The futurist Alvin Toffler has said, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn”. The Covid pandemic has exposed the fragile nature of life and laid bare many of the assumptions under which we unconsciously operate. While this has affected all of our life activities, nowhere has it been more stark as in our church life. Much of reform in history has happened when people were angry about the way things were. Such anger however, often results in bitterness and eventually avoiding the situation. Are there healthier ways to leverage such anger? Are there alternate models of church in the world?
The hypothetical example of a child who survived the 2004 tsunami (while many others perished around him) features in a debate between Alister McGrath and Richard Dawkins. The former endorses the appropriateness of the claim that God saved the boy; while the latter thinks that God would be extremely capricious if he behaved like that, and himself attributes the child’s survival to chance in the context of natural laws. Christian theists believe that God sustains the world rather than only having created it and set its path in motion. But could we also say ex ante that the child’s survival was determined (purely) by the laws of nature; but ex poste that God saved him?
The image of Nero fiddling while the City of Rome burned was referenced by some academics in Sri Lanka when transition to teaching online began during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Many of us could identify with that sentiment. How and why should we be engaging in ‘normal’ academic activities when the world is facing a pandemic?
In this video, Terence Halliday discusses three theological orientations by which Christians can engage university disciplines, big questions, and the institution of the university: Great Theologies; Grand Themes; Virtues;
This video streamed in September 2020 is the 3rd of a 5-part series of webinars done for Christian Academics in South Asia by the IFES South Asia Academics Network.
In this video, Vinoth Ramachandra discusses the Academic's responsibility towards his/her University.
In this video, Terence Halliday discusses informal and formal approaches to conversations in the university with communities of Christians and the university as a whole. It illustrates these approaches with programs at Stanford University, the University of Chicago, The Australian National University, and elsewhere.
This video streamed in August 2020 is the 2nd of a 5-part series of webinars done for Christian Academics in South Asia by the IFES South Asia Academics Network. In this video, Vinoth Ramachandra discusses the Academic's responsibility towards his/her students.
In this video, Terence Halliday discusses a conversational approach for Christians in universities-- what is a conversation, what are conversational topics, how do conversations contribute to the university and to the lives of Christian students and faculty, with whom do we hold disciplinary conversations and about what?
This video streamed in July 2020 is the 1st of a 5-part series of webinars done for Christian Academics in South Asia by the IFES South Asia Academics Network.
In this video, Vinoth Ramachandra discusses the Academic's responsibility towards his/her subject.
In this video, Terence Halliday reflects on the challenges and joys of life as a Christian professor in various settings and describes 9 personal breakthroughs in this journey of grace, wonder and hope.