have been designed to solve problems related to surviving in an unstable outdoor environment and to do so in near constant motion. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK1nMQq67VI)

Medina (and Doyle) goes on to claim that if we wanted students to learn in an environment that was "directly opposed to what the brain was really good at doing," we would put them in the traditional classroom setting. (Notice the contrast: Our students listen instead of solving problems; they see the same concrete wall every day instead of being in a changing outdoor environment; they sit still instead of moving. How many times have we seen students jostle their legs in that annoying fashion in the middle of class, much as I'm doing right now at my desk?)

Doyle then went on to describe what we should try to do differently: How we should improve the learning environment, how we should engage the students with activity, how even requiring exercise of our students would greatly improve learning, etc. And all of this was based on what we understand of how the human brain evolved.

Two things occurred to me as I was pondering this talk. First, Doyle & Medina are still figuring out the details of their new teaching scheme, as they still give lectures in the traditional format!

But second, these guys have formed a set of teaching standards---a set of "should" statements---based on an evolutionary worldview. Could one consider this set of standards to be a morality based in evolution? (Medina even titles his book Brain Rules.)

I point this out because, before the development of the Intelligent Design movement, Christians in the earlier half of the last century argued against evolutionary theory based on the idea that it could provide no basis for morality. (Hence the reason they failed at the Scopes Trial; the defenders of anti-evolutionist creationism of that day were unprepared to defend their position scientifically, and IDers have been trying to play catchup ever since.)

I think this observation brings us to an interesting question: Has the evolutionary worldview matured to a point where it is ready to provide its adherents with a morality? If so, what is this morality shaping out to look like? And how will Christians respond to this "evo-morality" when it disagrees with their own? What about when it agrees with their own?

(Note: I'm not asking whether you agree with the evolutionary worldview; I'm asking if you think the evolutionary worldview is poised to introduce a set of moral standards on its followers.)

What "Reformed Christianity" Used to Mean

2009-10-08T00:01:00.003-04:00

It amazes me how words can transform meaning so drastically. Take "google," the sound uttered by the young son of a mathematician seeking to come up with a name for 10^100, now the name of a culturally savvy technology giant. Or take the word, "crash;" probably originally an onomatopoeia describing the sound of a tree falling (or the like), this word has expanded to include the failure of abstract or technical systems that are supposed to function, like the economy or a computer, which may not include a recognizable sound. Many words, it seems, gain meaning as time progresses.

Unfortunately, some words lose meaning, like "Reformed Christianity." When a Christian today says that they're "Reformed," they usually mean that they're a Calvinist--i.e., they agree with the synopsis of soteriology described by TULIP, which was formed as a clarification of an aspect of reformed doctrine in response to a group of dissenters.

But the reformed worldview originally was so much more than this. Being reformed meant that you believed that all of human experience was sacred, under the sovereign care of Christ. Being reformed meant you valued people being able to read God's word in their own language. Being reformed meant that you believed that the world was created good, the world was corrupted by sin, and that the world was being redeemed by Christ. Being reformed meant that you believed that the word "world" meant the physical "world" of rocks and trees and skies and seas, the "world" of human beings, and the "world" of cultures and institutions that those people created. Being reformed meant that you believed there was no separation of human life into sacred and secular.

Abraham Kuyper summarized it well when he said, "There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!'"

That's what "Reformed" used to mean. I hope that we Christians in the academic world can reclaim at least some of this meaning, as our lives and ministries intersect with diverse people and institutions and ideas from all over the world.

Undergraduate Corner: Don't Make Jesus a Stranger

2009-10-06T00:01:00.004-04:00

On this blog, the first and third Tuesday of each month are dedicated to presenting discussion geared toward undergraduate students, in a series called, "Undergraduate Corner."

You probably saw the title to this blog posting and thought, "Yeah, I know; make sure I keep up my relationship with Jesus while I'm in college." Chances are, if you're reading this post, you are making an effort to keep up your relationship with Jesus while you're in college.

But I mean something else.

