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Posted by: gcarkner | August 21, 2012

Creative Stewardship; Howling with Wolves

Wolf Education Centre Golden, BC

Recognizing that the earth and the fullness thereof is a gift from our gracious God, and that we are called to cherish, nurture, and provide loving stewardship for the earth’s resources. And recognizing that life itself is a gift, and a call to responsibility, joy and celebration, I make the following declarations:

I declare myself to be a world citizen.
I commit myself to lead an ecologically sound life.
I commit myself to lead a life of creative simplicity and to share my personal wealth with the world’s poor.
I commit myself to join with others in reshaping institutions in order to bring about a more just global society in which each person has full access to the needed resources for the physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual growth.
I commit myself to occupational accountability, and in so doing I will seek to avoid the creation of products which will cause harm to others.
I affirm the gift of my body, and commit myself to its proper nourishment and physical well-being.
I commit myself to examine continually my relations with others, and to attempt to relate honestly, morally and lovingly to those around me.
I commit myself to personal renewal through prayer, meditation and study.
I commit myself to responsible participation in a community of faith

~From Visions for a Hungry World by Thomas Pettepiece

For a remarkable book on stewardship of Creation, see Steven Bouma-Prediger’s For the Beaty of the Earth: a Christian vision of creation care. His working assumptions in the book are the following:

Everything is created by God and therefore valuable.
Earth and its creatures are finite.
We are limited and often self-deceived in how we view the world.
The God-designed world is fruitful and able to sustain itself.
Work is good, but so is rest.
Earth is God’s, not ours. It is on loan to us for a short while.
We are earthkeepers to serve and protect, to promote creation’s well-being.
Cries for righteousness and justice must not go unheeded.
We should always in all things and all endeavours gratefully acknowledge our Creator-Redeemer. He’s the owner of all things human and non-human.

Howling with Wolves

What I learned from a few majestic beasts this summer 2011: Hannah our 8 year old daughter and I visited a wolf educational centre near Golden, B.C. and were riveted with interest from the moment we arrived; it was a good time to catch a lecture and all the action. One of the females had just been for a walk in the woods with the owner of the centre; the wolf runs off leash for a while but always comes back because this man has fed and kept them safe for most of their lives. He and his wife act as the alpha male and female of the pack enclosed in this mini-zoo. They also visit schools all over the province to educate children about wolves and deconstruct their bad rep from the kids’ stories such as the three little pigs and little red riding hood. He used to train wolves and bears for Hollywood movies and decided to start this program to educate the public about the importance of, and plight of, wolves in our ecosystem. They have very little protection at the moment: people can hunt, trap, poison, and neuter them at will in Alaska, BC and Alberta. This includes the despicable practice of running them to exhaustion with helicopters and then shooting them like fish in a barrel. They are a critical component of the ecosystem and yet we have few left in our major parks. We transplanted thirty wolves to Yellowstone Park a few years ago and it brought back the beavers and many of the birds, restoring the wetlands.

Pecking Order: There are beta males and females but only the alpha members can breed. No wolf dare raise his tail higher than the alpha females or males. The omega wolves are the baby sitters for the pups while the others go out and hunt. One of the wolves had a charming sense of humour.

Wolves howl as a pack to make themselves sound more formidable (college engineers?) to a competing pack or to rally to arms before a hunt. They actually sing in a harmony, which make six wolves sound like fifteen. Hannah and I were able to get them to howl as a group for us and were thrilled to join in. We also watched them eat huge portions of beef and turkey, which the owner threw in to them. They really wolf down their food; awesome sight. The pups lick the mouths of the older wolves so that they will regurgitate the food for the young ones, who cannot digest the meat raw yet.

They have incredibly acute smell and hearing; they can hear you coming ten kilometers away so you are never likely to meet them in the wild; these wolves know the sound of the owner’s truck from ten kilometers away and become agitated and lively in anticipation of his arrival; Dad is coming home. You will rarely encounter them in the wild because they are so shy of you and hear you from a long distance. I have never been this close to such magnificent beasts and learned so much in such a short time; the early biology student in me soared to life. Many people breed wolves with dogs but this is mostly a bad thing because the animal is hard to handle as a pet and has to be euthanized.

My conclusion: God loves wolves and expresses something of his grandeur and creativity through them. Powerful experience!

