Not far from our home in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, is one of southern Ontario’s premier universities, McMaster, known internationally as a centre for advanced scientific and medical research. What few remember is that the university once had a connection with the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Québec, the only remnant of which is the presence…
Snails, it turns out, have things to teach us, even for folk with advanced degrees. Things that could be relevant to an online course. Things that carry a faint echo of wisdom’s laughter at the delights of creation, as narrated in Proverbs 8. Things that also have to do with how we use technology for…
In the seventh episode of the third season of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with Makoto Fujimura, independent artist and author. Fujimura begins by sharing the commitments and qualities that define nihonga or slow art. He offers some insights concerning the origins of such an artistic movement, what drew him to it, and what he thinks it offers to members of contemporary generations who encounter it. Fujimura then talks about his own calling as an artist, the way his liberal arts education at Bucknell University shaped it, the way advanced study at Tokyo University of the Arts gave it expression, and the way the practice of deep listening allowed him to make his own respectful contribution to nihonga. While practices such as painting and writing may appear disparate to most people, Fujimura then explains the deep and essentially inextricable relationship they share for him. His most recent book, Art Is, part memoir and part artistic philosophy, is a testament to that relationship. Fujimura closes by discussing the contribution the Church and the arts can make to one another and how the works he prepares and offers to the world serve as a means to doing so.
In the forty-second episode of the second season of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with L. Gregory Jones, President of Belmont University. Jones opens by sharing the importance of what he has come to reference as traditioned innovation. In the recent past, the Church understood part of its calling as the creation of institutional responses to social challenges. In the United States alone, the Church once established hospitals, schools, and homes to care for children found without families. While the Church has largely now abdicated such efforts to the state, Jones draws upon the core commitments of Wesleyan theology to argue the Church needs to reimagine what institutions can advance human flourishing today. Jones then discusses how he wrestled with a call to the ministry, the mentors who nurtured that calling, and how his calling eventually led him from full-time faculty service to full-time administrative service. While higher education will likely need to envision itself operating in previously unseen contexts, Jones contends Belmont is well-positioned to partner with the Church to foster expressions of hope. As an example of those expressions, Jones points to Belmont’s recent decision to launch a school of medicine. He then closes by discussing how he and his colleagues at Belmont are seeking to shape the next generation of educators to imagine what roles they can play in aiding human flourishing.
In the thirty-fifth episode of the second season of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with Jon S. Kulaga, President of Indiana Wesleyan University. Kulaga begins by discussing the details of his service during his college years as a campus radio DJ, highlighting which songs from the early 80s he would proudly play in his home today as well as songs from the early 80s he would not play in his own home today. He also talks about the communication skills he developed while serving as a campus radio DJ and how he began to think of that service as being part of the larger educational mission of the university. Kulaga then shares details concerning his calling to serve the Church and, as time passed, how that calling to serve the Church came to focus on leading Church-related universities. Over the course of his career, that leadership included roles in student affairs, academic affairs, advancement, and as a president. A common thread uniting those expressions of service is they took place at institutions that are part of the Wesleyan theological tradition. Reflecting on that experience, Kulaga details the commitments that define Church-related colleges and universities that are part of the Wesleyan theological tradition and, in particular, how those commitments find expression in curricular and co-curricular educational programs. Kulaga then closes the conversation about how those commitments also inform the academic vocation as well as how the Church and the university can work more closely together in the years to come.
When an influential priest (the Czech, Templeton-award winning author, teacher, and theologian Tomáš Halík) criticizes “ecclesiastical authorities” while seeking to advance the agenda of another ecclesiastical authority (in-deed, the highest of them all: Pope Francis, to whom the book is dedicated), one can’t help but be hopeful for or at least curious about the future…
When an influential priest (the Czech, Templeton-award winning author, teacher, and theologian Tomáš Halík) criticizes “ecclesiastical authorities” while seeking to advance the agenda of another ecclesiastical authority (in-deed, the highest of them all: Pope Francis, to whom the book is dedicated), one can’t help but be hopeful for or at least curious about the future…
In the forty-first episode of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with Shirley Mullen, President Emerita of Houghton University. Mullen begins by talking about her understanding of the liberal arts, the long history they share in the Christian intellectual tradition, and critical role they play in Christian higher education. While acknowledging the challenges the liberal arts presently face, Mullen also contends that the gifts they offer are often deferred and, in turn, demand faculty members and administrators become more articulate about the long-term benefits of such a form of education. Ream then asks Mullen about her own experiences with the liberal arts, the education she received as a philosopher and historian, and the impact those experiences had on her service as a provost and as a president. While a president, Mullen also notes those experiences compelled her to think through the ways the Christian intellectual tradition can become captivated by socio-political forces on the right and the left, leading her to write Claiming the Courageous Middle. Ream and Mullen then close their conversation with a discussion of Mullen’s understanding of the academic vocation and how the Church and the university can work together to foster the virtues needed to cultivate, sustain, and advance such a calling.
It seems that every day brings news of a development in AI technology, whether advances in the medical or tech fields, new threats to (cyber)security, or concerns for industries that might have jobs overtaken by computers or robots. Some commentators exhibit great excitement about possibilities for change and improvement, while others fear our lives might…
A conviction accepted broadly by contemporary Christians is that the poor should be assisted economically and socially. Despite the variety of Christian and secular assistance programs, little consensus occurs about how the poor should be helped. Cara and Clive Beed argue in this essay from three sets of biblical material (Genesis, the Mosaic Law, and Jesus’…
American Christianity’s participation in the twentieth-century movement commonly termed the “old eugenics” helped enable eugenic policies that contributed to human rights abuses and social divisions. While churches have attempted to restore their reputations from the stain of that period, what some are calling the “new” or “consumer” eugenics has emerged a century later with markedly…
Studies in moral and political psychology increasingly shed light on both the positive and negative political consequences of moral conviction. While people’s convictions engender courage to stand up for their beliefs despite the cost, they also trigger more negative emotions, polarized attitudes, and hostile responses. At a time when our political climate appears increasingly divided…
Throughout my career in higher education, teaching ethics had a strong academic feel. It is a fascinating discipline with one of the richest literary traditions of any area of study. It did not, however, carry the sense of urgency that other subjects seemed to hold. It was more important in an eternal sense than in…
Thomas Molnar’s review of Albert Camus and Christianity by Jean Onimus (University of Alabama Press, 1970) was CSR’s first book review. The final review of its first 50 years was T. M. Moore’s look at The WEIRDest People in the World by Joseph Henrich (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020). In the intervening decades, CSR has…
Stephen N. Bretsen argues that the corporation is the result of several elements, both ancient and modern, that were combined by law and market forces in the mid-19th century. The creation of the corporation has led to various theories of the corporation, some viewing the corporation as a private entity solely serving the interests of…
The contemporary concept of strategy is problematic when viewed from ethical and theological perspectives. This concept arose historically from the political-military context of conflicting interests and maneuvers to gain power. When transferred to the realm of business, the concept retained the assumption of conflicting interests expressed in moves and countermoves attempting to achieve advantages over…