I'm referring to the tendency of Christian college students who have a near-insatiable craving to understand their faith better, and who dive deeply into even the most difficult writings of Scripture to better understand what it teaches, and to craft a seamless, clean-cut, unshakable personal statement of faith that summarizes what they believe the Bible says.

Okay, perhaps that last sentence was a little hyperbolic (that's the adjective of "hyperbole," not the mathematical curve), but you get the idea: Christian college students--the ones who grow in their faith during their college years--tend to dive into Scripture more than they ever have before. And it seems like they spend 99% of their Bible study time in Paul's letters.

Again, the 99% figure is a little hyperbolic. But when we're seeking to fine-tune our personal doctrine, we (college student or otherwise) do tend to spend a lot of time in Paul's writings. But that makes sense, right? Paul is certainly the biblical author who speaks most about doctrine and the need for doctrinal correctness. He's also one of the most straightforward authors, keeping his points pretty well-separated and usually saving his application points for when he knows you understand his doctrine; he's even got a few arguments that can stand up against that big scary atheistic professor you've got in class tomorrow.

Except here is the problem: I think that sometimes, we spend so much time and energy reading and understanding Paul, that when we return to the Jesus depicted in the Gospels (who didn't always speak about the need for doctrinal correctness; who didn't always keep His points well-separated; who wove doctrine and application together seamlessly; who spoke in stories instead of sophisticated arguments), He seems like a stranger to us.

Think of it this way: If your church's leadership announced they wanted to hire a new pastor, and invited their top candidate to give a guest sermon, with whom would you be more comfortable? A pastor whose sermon sounds like Paul, or a pastor whose sermon sounds like Jesus?

So, as we dive into Scripture to understand the Christian faith, let's not make Jesus a stranger.

When have you experienced this estrangement from Jesus of Nazereth, the Messiah depicted in the Gospels? How did you overcome it?

What about other authors of Scripture? Whose writings do you feel most uncomfortable reading?

Have you found a balanced way to read the Bible, where every author and every genre seems natural to you?

A Mathematical Model for the Questionable Sower

2009-10-01T00:01:00.001-04:00

I recently revisited Jesus’ parable of the sower (Matthew 13:1-23) and noticed a few things I had never noticed before. Most of these observations were inspired by Andy Crouch’s interpretation of the story in his Culture Making. I’ll summarize them here in three points:

1.       This sower is rather questionable. On looking at his sowing techniques, one finds that he must be very young, very blind, or very stupid.

2.       This parable of fruitfulness, fruitlessness, and faithfulness applies to our everyday lives, and not just Jesus’ telling of parables or our outright preaching of the gospel.

3.       This may seem anticlimactic, but I think it fleshes out the picture Jesus is painting here: The Sower’s method and result make for a very interesting math modeling problem.

The sower is rather questionable. He is throwing seeds everywhere, including places where, in retrospect, it’s obvious that the seed couldn’t grow. Seeds landing among thorns and rocks are one thing, but can’t this guy exercise just a little care to not let seeds land on the road? Nobody practices agriculture like this (and I’ve spent my share of time around agriculturalists, and they don’t tolerate foolishness)! Picturing this sower scattering seeds carelessly like this, he must be very young, very blind, or very stupid. These are very odd details for Jesus to leave out!

The analogy, of course, is that, in the ministries we feel that God calls us to, we don’t know which endeavors are going to bear fruit and which are going to die on the spot. We can certainly keep developing the areas that look promising, but we can’t know a priori which endeavors are going to succeed or flourish.

This parable of fruitfulness, fruitlessness, and faithfulness applies to our everyday lives. Jesus’ immediate interpretation of this parable is Himself proclaiming the gospel via parables. Only those whose hearts are prepared like good soil, he explains, can receive the parables and understand them such that they bear fruit. “To the one who has [i.e., the good soil], more will be given [i.e., fruit]” (v. 12). He also indicates that this applies when we proclaim the gospel, for which we certainly don’t know when we will see fruit.