~Gord Carkner

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Posted in Science Reflections, Stewardship

Posted by: gcarkner | August 20, 2012

Faculty Endorsements of GCU

Long hours in the laboratory, thesis proposals, the weight of comprehensive exams means that a grad student needs a support infrastructure. I can’t speak highly enough about getting involved with a group on campus like GCU, and also finding a good church home base. Also as you are walking into your office or biking into campus, try praying for your profs, fellow students, or admin staff; this can help stimulate surprisingly fruitful conversations. And don’t forget that you are here to serve undergrads with grace. Feel free to track me down for coffee; I love ideas exchange.

~Dr. Craig Mitton, PhD

Associate Professor

School of Population and Public Health

As a graduate student several decades ago I found the Grad Christian Union community at my university uplifting spiritually and socially. In an often chilly secular environment, it was a great venue to meet other grads outside my own field and cultural background and develop friendships and join in events with those who shared the same core values. I am still in contact with several of these friends 30 years later. With some other faculty and graduate students, I helped to launch the Graduate & Faculty Christian Forum a number of years ago. Gord has been a solid advisor to this group as well

~Dr. David Ley

Professor Department of Geography

University of British Columbia

There is no more important bellwether for our society and our culture than the university — and yet Christians within academia often travel incognito, which isn’t good for them, isn’t good for the university, and isn’t good for other Christians, who often feel alone when really they’re not. A ministry to grad students and thus provides a vital venue where Christians can connect, show their colours, and stimulate each other to play the full role they’re called to play as fully alive and “out” followers of Christ. Decide to be a public Christian at UBC.

~Dr. Dennis Danielson

Professor of English

University of British Columbia

Graduate research is often like looking for a lightswitch in a totally dark room. It can be frustrating at times. It certainly was for me! It was invaluable for me to have close connection with other Christians whom I could share that load with, and who were praying for me.

~Dr. Bé Wassink

Instructor, Materials Engineering

University of British Columbia

How to Succeed as a Graduate Student? ~Martin Ester
I am Martin Ester a computer science professor at SFU who has supervised graduate students for more than ten years. I am also a Christian who is convinced that my faith is relevant to all aspects of my and our world. I continue to enjoy this part of my job very much and have the impression that my students also do enjoy their studies, at least once in a while. Sometimes current or prospective students ask me for advice how to succeed, and I have tried to distill the following short advice, which will hopefully be useful not only for computer science students.

1) Make sure to know why you are doing this
Make sure that you know why you are going to grad school. The monetary benefit of earning a higher salary with a graduate degree may be smaller than you think. And the reputation of your degree may also not be worth investing several years of your life (you have only one!). You may waste part of your life and will not even succeed with your graduate studies if you do not have a better answer. I believe that you need to have a passion for your thesis topic, an inner motivation to explore that helps you to overcome the inevitable hard times during grad school. On the other hand, your studies need a purpose that goes beyond your own interests, and you should have a realistic understanding of how your studies will help you to better serve “humanity”. Keep in mind that, e.g., not every PhD can have an academic career.

2) Be hungry to learn and be teachable:
I have often noticed that super smart grad students with a somewhat arrogant attitude have the feeling that “they have arrived already” and are neither working hard enough nor willing to accept guidance from their supervisor. As a consequence, they tend to be less successful than grad students who may be a tick less intelligent but are really hungry to learn and willing to accept both encouragement and correction from their supervisor or from other people such as reviewers of their scientific papers. Read as many good books and papers as possible. Discuss your research with your supervisor, with other professors, with your fellow students. Apply and test the results of your research in industry, government or where possible. Finally, ask the deep questions and try to come up with solid, new answers.

3) Maintain your balance:
This advice may surprise you the most. Do not get me wrong, you must work hard, really hard to succeed in grad school. However, while grad school is very important, realize that there is more to life. Take care of your body by feeding it properly and exercising enough. Do not neglect your social life, but cultivate meaningful friendships at school and outside. And pay attention to the spiritual dimension of your life which connects you to God. As Jesus summarized when asked for the greatest commandment: “Love God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and body. And love your neighbor as yourself.” Do not postpone the seeking of balance in your life until after grad school, when “things will get better”. Things will not get better, but worse: you will get only busier in the course of your life. Therefore, start finding and maintaining your balance now!

~Dr. Martin Ester, Computer Science, Simon Fraser University

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Posted in GCU Personality, Grad Student Strategies

Posted by: gcarkner | August 19, 2012

Self-delusion or Deep Honesty?

Is Religion a Form of Self-delusion?

Some people caste Christianity aside, because they see it as a hospital religion, irrelevant to them, the young and healthy majority of society. See Richard Dawkins for instance. Sigmund Freud believed something similar. Many consider it something of an outpatient clinic for those who can’t cope with real life, symbolized by the soup kitchen or the homeless shelter. Is it nothing but a crutch for the desperate, or a delusion to avoid harsh aspects of reality? Much hangs on the answer and therefore it bears deeper scrutiny.

