Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

…or, Something to keep you busy over the weekend…

…or, The Past Fortnight in the Theoblogosphere.

So, I’m putting this post up a day early because this year’s Karl Barth conference at Princeton Theological Seminary begins this Sunday. I’ll be there, and I look forward to doing some good mingling with folk while taking in some good lectures. It is not inconceivable that this will be my last Barth conference for a bit, so it will be a little bittersweet. In any case, I’ll try to blog it a bit. Also, if you're planning to be at the conference but haven't told me to keep an eye out for you yet, please do!

In any case, a funny thing happened when I finally got a teaching job, namely, I began reading the Chronicle of Higher Education. So I’ll begin with some interesting stuff from them:

• The Value of a Humanities Degree - Six students weigh in on what their humanist studies mean to them as they move into the job market.
• What We Take With Us - reflections from a retiring professor concerning the meaning of his life as an educator. I found this very interesting as one who is only just beginning such a life.
• Tired of Writing for No Money - If you haven’t gotten the news that traditional tenure-track positions are getting rarer by the day, you might want to reflect on the significance of such information. As part of this trend, institutions of higher education are moving toward alternative employment models. The author of this piece finds himself in such a situation, where his job security does not depend upon publication in peer-reviewed journals in the same way that it might have a few decades ago. This gives him some interesting perspective on the practice of professional publication.
• On Deadlines and Dead Grandmothers - An educator reflects on the relationship between professors and students, on the tenuous authority involved, and on the proper place for empathy.
• Are Tutors the Academic Equivalent of Steroids? - This exploration is related to current admissions policies. Where once elite schools blatantly admitted only the moneyed and their progeny, this article notes that they continue that practice today although under a guise of meritocracy since it is the moneyed who can afford to provide their progeny with tutors to inflate their academic achievements. While we’re on the subject, we should talk about whether or not coffee or other caffeine consumption is similar to the use of steroids…

Now, for the usual assortment of interesting links:

• Actually, that’s not in the Bible - A discussion of many popular phrases that are not in the Bible, despite being frequently cited as such. Go see if you have made any of these mistakes.
• Some rather unanalytic thoughts on analytic theology - David Congdon went to an analytic theology conference at Notre Dame recently, and he posted some reflections. Definitely worth your time.
• Two new volumes in the Ecclesiological Investigations series - New books from the great folk over at T&T Clark.
• Church As Homecoming and Homemaking - Chris Terry-Nelson shares the first column he wrote for his church’s newsletter. Chris has been installed as a pastor in the greater Nashville area for some time now, out there doing the serious theological work.
• A Double-Standard for Women and Violence In the Media? - Apparently certain self-appointed media morality watchdogs don’t like a recent Rihanna music video. The minds over at the WIT blog wonder aloud about how it compares to an Eminem video Rohanna performed in recently.
• Artificial Insemination: St. Augustine’s Ideal Sex Act? - More from the WIT blog. The title says it all.
• Smile, ladies!–Or not - Still more from WIT; do they ever sleep? The topic this time is microaggression.
• Summer Series: Compendium of Christian Thought - Contribute to the theological education of a newly minted doctoral student.
• New Titles Forthcoming from John Webster - Darren Sumner gives us a peek at John Webster’s forthcoming collections of essays. Surf on over for the full tables of contents.
• On Year Two and Blogging - More from Darren. Here he reflects upon completing two years of doctoral study at Aberdeen, as well as provides tantalizing hints about a new blogging initiative that he’s working on.
• Forthcoming: Studia Patristica Volume 52 - Still more from Darren. He here provides the abstract to an essay of his that will soon be in print.
• Changing places: academic jobs - Ben Myers notes changes of scenery for various academics in the broader theological world, including the upcoming move by yours truly.
• The Politics of Being a Good Christian - Apparently, a study has shown that its possible to be a Christian as either a Republican or a Democrat, but that those professing the faith in the former group are more focused on one’s internal morality (trying not to commit sins) while those in the latter group are more focused on external morality (trying to love the neighbor). Just more proof that everything depends on how a survey is conducted…

Special mention:

• Christina Busman, a doctoral candidate here at PTS (wow, can’t use that phrase much longer…), provides a two-part review of David Fitch’s work, The End of Evangelicalism. Part 1, and Part 2.
• R. R. Reno recently published a piece in First Thing, entitled The Preferential Option for the Poor. A friend and I considered writing a response at the time of publication. Despite recognizing that a response was needed, we declined based on the sheer scatterbrained-ness of Reno’s article and the amount of other work already sitting on our plate. Thankfully, others were not deterred. Dan over at the blog, On Journying with those in Exile, has provided a penetrating response: R. R. Reno’s “Preferential Option for the Poor.” Be sure to read it, but you could skip reading Reno’s piece itself.

Here are a couple links just for fun:

• Google Exodus - A depiction of what the Exodus might have looked like in a Web 2.0 world.
• PhD Movie Trailer - I’ve been reading the PhD Comics strip for a while, and now some enterprising students have created a PhD Comics movie. View the trailer through the link, and then surf around a bit to learn how to schedule a screening of the movie at your institution of higher education.

Whew! If all that isn’t enough…you might consider checking out the serive, Dropbox.com, which provides a cloud and file synchronization service that makes using multiple computers a breeze. I’ve been using it for a couple of months now and it has been great. If you decide that you would like to try it, send me an e-mail (derevth [at] gmail [dot] com) and I’ll get you an invitation – that way, I get a little extra space for free! But if you would rather delve into the riches of DET’s archives, I recommend my reading guides for Barth, Calvin, and Torrance.


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