Vibrant Dance of Faith and Science 2: Theology Edition

Starting next Friday, October 28 through the 29 at Sugar Creek Baptist Church in Houston, TX is the Vibrant Dance of Faith and Science Symposium, Theology Edition. The topic this year is Creation:  Biblical Options—A Gracious Dialogue. Details can be found at www.vibrantdance.org.

Last year, the conference was a combination of scientists and theologians talking primarily about “old-earth creationism” and “theistic evolution.” This year there is a panel of theologians discussion all three primary interpretations of Genesis 1 and 2 (young earth, old earth and theistic evolution). From the flyer:

“Genesis 1 & 2:

                One Creation, different interpretations;

                Different interpretations, different tensions

                How does this affect the body of Christ?

                How does this impact you and yours?

The featured speakers are: Todd Beall, Craig Blaising, Walter Kaiser (from last year’s symposium), John Mark Reynolds, Bruce Waltke, John Walton (also from last year) and others.

If you are in the area, come! I will be blogging from the conference with more detailed posts to follow, just like last year, so check back often.

SDG

Study Abroad

One of the side projects I have is to help science students study abroad in Europe. I am passionate about it because of my study abroad experience as a student spending the summer in the former Soviet Union as it transitioned to become Russia and the former Soviet republics. In addition to being a study abroad trip, I took a bunch of Russian New Testaments and other literature in Russian with me, making it into a summer missions trip as well.

As faculty we have the opportunity to encourage our Christian students to take advantage of similar opportunities, both as undergrads and graduate students. One way to do this is to model it in our international travel as well. Ministries such as Cru (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ) and others like to work with faculty so that when they are travelling abroad, they have opportunities to speak about their faith in addition to their research. It turns out that many foreign countries, even ‘closed’ ones are far more open to such discussions from American faculty than American universities are.

So when you travel for conferences or as a visiting scholar, contact campus ministries with whom you have relationships at your home campus to find out what activity and people they have at or near your host campus(es) and they will help you make contact. When you have a Christian student in your classes or research area, encourage them to do the same and even join you on your trips as an assistant. It will be an incredible mentoring time, and great encouragement for the both of you.

SDG

Fringe Benefits

Three days ago, I posted about an assignment I give where students write a one-page essay on “What I want to do with my life.” One of the fringe benefits is that since I frame it as a life essay rather than a career essay, we get to often go deeper than their 9 to 5 dreams and priorities. In particular, a few students each semester share how their relationship with Christ is a driving factor for them or some other reference to their faith.

I am always thrilled with this, because since they bring it up, it becomes fair game for an open conversation between us, and it is usually mutually encouraging (Romans 1:12). They are excited to learn about an instructor at the big school who shares their faith, and I’m glad to be able to let students know where I stand, and hopefully it spreads to other students for their encouragement. They are especially encouraged that it is a science instructor who is a Christian because there is an attitude sometimes that ‘you can’t be a scientist and a Christian,’ so it is a relief to find out that isn’t true.

The Power of Myth

According to Dictionary.com, a myth is “a traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being or hero or event, with or without a determinable basis of fact or a natural explanation, especially one that is concerned with deities or demigods and explains some practice, rite, or phenomenon of nature.”

Ancient myths endure and contemporary ones spring up because they are stories that reveal something about us and or resonate with our experience, usually lifting us to a higher level of awareness of what we can be, urging us on to higher, nobler things. That is why Christ taught in parables, because the medium of a story engages both the head and the heart.

A challenge exists that all such accounts with the appearance of myth must therefore be categorized as such with the inherent assumption that it is merely a story with little if any historical veracity, though culturally and morally valuable. Joseph Campbell is one of the most well-known advocates of this idea. He maintained that the similarities among the various mythologies spanning the many cultures of the world, both in form and substance, were indicative of a common human condition that inspired similar narratives.

Duality of Wisdom

To continue thoughts from my previous post on training students for the impersonal expectations in the working world, I struggle with being the bad cop, busting their chops for what seem like peccadilloes. In grad school, my roommates called me “Mr. Soft Love.” They would not so name me now. I am much harder, more “Mr. Tough Love.”

As followers of Christ, we are not called to be nice, we are called to be good, holy and righteous. But I would rather be nice. Yet, it goes deeper than that.

Metalessons

As most of my students are upperclassmen and many are within a year of graduation, I do an unusual assignment for a lab course. They are to “write a one-page essay titled, ‘What I Want To Do With My Life’ and email it to me, after which we meet one-on-one to discuss it.” It is a very popular assignment as many of them express frustration with how often they are asked that question and struggle with how to answer it, so they are eager to discuss it.

What they don’t realize is how many other "meta" lessons are wrapped up in how I do the assignment—lessons on following directions, common sense, learning to apply what they have learned when they aren’t given directions.

Like a Man Among Grasshoppers

Tonight, Professor of Philosophy Dan Bonevac spoke on the topic of John Calvin’s philosophy to a group of grad students with whom I am involved. He showed how Calvin developed a dual philosophy on the nature of humanity, one based on how we were created pre-Fall, and one to describe how we are different post-Fall.