But I also think that the parable applies to our everyday lives, as well. Our lives are to be expressions of the gospel—including not just our “moral decisions” and our “conversation,” as a fundamentalist would stress, but the endeavors we pursue. For example, when I teach physics, or when my wife works with her team to prepare a proposal, those pursuits are to be expressions of the gospel. Not that we insert the Four Laws (or Seven Truths for you Piper fans) into our materials, but that we pursue them out of hearts that have tasted the goodness of God and want to see that goodness propagated across creation in as many ways as possible. That is, after all, what we were created for: to spread the image of God across creation (Genesis 1:28-30). We all have a lot of room for creativity in our lives. Even the line cook slaving away at McDonald’s for minimum wage has an opportunity for creativity, in how he treats his fellow employees, or what he volunteers to do, or how he stacks boxes, etc.

In a sense, the seeds of this parable are like seeds of creativity; we don’t know what will come of our endeavors, but (to use the old adage) we won’t find out unless we try.

The Sower’s method and result make for a very interesting math modeling problem. Suppose, for example, that the Sower starts out with 100 seeds (100 is easy to work with percentages). Because the seeds that land on the good soil bear a minimum of a 30-fold return, he only needs 4 out of the 100 seeds to land on the good soil in order to end up with more than he had before—that’s a 4% success rate. In our mindset, that seems unsuccessful, but in God’s mindset, it’s a tremendous success.

What that means is that when I feel discouraged in what I perceive to be a weak progression of the gospel in the world around me, I have to remember that God takes what looks like a few feeble seeds and turns them into a new generation of fruit, beyond what I could have imagined or thought.

Doubly Marginalized, Part 6: What the Church Can Do

2009-09-29T00:00:00.001-04:00

Christians in the university very often feel like outsiders in both their churches and their institutions. In this series, I take a look at the different aspects of this situation of being doubly marginalized.

I'd like to close this series of posts with a few practical thoughts for Christians in the university and their churches. Last time, I focused on how Christians in the university can help each other. Here, I'd like to offer a few practical thoughts on how our local churches can support Christians in the university and encourage us even in everyday conversation and fellowship.

Understand that we never really stop working. When we come to church, we try to put the mental processes on hold so that we can fellowship with you, but sometimes inspiration just strikes and we may look like we’re in LaLa-Land. But that doesn’t mean we don’t want to talk to you and wouldn’t welcome your distraction from our distraction to bring us back to focusing on God.
Understand that we don’t have “normal jobs.”
But at the same time, don’t refer to non-academics as “people in the real world.”
Understand that we have to choose our words carefully, and that just because we may articulate our faith differently than you, it doesn’t mean we’re not committed to Scripture.
Understand that we see many terms like “pluralism” and “humanism” differently than you do (and very likely use the words differently than you do). I’ll expand on this another time…
Approach grad students with sympathy. If a grad student seems to drop off the face of the earth, don’t assume they’ve apostatized; they’re probably buried in dissertation figures. A warm meal is probably more helpful than a sermon about church attendance.
The same can be said about new faculty nearing tenure evaluation.
Don’t imply that theology is superior to other fields of study. I’ll expand on this another time…
If you really want to make our day (especially a grad student’s day), ask us what we’re learning in our research. (NOTE: Do not ask, “How is your research going?” or, “How much longer do you have til you finish your dissertation?” See http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=47 for more. Just ask about the content.) If you don't understand, ask us to explain.
Don't respond to a novel research method or theory with, “Well, that makes sense.” In the academic world, statements like that mean, “That’s so logical, you should have thought of it sooner.”

What else have you found to be helpful encouragement as you pursue your calling in the academic world? What have you found unhelpful?

Doubly Marginalized, Part 5: The Importance of Networking and Support

2009-09-24T00:00:00.001-04:00

Christians in the university very often feel like outsiders in both their churches and their institutions. In this series, I take a look at the different aspects of this situation of being doubly marginalized.

