Addenda Volume 2.8 (August 2019)

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This Could Be Your Final Addenda

The first volume of Addenda was published in September 2018, five months before the establishment of the Society. The initial recipients had all expressed interest in joining the Society once it launched. We have continued sending Addenda to all Society pre-registrants who have not yet joined. However, that practice will end with the August issue. 

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“If we who are scholars wish to engage ‘the theological exploration of vocation’ in a meaningful way, then we must bring our religious faith and convictions into constant dialogue with our lives and with our work. To do less might well suggest that we have embraced not a vocation but merely a career” (p. xxxii).

“The successful integration of faith and learning demands a certain level of theological literacy and expertise” (p. 6).

“It is simply unthinkable that I should practice my teaching and my scholarship in one corner of my life, and practice my Christian faith in another so that never the [two] shall meet” (p. 97).

“I am not concerned that my scholarship and my teaching differ dramatically from what is generally considered good scholarship and good teaching in the academy at large. But I am concerned that if I am able to reach the highest levels of scholarship and teaching, I do so precisely because of my commitment to the Christian faith, not in spite of that commitment” (p. 98).

“The question … is not whether my work consistently embodies distinctively Christian language, themes, or ideas. Indeed, it is conceivable that a work of scholarship adorned with Christian language and Christian themes could be fundamentally anti-Christian at the most basic level possible––the level of first-order presuppositions and commitments” (p, 98).

Peruse the Society Library for similar challenging resources. 

Spotlight on Society Partners: Global Scholars Canada    

Global Scholars Canada identifies Canadians who seek to serve as expatriate professors in public universities around the world—in long-term or short-term positions. It is staffed by three part-time contract workers, including an executive director, a program administrator, and a finance administrator, who each work out of their homes near Toronto, Ontario.

Their mission was re-articulated by their Board of Directors in May 2019. The mission of Global Scholars Canada is to identify, develop, send, equip and support missional Christian academics for work, primarily in open enrolment post-secondary institutions around the world, with the objective to inspire and influence students and institutional communities with the promise of Christian vocation and worldview for a deeper participation in God’s kingdom, including the flourishing of people and the planet, locally and globally.

Dr. Peter Schuurman became executive director in July 2018. Peter’s background is in campus ministry and the discipline of religious studies, and he envisions a more visible, more interdenominational, and more proactive role for the Canadian office in the years to come. He looks forward to the promise that the Society of Christian Scholars offers for a networked and empowered transnational Christian academic community.

Security Update

Group video conferencing (via Zoom) is included with Society Full Membership (a $179.88 USD yearly value). Recently, Zoom provided a security patch for your computer that all users need. To get this patch, simply update your Zoom program today. To update Zoom, open the Zoom application on your computer, log in, and follow the prompt. If there is no prompt, then click your profile (top right) and click “check for updates” in the dropdown (see screenshot below). Questions? Contact it@scshub.net.

Upcoming Conference:
Conference Internationale de Recherche Interdisciplinaire

Theological studies, like other disciplines, are taking new directions in terms of content, didactic approaches, and research methods. And some researchers are struggling to adapt to it.

At this conference, hosted by the Africa Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, scholars from several universities will report on this reality in relation to their own fields of research: Old Testament, New Testament, Systematic Theology, Church History, Practical Theology, and Missiology. Master/DEA and Ph.D. students and other researchers will benefit from this conference for their scientific work.

Do you have a conference to promote? Click here!

Did you miss a previous webinar? We have the recorded sessions on the Member site to view at your convenience. Click below to find out more!