Posts Tagged ‘Missional Professor’

In Defense of the Liberal Arts

The purpose of the university, in the good old days, was to make fully functioning human beings. Alas today the purpose of the university is to created human doings, automaton who possess marketable skills—but are incapable of participating in a thoughtful conversation. The university, traditionally a place for the cultivation of intellectual and moral virtue, is today largely driven by market factors which place a priority on sports over academics, image over substance, and research—especially grant money research—over teaching. Only the fittest students and professors survive.

EPS Symposium on Faith and Scholarship

For the last two decades, I’ve been wrestling with the question of how the Christian faith intersects with the academy. I’ve recently written a book, The Outrageous idea of the Missional Professor, in which I set forth some of my findings. (see the companion website here). One of my essays from the book deals explicitly with the topic of the integration of faith and scholarship. An excerpt of that essay can be seen here. Today, at the evangelical Philosophical society website, an online symposium was posted in which scholars interact with my original essay. I am humbled and gratified for the opportunity to be pushed, critiqued, and encouraged by these scholars. In this post, I’ll highlight the abstract for each of these essays and point you to the full text.