I'd like to close this series of posts with a few practical thoughts for Christians in the university and their churches. I think the greatest need that we have right now is for networking and support. Even though we are in the corner, we are by no means alone. There is a growing desire among Christian graduate students, post-docs, and faculty to learn how to pursue their studies and teaching to the glory of God and to the benefit of others (the concept of shalom in the Old Testament). Organizations like the Emerging Scholars Network or Christian Study Centers are providing networking opportunities for us to engage in this conversation and encourage each other.

It can feel awkward, sometimes, networking with those outside of your discipline; it's easier to feel like you have more in common with non-Christians in the same department than you than you have with a Christian in another (even related) department. And in a very real sense, that's the way it's supposed to be; Jesus builds His church out of all kinds of stones, and we need the support of other Christians who are not like us. (By extension, that means we need the support of those not in the university, but I'll talk about that next time.) So, here are a few thoughts that I hope will encourage us to seek fellowship with other Christians from other disciplines.

There's a big push for interdisciplinary collaboration---why not work up a collaboration with a fellow believer, especially when a successful interdisciplinary project would be promoted and cheered by your institution?
How many times have you discovered the solution to a problem in your field while you were thinking about something else? Maybe listening to that Christian physics professor drone on about femtosecond infrared laser pulses will give you the key insight into rewriting everything we believe about Mr. Darcy.
You might actually learn something about another field!
We can help each other learn how to serve Christ faithfully with our teaching.
We can model Christ-exalting community to our non-Christian colleagues. Isn't that part of how Jesus wants us to evangelize?
The struggles we face as Christian scholars are universal. I may have different conversations with my colleagues than a Christian art professor would, but we can help each other learn how to pray for our colleagues.

When have you had helpful opportunities to network with other Christian scholars? How have you found it to be helpful to your walk with God?

Doubly Marginalized, Part 4: The Advantages of Being in the Corner

2009-09-22T00:00:00.000-04:00

Christians in the university very often feel like outsiders in both their churches and their institutions. In this series, I take a look at the different aspects of this situation of being doubly marginalized.

My previous post showed a little of the downsides of life in the corner, but I think the benefits far outweigh the struggles.

Christians in the university get to view God's world in detail and trace that view back to Him in praise.
We're able to offer a compassion and care to our students that outlasts and outshines that of our colleagues.
Each semester, we have the opportunity to serve as Christ's ambassadors to a new generation of developing culture-makers.
We can offer unique viewpoints or expressions of Scriptural truths that are often missed by clergy.
We can provide logic and insight to help church issues.
We can live a unified or non-compartmentalized life.
We live out daily the interaction between faith and culture.
Our schedules are often very flexible, increasing our availability to God's service and to our families.
We develop and present the academic framework through which our society views and responds to reality.
We are a prominent public voice for the reasonableness of the Christian faith.

The list could go on. Based on these thoughts, there are two things that I wish would develop in the church.

First, I would like to see local churches utilize their local Christian faculty more. This could mean encouraging college students (current or aspiring) to talk with them, or hosting a discussion panel, or hosting seminars about their thoughts of how their studies relate to their faith, or encouraging the Christian faculty to publish in Christian literature. What kinds of ministry activities have you seen that have successfully brought out the gifts and experiences of Christian faculty?

Second, I would love to see Christians of every vocation develop their own personal list like the one above. Just ask yourself, "How could God use me in my position in the world?" It's not a question of how many co-workers or clients you can share the gospel with in one week; it's not a matter of analyzing the moral quality or "holiness" of what you do; and it's not a matter of how much tithe money you generate each week. It's a matter of asking how God has called you to honor Him by making a difference in the lives of others, what the Old Testament calls "pursuing peace (Hebrew: shalom)." Perhaps if all Christians started looking at life that way, none of us would feel like we were in the corner.

Doubly Marginalized, Part 3: The disadvantages of being in the corner

2009-09-17T00:00:00.000-04:00

Christians in the university very often feel like outsiders in both their churches and their institutions. In this series, I take a look at the different aspects of this situation of being doubly marginalized.