One of the characteristics of his post-Fall philosophy is that humanity’s ability to discern accurately vertical attributes (those about God) were all but destroyed, and those that are horizontal (interactions between humans and between us and Creation) were twisted, weakened, and diminished. To the extent we can make any good choices, it is solely due to the grace from God, perhaps through the concept of common grace, like the rain or other blessings that all can enjoy whether they know God or not (although the common grace aspect was not discussed explicitly).

As I sat listening to the talk on this topic, the picture came to my mind of fallen humanity as the stubble of a mown hayfield with God having the stature of a Himalayan mountain. I started thinking then of how our understanding of morality is so limited and how easily we can find ourselves in moral conundrums where godly people can logically and scripturally come to very different, and even opposite conclusions (i.e.—pacifist versus just war theorist versus some other variation).

Following Which Design Plan?

Part of my wing of the chemistry building is nearing the completion of a year-long renovation project. As my teaching lab is moving to the ‘new’ space, I gave the architects detailed plans for how I wanted the space built out, to scale, using industry standard design software, and gave them both hard and electronic copies of the design. You know where this is heading.

A Little Child to Lead Us

Today, I came across the story of Garvan Byrne, a child born in England in 1973, with a disease that ultimately took his life at age 12. What is remarkable about Garvan was the maturity of faith, outlook, poise, and nearly everything else he displayed. He did a television interview shortly before his death, and you see the form of a small boy, younger than his years, but the eloquence, faith, poise and maturity that pours from his heart is that of an 80 year old. Below are 4 videos of that interview. The first is an 8 minute edited version if you really don’t have the time. But I urge you to take the 22 minutes to see all three parts of the full interview. It has interviews with his parents and shows something of life and medicine of 30 years ago.

The Decline of Collegiality

“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of stress.”
II Timothy 3:1

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Hebrews 10:24-25

“In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat--for He grants sleep to those He loves.”
Psalm 127:2

“I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.”
John 10:10b

I have a question for those faculty in their later years—how does faculty collegiality and interaction today compare to what you experienced early in your career?

If it is anything like what I’ve heard from my conversations with others, you will probably say that there is no comparison. Faculty are largely isolated from each other and the enjoyment of a relaxed conversation about various topics, both scholarly and otherwise is virtually non-existent.

Part of the idea of scholarship is the informal chatting over tea or coffee about ideas and research. This has been replaced with the ‘departmental seminar,’ where there is a few minutes for coffee and donuts and then sitting to listen to an outside speaker drone about their research for an hour with a few minutes for questions. If you are lucky, the speaker spends their day moving from office to office for a few minutes conversation, and then maybe a handful go out to dinner for more discussion, but more often than not, folks show up, get some caffeine to help fight drowsiness then back to their office to sit at a computer for a few more hours and the talk leaves the mind forever.

A Prayer Request

Tonight’s post is a bit unusual, and somewhat bittersweet for me. I have been leading the faculty ministry at UT for several years now, and it seems to be slipping away rather than strengthening. (Perhaps the answer is as simple as the leadership or lack thereof, who knows? I’m willing to admit that possibility.) Therefore, I am asking you to please pray for the faculty at UT, and for us to have wisdom to see how God would work through us to minister to faculty and the campus.

This is not a one-off prayer request to toss one up while you read it and then forget, though I’m sure God listens to those, too. (I hope so as I’ve done it plenty of times myself.) This is a request for a repeated, fervent, long-term commitment to see God transform the faculty, believing and non-believing alike.

I am not asking for prayer for the ministry known as Christian Faculty Network—there is only one Kingdom here, and I’m not the monarch. This is a request for God to move more in reaching this group of people bound by the moniker of UT Austin. The well-advertised motto here is, “What starts here changes the world.” If that is the case, then how important must it be for the things to start here to have eternal value and impact.

Thank you.

SDG

It’s Those Little Things

My taxes seem to be one of the things I’m worst about procrastinating on in spite of my best intentions, and the extension is up this coming Saturday. I use the time to catch up on reconciling everything from the year, assess personal finances, etc., so it’s more than just filling out some @#$@#$$%^^%$$ forms. (emphasis on the $$$$)

As I was recording receipts for the year this weekend, I noticed I was missing a lot from several months due to the relative size of the stacks. I found them quickly and when I pulled them from the folder, the size of the pile made my heart sink.

Kingship Authority

I was chatting online with someone today about the challenges of being a pastor. (He is one, not me.) It occurred to me in our conversation that one of the bigger challenges was simply the fact that we are American, and our “rugged individualism” leads us to question and diminish authority. Thus, pastoral urgings and attempts to shepherd folks closer to Christ meet more resistance than they might elsewhere or in other times. American sheep tend to have teeth! Preaching on Biblical commands and principles are viewed at best as suggestions, instead of an opportunity to repent and let one’s life be transformed. Just because I’m aware of this doesn’t mean I’m not guilty myself—I’m just as much a product of my culture as anyone else.