Perhaps we have grown too accustomed t0 a multiplicity of modern props, with the massive growth of the social sciences and the self-help movement. Contemporary 21st century men and women are prolific in the production of artificial and sometimes dysfunctional support systems. We see all around us a desperate search for emotional and economic security. Greed, consumerism and acquisitiveness have become a national sport. In society, we see an extreme quest for intimacy and pleasure which entails huge risks and painful heartbreak. Need we mention our current alcohol and drug dependency, or addiction to a personal psychiatrist in the middle class? Some of us are even addicted to our own narcissism. Crutches are indeed real and abundant for late moderns.

Not all props are so obvious. Many people rely on a good job, a nice house in the suburbs, or even romantic relationships for their security. Families can be sacrificed to power, ambition and big salaries. Others turn to social activism, the power of positive thinking, or developing their human potential. In ways such as these, people try to meet their basic needs for meaning and fulfillment, or to neutralize the dullness and ineffectualness of their lives. Where is fantasy and reality, the false and the true self (Parker Palmer) in the midst of all this?

Some view church attendance and the Christian faith as just another way to prop up a broken life, a form of escape, or a place for non-vital citizens without any direction to park their lives. But the healing Jesus provides goes beyond superficial bandaid treatment. Christianity is a restorative religion; it is far from a crutch. Its aim is deep healing, renewal and wholeness, not simply coping for another day. The claim of Jesus’ identity and mission is much deeper and broader. See the statement below on how he is the Yes, the affirmation of life, calling and direction.

The Christian faith challenges its adherents with a whole fresh approach, a new vision for life. Character is improved; relationships develop depth; community flourishes; self·understanding increases; virtues are pursued as robust achievable goals. Nothing less than a vibrant relationship with the living God is offered through Jesus Christ, issuing in vital human community (Ephesians 4). There exists another paradigm.

Many of the best minds and strongest conlributers to society are found in the Christian community. These people are nol limited to any single walk of life. But some 40% of scientists are believers. The Christian faith promotes excellence in women and men of all ages, races, classes, and educational backgrounds. Some are leading nations and shaping human rights, asking for responsible stewardship on global climate change .

But this does not mean that Christians are perfect. Not at all. At their best, they have the humility to admit that they are needy, narcissistic people, that they need to change, that they need others. They are subjects in process of change. This stance requires courage to face the games we play with ourselves, the false public constructions of self that we project in pretence. In fact, the recognition of brokenness is the first vital step to genuine healing and discovery of our true, integrated self. Alcoholics Anonymous has demonstrated this to so many.

But some of us find it too threatening to examine our wounds at any depth and instead we choose avoidance and self-medication. But unless we face their reality, we are condemned to hobble painfully through life, living a false dream, propped up by our own radical freedom of expression. Our makeshift crutches of individualistic self-sufficiency get in the way of honesty and real personal growth. We desperately need radical healing. Shockingly, that is what Christ offers.

Is Christianity a crutch for the weak and helpless? Or does the accusation perhaps obscure a smokescreen raised in denial of one’s own needs? Jesus actually has helped millions tai a more honest look at themselves. I studied deeply in my PhD work Michel Foucault’s ethics as aesthetics; it offers a self-dependent idea of freedom through a continual reinvention of the self and self-justification. It rejects acceptability to the Other (human or divine), promoting a love of self as its prime directive. Many thousands have chosen this posture.

No doubt, it can be intimidating to face the possibility that the living God has an absolute claim on one’s life. And it challenges our delusions to think that we cannot heal ourselves and do it all on our own. But we must honestly confront that option. The issue cannot be simply our own comfort or security; that is a lie we tell ourselves over and over again. It is precisely when we shed our concern for our comfort that we begin to see ourselves for who we really are, and move forward on more secure paths toward meaning and significance–taking responsibility for self and for the Other. Worth a moment or two of reflection and critical self-examination on a long walk?

Gord Carkner (thanks to Richard Middleton, Herb Gruning and Bruce Toombs for their assistance in examining the tough questions)

See also blog posts on Quality of the Will, and Is God Really Good?

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from becoming ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” ( II Peter 1: 3-8)

In II Corinthians 1, the Apostle Paul writes that Jesus is the Yes and the Amen to it all. What does this mean? Below are some reflections from a Graduate Student Study Group at UBC.