Life as a Christian in the university hurts, from both sides. Fellow Christians and fellow scholars react to us with distance or even hostility, simply because they do not understand the commitments that we hold closely that they do not share.

I think part of the issue on the church's side is that "careerism" has become a popular phobia among Christians (somewhat akin to eating meat sacrificed to idols in the 1st century church). Academics are of necessity very career-minded, since we have to largely be self-driven to be of use to our institutions. I think perhaps this drive is often misunderstood by other Christians, who sometimes perceive it as self-centeredness.

When have you felt misunderstood? How do you think Christians can encourage each other to pursue their callings as an act of faith? How do you think Christian academics can better communicate themselves to their fellow believers?

Undergraduate Corner: For a limited time only...

2009-09-15T00:00:00.008-04:00

On this blog, the first and third Tuesday of each month are dedicated to presenting discussion geared toward undergraduate students, in a series called, "Undergraduate Corner."

College is only temporary. This is a big relief, since even the most seasoned student feels dogged by exams and term paper due dates and miscellaneous grade requirements that he read about in the syllabus on the first day but the professor never mentioned them again so he forgot about them. It means that "real life" will, one day, begin.

But the temporariness of college life is also something of a challenge. It means that you only have ~~four~~ ~~five~~ a limited number of years to take advantage of all of the resources available to you. When will you ever again have access to a college library, or to full-length electronic journal articles? When will you ever again be able to to waltz into a laboratory and experiment with the equipment? When will you ever again be able to sit down over coffee with the most studied minds in the world? When will you ever again be encouraged to pursue the connections between the different fields of study? Most importantly, when will you ever again have the free time to investigate the questions of the universe, and receive credit in return?

Don't waste your learning. Don't let your college years pass by without digging into the questions that raise your curiosity. Don't miss the opportunity to network with other interested individuals. Don't turn down the chance to develop novel answers in your field of interest and impact your corner of the academic world for Christ. And don't let these years pass by without contemplating how all these pursuits ultimately point you to the glorious God who holds all the answers and loves to see us ask, seek, and knock for them.

"Doubly Marginalized" returns on Thursday. Many thanks to the Emerging Scholars Blog for listing it in last week's Week in Review!

Doubly Marginalized, Part 2: How the church is marginalized

2009-09-10T00:01:00.000-04:00

Christians in the university very often feel like outsiders in both their churches and their institutions. In this series, I take a look at the different aspects of this situation of being doubly marginalized.

I admitted in the last post that it might not seem like the university is marginalized because there are so many higher education institutions. The same could be said about the church. In most parts of the US, you can't swing a cat without hitting a Baptist church, a Methodist church, and some kind of "Christian Fellowship" or "Christian Life Center" that seems averse to the word "church."

But, just as with the university, I think this plethora actually speaks to the church's marginalization. The rest of the culture looks at us and asks, "Why does our city need fifty Baptist churches?" or "What the heck is a 'Christian Life Center?'" Most of the onlookers seem to come to the conclusion that Christians can't get their act together---and in a very real sense, they're right.

Ever since the split of the Roman empire, local congregations have been getting more and more divided. Sometimes, divisions have been for good reasons; sometimes, the reasons are so petty that the rest of us are ashamed. But I think the main source of divisions among Christians today is feeling a false sense of having to choose between faithfulness to the gospel and relevance to the rest of the culture.

Those who sacrifice relevance for the sake of faithfulness claim they're trying to preserve the purity of the gospel, because if they make a mistake with the gospel, they themselves will be cast into hell forthwith; they very much enjoy quoting Paul's letter to the Galatians.

Those who sacrifice faithfulness for the sake of relevance rarely state outright that they want to water down the gospel, but feel they should have a commonality with others first and then (at some undetermined future time) get to the gospel; they very much enjoy quoting Paul's sermon on Mars Hill.

(Yes, I did just say that both these camps enjoy quoting Paul. Interesting, eh?)