The implication then struck me that it will be interesting to see the attitude adjustment we will have as Americans when we find ourselves physically in the very presence of the King! Democracy? Hah! I'm sure I'll be in that group saying, "Oh! That's what kingship means..."

SDG

Diversity

Oh, that magical word. So much in this world is done in its name. Pursuing it and maintaining it is nearly a religion to many in this country, on our campuses. It is a key to winning favor among the elite of our culture. Yet many in the Body of Christ shudder at its utterance.

They needn’t.

Many Christians look askance at the word because of its political associations. Here’s the secret—diversity is in the marrow of the Church. As it happens, ironically, that is exactly why it is such a powerful word in our culture.

Wait a minute, you say. Sunday morning is the most segregated time in our country. Christians are so intolerant of others, so narrow-minded.

The New Kosher

Back in our Lord’s day, Israel was under the Law, which included strict dietary laws handed down by the Designer of the human digestive system. Then the Designer Himself came down to correct how folks were interpreting those laws and their importance. He made a point of saying that “it isn’t what goes into a mouth that causes real problems, it is the state of the person’s heart and what that causes folks to spew out of their mouths.” (paraphrase) Matthew shares the event in full in chapter 15:

Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”

Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:

“‘These people honor me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me.

They worship me in vain;

their teachings are merely human rules.’”

Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”

Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”

He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.”

“Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”

Fast forward about 1750 years. Some wise men sat around arguing over the laws of a new nation, and decided that giving everyone the right to verbally express their ignorance or intelligence without governmental reprisal was a good thing. Given that the “what you should eat” thing had largely been a settled issue for going on two millennia, they overlooked that part.

Steve and Gordon: Two Models of Innovation and Influence

Yesterday, I wrote about how serving the Lord can lead to transformation, innovation and leadership. Today I came across two examples of innovation and transformation with very different impacts:  Steve Jobs and Gordon Ramsey.

The web is filled with the news and commentary about Steve Jobs’ passing. It was a little shocking to me to hear how soon after stepping down it happened. Pretty much everyone is singing his praises about how he transformed the world electronically. It’s a no-brainer that he influenced the world in a major way. There are several points to note about that impact.

Surrendering Territory

It is said that bureaucratic programs are easy to create but impossible to destroy. It is said that they develop a life of their own. There is some truth to this. As I have written before, when decision making becomes ‘policy,’ it becomes unowned—no one has responsibility for the decisions and their consequences anymore, they are ‘just following procedure.’

This also occurs because egos of those involved can feel failure if the program they created, manage or are part of is no longer needed, so they seek to justify its existence.

Paradoxically, programs and policies live on because no one wants to risk sticking their neck out to take responsibility for a potentially unpopular decision or other display of true leadership. Sometimes it happens out of a desire to save their careers because they don’t want to expend the energy to search for a new opportunity or are fearful of losing the security they have in their current position.

In both cases, the root cause is fear. Fear of losing prestige, a job, authority, influence and so on. Fear of taking a risk and making a mistake. Fear of making others angry or unhappy.

The motivation has switched from achieving a goal to self-preservation. This results in innovation becoming stagnation, and leadership degenerating into management.

Finding God at the University

Back in 1992, Ari Goldman published his personal investigations into spirituality at Harvard Divinity School, called The Search for God at Harvard. His search was a discouraging one, leading him to conclude that keeping faith in the modern academy was not a promising endeavour. In response, in 1997, Kelly Monroe collected 42 essays from faculty, students and orators at Harvard in a volume entitled Finding God at Harvard, that displays a rich tapestry of Christian faith within the institution.

Just last week, I picked up from the printers the University of Texas at Austin’s contribution to the “series,” edited by my dear friend and colleague, Dr. Don G. Davis, Jr., Emeritus, entitled, The Truth That Makes Them Free, A Collection of Essays. It contains essays from twelve UT faculty about their spiritual journeys in and around the “40 Acres.” The title comes from John 8:32, which is carved into the edifice of the UT Main building.

“Those Were the Days…”

Tonight, I talked with my grandma for about an hour. She’s 90, and she and grandfather are living alone in their ranchhouse with surprisingly little outside help. I could fill the Internet with her escapades. She grew up in San Antonio in the 20’s and 30’s and the movers and shakers of the day were family friends, and she often tells me stories of her interactions with them—the parties, the balls, the afternoon teas, the dirty politics (yes, even then!), and the effects of the depression, including the diaspora that resulted to this group of people due to their reversals in fortune.

What Does Church Look Like?

Today, I’d like to share some one-line gems from my friend Neil Cole and his friends, and thoughts they inspired in me. Twitter is great about helping folks to be profound and brief!

“Sow a church and reap an institution. Sow disciples and reap a church.” (Billy Mitchell)

"Jesus never commanded us to plant churches, he only commanded us to make disciples."

“Always make copies from the master, not from a copy. Always make disciples of Jesus, not of you.” (Retweet of Kellen Jones)