Fides Quaerens Intellectum

“…a cultural life will exist outside the Church whether it exists inside or not.  To be ignorant and simple now–not to be able to meet enemies on their own ground–would be to throw down our weapons, and to betray our uneducated brethren who have, under God, no defence but us against the intellectual attacks of the heathen.  Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy must be answered.”

-C.S. Lewis, “Learning in War-Time” (1939).

As I continue to work my way through the Hitchens book god is not Great (2007), I’m simultaneously trudging through a recent work by one of Hitchens fellow New-Yorkers, Rev. Tim Keller. It’s pretty clear that Keller, pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, churned out The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism (2008) at least in part due to the rise of the growing corpus of literature coming from the leaders of the New Atheism, including Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and yes, my favorite “new” atheist club-member Christopher Hitchens. One of Hitchens arguments against the probability of the existence of an omnibenevolent God is captured [Read more →]

I was at the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America last week in Dallas. Had a great time catching up with old friends and acquaintances while having the opportunity to share about IMPACT 360. One thing I’m always challenged by in talking with interested parents, prospective students, and pastors is what kind of language best describes the kind of education IMPACT 360 delivers. What DO we deliver? [Read more →]

A few days ago a I picked up highly acclaimed atheist Christopher Hitchens’ book god is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (no, that’s not a typo…he chose–or perhaps the publisher did– a lower-case “g” in coming up with his title). Hitchens, a visiting professor of liberal studies at the New School for Social Research in NY and a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, has joined the ranks of Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett in the attempt

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Last evening the 2nd class in IMPACT 360 (www.impact360.net) history graduated. Exhausted but joyful, a new class of alumni has launched. Book after book, article upon article, and lecture followed by Socratic discussion on everything from evidence for God’s existence to the purpose of a college education, not to mention all the community service hours worked, Chick-fil-A leadership training absorbed (including leadership lessons taught on the corporate jet!), [Read more →]

This past week a 19 year-old student sat in my office troubled by a certain aspect of her past, namely the fact that she descends from a long line of conservative Pennsylvania Dutch pacifists. For a few weeks at IMPACT 360 (www.impact360.net) we’ve been working through systems and issues in ethics, and it was only natural that the ethics of war should be on her mind–not to mention the fact that she started and ended her high school career during Bush II’s War on Terrorism. She was respectful in the way she talked about her pacifist heritage, but it was clear that she was wrestling in her very soul with the [Read more →]

It’s no secret that academia is, and has been, dominated by politically and socially left-tilting faculty members. For years now David Horowitz has been the most prominent voice on this issue, and indeed at times has been a voice crying in the wilderness. This is not an argument for conservatives to avoid higher education or even the secular academy. In fact I would make the claim that a new study conducted through the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. gives conservatives good reasons [Read more →]

This past week at IMPACT 360 (www.impact360.net) saw the awakening of students’ critical thinking capacities as those were brought to bear on the subject of ethics. Too broad? For sure. This was an introductory module to ethics–specifically an introduction to the major systems of ethics, including deontology, utilitarianism and virtue ethics. We also covered moral relativism and moral objectivism in depth. In our socratic roundtable discusssion on Thursday we had a lively exchange over how one might best respond to John Q. Citizen who makes the argument that “you cannot impose your values on anyone else, since values themselves are culturally defined, thereby making the language of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ entirely culturally bound.” Most agreed that discussion with someone like John on this question really won’t get very far if [Read more →]

Last evening a tornado ripped through the campus of Union University (www.uu.edu), IMPACT 360’s (www.impact360.net) academic partner. Having talked with one of our alums who is now taking his degree at Union, they are estimating the damage to the campus physical plant to be in the tens of millions. The good news is that no one was killed or seriously injured. This developing story has received national media coverage, and I was reminded of the importance of Christian character and Christian witness in the face of literal disaster and hardship when I read the following comment on the Union University emergency update blogsite (http://uuemergency.blogspot.com/):

“I am not a churchgoer, but I have been so impressed with the attitudes, courtesy and presence of the students interviewed by the news media that I just sent a check to the disaster relief fund. All best of luck to you all.”

Larry, Avon, CT

The kind of character to which Larry from CT took notice isn’t anything those Union U students could fake. As C.S. Lewis pointed out, “Surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of man he is….”

C.S. Lewis once wrote “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

An encounter I had recently while staying in Pennsylvania reminded me how true this really is. I had been doing dissertation research in PA earlier this month, as well as a bit of recruitment for IMPACT 360 (www.impact360.net), and on this particular day had scheduled a lunch meeting with a headmaster of a Christian school in the area who sent us one of their graduates this academic year. We enjoyed sharing our life stories, dreams and plans for the future–mostly in terms of our careers. It became clear to me very quickly that he is a respected visionary leader in his school, church and home. When the topic of conversation turned to family towards the end of the meal, he said to me “Well, my wife and I are actually going through a pretty tough time right now.” He went on to explain [Read more →]