So, this is what the rest of our culture perceives when they look at the church: One the one hand, they see crabby doctrinologists who frown on everything while telling everyone to believe in God; on the other hand, they see smiling people who rush to every opportunity to help and serve but who can't tell needy people much about their God other than that He loves them.

As a Christian in the academy, I feel the need for faithfulness and relevance every day. If I neglect to develop my understanding of the gospel, God, and the Christian worldview that comes with them, I look like a fool; if I neglect to remain relevant and "in" the university culture, I look condemning. Either of those will cost me my witness and my usefulness to the kingdom in the university.

Where do you think this dichotomy between faithfulness and relevance came from? How do you see the need for both in your sphere of influence?

Doubly Marginalized, Part 1: How the university is marginalized

2009-09-08T00:01:00.002-04:00

Christians in the university very often feel like outsiders in both their churches and their institutions. In this series, I take a look at the different aspects of this situation of being doubly marginalized.

It might not seem like the university is marginalized in America. There are certainly a lot of higher education institutions all around. Doing a Google search of "College Jacksonville, FL" turns up least 17 different institutions in my immediate area alone.

But I think this plethora actually speaks to the marginalization of the university. There are many institutions available because it's relatively easy to make money off of a higher education institution, and the more career/business-oriented those institutions are, the more profitable they are.

For example, if you search for physics departments or humanities departments or music departments in Jacksonville, you'll find much fewer results. And why should all of these smaller career-oriented colleges offer physics or humanities or music? There's a lot more money to be made in training physicians' assistants and computer technicians and court stenographers---because we need more of these people than we need physicists or humanities professors or trombone players. (Note I didn't say that we need PAs and techies and stenographers more than we need physicists and humanities professors and trombone players, just that we need more of them.)

But in this process of training people to fill roles with greater demand, the more traditional idea of the university has gotten lost in the conversation, and physicists and humanities professors and trombone players get put to the side and treated like they're not necessary for society. Hence the marginalization of the university.

John Sommerville (no, I won't mention him in every blog post) says it much better in his The Decline of the Secular University. I highly recommend reading it.

What do you think? How do you see the university as marginalized in America? In your city? In your church (now there's a thought that deserves a series of blog posts all its own)?

ESN Book Club Announced

2009-09-07T09:31:00.000-04:00

http://blog.emergingscholars.org/2009/09/esn-book-club-the-outrageous-idea-of-christian-scholarship/

The Emerging Scholars Network has announced its second book club. Starting in October, we'll be reading through Marsden's The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship. It's an excellent read, and should start some great discussion!

A Part of Something Special

2009-09-03T00:01:00.003-04:00

I'm involved with two other faculty members in an ongoing undergraduate project funded by the EPA to install a greywater reclamation system on an apartment building on campus, with the goal of raising student awareness of conservation issues. We received the funding over the summer, so this semester is the beginnings of the project implementation. The project contains 8 hefty components that require a wide range of skills... and it needs to be completed by undergraduate students... and we needed to recruit them!

We were very nervous as we began this semester: What if we didn't have enough students sign on to the project? What if they didn't possess the necessary skills? What if the project came crashing down in mud and hurricanes? We spent the week before the semester began hyping up project as best we could; we scheduled a project informational meeting for the first Wednesday of the semester and crossed our fingers...

We were astounded when 12 students from a variety of majors showed up to the meeting, each of them bringing an overflow of excitement & dedication and a plethora of skills. We explained to them that the project would be difficult, and would require a lot of work... and the more they heard, the more excited they became.

Their excitement was refreshing, and encouraging. It reminded me that, deep down inside, every human wants to be a part of something special. Even if it requires drudgery or significant challenge, we want to leave a unique mark on the world. We want to give up our time and energy to be part of something bigger and more important than ourselves, to feel a sense of completeness by creating something new and beautiful.

And I think that's part of how we bear the image of God. God's glory is so exciting that, in an emotional sense, He "couldn't keep it to Himself," but created the universe to showcase His glory in unique and wonderful ways. And He gave us that same creative drive that seeks to make something new and special, something helpful and wonderful, something ultimately glorious.