Colossians 1: 15-20 speaks of Jesus as the source and “glue” of creation and the purpose or end of creation. He is more than 13.8 billion light years of time. He is above all things in creation and at the same time the ground of creation (the ground of being). All the fullness of God dwells in him (he is God with us–Emmanuel). He is God incarnate (fully God and fully man); in him, God’s eternity connects with creation’s temporality. It is through Christ that all things are reconciled to God—providing the source and basis of healing relationships divine and human, as the prince (champion) of peace. He is the cornerstone or foundation of the church, through which he is present to the world.

He is the fulfillment of all the promises made to the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Israel, etc.) and prophets of the Old Testament, the Jewish Messiah, fulfilling the promise of redemption, renewal, justice and reform. Jesus is prophet, priest and king. His is the final priestly sacrifice for the sins of mankind. He is also a poet, firing the imagination with his life-giving, inspiring teaching.

He is the wisdom of God and the power of God, the nexus of faith and reason. As logos (John 1), he is the divine word made flesh, the underwriter/guarantor of all human thought and all language. He is the raison d’etre of it all, the meaning of it all, the answer to the key question: Why is there something rather than nothing? We are called to take captive all thought to his Lordship, his oversight. He is the end point of every spiritual, moral and philosophical aspiration. He has renewed and healed the current broken relationship between word and world (James Davison Hunter).

Christ the creative wisdom of God, and God’s active Word in creation, is enfleshed in the temporal-historical dimension of our world as the concrete Jewish Messiah, Jesus the Christ…. This is the Word through whom all things were made, and the Word hid in the eternal bosom of God, the Word who spoke through the prophets, the Word whose mighty acts defined the history of Israel. In Jesus the Christ this Word has become flesh, and the eternal has become temporal, but without ceasing to be eternal…. In Christ temporality and eternity are conjoined…. In the incarnation, creation, the world, time and history have been taken up into the God-man, who is the center of reality…. Faith and reason are inseparable because their unity is in Christ. (J. Zimmermann, 2012a, pp. 264-5)

He is the complete human, a fullness of humanity. He is a gift to us to direct our passions to that which can fulfill them. He came to take us higher, to show us the infinite goodness and agape love of God and to transform us by it. He is the renewed, most excellent representative of God on earth, the imago dei.

Jesus is perlocutionary speech act, God’s most powerful communication to human ears. He addresses us, calls our name, calls us forward into an adventuresome life. His words (e.g. the Sermon on the Mount) are a culture driver. Through him, we have been identified and called into a new community, given a new identity as royal priests (I Peter) and the people of God. He is the hermeneutic of a new reconciled humanity, drawn from all the nations of the globe, committed to bless (shalom). He is our home, our shelter/refuge, our anchor.

He is the Suffering Servant who empathizes with our human struggles, brokenness, alienation and pain, the Wounded Healer (Henri Nouwen). He has suffered and does suffer for individuals, society and the world (I Peter); it is a redemptive, deeply meaningful suffering. He is Compassion.

In Christian theology, Jesus reveals to us not only who God is but also what it means to be truly human. This true humanity is not something we achieve on our own; it comes to us as a gift … The reception of this gift contains an ineliminable element of mystery that will always require faith. Jesus in his life, teaching, death and resurrection and ongoing presence in the church and through the Holy Spirit … orders us towards God. He directs our passions and desires towards that which can finally fulfill them and bring us happiness … [and] reveal to us what it means to be human. (D.S. Long, 2001, pp. 106-7)

Other metaphors: the Vine, Root of David, Teacher, Shield, Son of Man, Lion of Judah, the Way, Portion, Lamb of God, Refiner, the Bridegroom, Saviour, Rock of Ages, Presence of God, Alpha and Omega, Son of God

We welcome you to listen to the Hillsong album called “Zion” to experience these thoughts as worship

Recommended Reading: The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey

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Posted in Apologetics, Faith & Culture, Prayer & Spirituality, Seeker Corner | Tags: religion as self-delusion?

Posted by: gcarkner | August 17, 2012

Finding the ‘God’ Particle…

Finding God, … the particle.

In early 2011, deep under the Swiss-French countryside, scientists began studying the chaotic fires of high energy particle interactions using the new large hadron collider at CERN. The LHC had achieved incredibly high energies, rarely seen in the universe since the Big Bang. By July 2012 scientists excitedly announced that they had produced the massive Higgs boson, a.k.a. the “god particle.”

The divine nickname, and attendant media hype, begs the question of whether this discovery has any religious implications. At first blush, the question is almost embarrassing to scientists. It appears that the name “God particle” originated from “God-d*mn” particle, not any theological connection. The Higgs particle was the simply the last major prediction of the Standard Model (SM) of physics and its detection was the ultimate triumph. Yet, it is the very success of the SM that has potential implications for metaphysics and theology.

The Standard Model gives deep insights into nature; however, many run contrary to our common-sense view of reality. For example, according to the SM the universe is populated by both real and “virtual” particles, which are the by-products of invisible fields, such as the “Higgs field,” that span space and time. Virtual particles have a shadowy existence, randomly appearing then disappearing, yet have a measurable effect on real particles. Even real particles may be created from “nothing”. Here the physics intersects with the metaphysical discussion of the nature of matter. The SM description of continual creation (and annihilation) may also have implications for the theology of creation. Using theological language, one could describe the Higgs particle as the incarnation of the omnipresent Higgs field, in which we live and move and have our being, bequeathing to all matter the gift of mass. What this means needs to be worked out more rigorously.

The awesome technical and scientific achievement of this discovery also leads us to seriously reconsider the question of why humans, with pen and paper, computers and particle detectors, can so deeply understand the physical universe. This same question prompted Eugene Wigner to write the paper “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences”. In the Standard Model, the unreasonable effectiveness of “symmetry” prompts the same question. The success of the scientific enterprise seems to point to some transcendent reality because we appear to be able to apprehend truths beyond our brains’ biochemical activity. Such a reality has always been the province of religion. Thus, the discovery of the Higgs particle invites us to explore the broader interactions between science and theology.

Barry Pointon, Ph.D

Physics Department

British Columbia Institute of Technology

_____________________________

Further References on God & Physics:

John Polkinghorne, One Worlds:the interaction of science and theology.

Denis Alexander, Rebuilding the Matrix: science & faith in the 21st century.

Ard Louis, Physicist, Oxford University

Jennifer Wiseman, NASA physicist.

Ian Hutchinson, MIT Plasma Physicist

Virginia Sten Owens, God Spy: faith, perception and the new physics.

Steven Barr, Modern Physics & Ancient Faith.

Alister McGrath, The Open Secret: A New Vision for Natural Theology

Faraday Institute Discussion on Science & Religion:

http://www.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/faraday/Multimedia.php

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Posted in Apologetics, Science Reflections, Seeker Corner

Posted by: gcarkner | August 17, 2012

All Religions Say the Same Thing?

It doesn’t matter what you believe, because all religions are basically the same?

This is certainly a common sentiment, promoting tolerance and respect for difference. This is often the discussion in the clever TV show Little Mosque on the Prairie. The trouble is, it’s a naive statement that lacks gravity and plausibility. It trivializes some of the most important discussions of our time. What a person believes about the ultimate meaning of life matters infinitely, especially to them. Believers at least recognize the differences and their significance for how life is lived. They often risk torture and death for their beliefs, especially if they refuse to bow to an oppressive political regime. They quite literally stake their lives on these beliefs; that’s not trivial at all.

But are these believers mistaken? Does it really not make any difference what you believe? Are all religions at bottom the same? Is John Hick and other religious relativists correct after all, i.e. that plurality of cultures and religions within our globalized world means that pluralism (the ideology) is true? Has our late modern world trivialized truth too much?

Undoubtedly, there is much common ground between religions. Many accept a Creator and have some story of origins, plus a notable figurehead. All have a sense of good and evil. There is often a search for enlightenment or truth about oneself and the world–the meaning question. They try to answer why we suffer at some level. Most foster worship and teach an ethic for living well, being responsible for one’s family and respecting one’s neighbour’s interests. There are indeed many similarities; few would question that claim. There is also much that is good in most religions [We say this while knowing that there exists also bad religion which deceives, exploits and oppresses the individual, steals her freedom or livelihood].

But the similarities are by no means complete. In fact, the differences are quite staggering upon further investigation. Take conceptions of the divine, for example. While Buddhism prefers the emptiness of Nirvana to any positive or definite idea of God, tribal religions are polytheistic, believing in many gods, like the ancient Greeks. And in between, we have everything from the impersonal Brahman of Hinduism to the intimate personal Lord of Christianity. And of course we have the religious neo-Atheist who claims that God and religion is irrelevant and probably even harmful. There are also different analyses of what is lacking in the world (the brokenness within the human condition) and how this can be redeemed, repaired, or addressed effectively.

A further example is the Christian idea of the incarnation. That God bent on revealing himself to us entered history as a human being is a claim unique to the Christian faith, but it is absolutely essential to the integrity of that faith. Other religions might claim temporary manifestations of deity as an avatar or angel from time to time. Christianity alone rests on the assumption that God literally became man for our salvation. If supernatural aid for our current problems is available, that is significant indeed; it ought to capture our attention.

Are these beliefs all ihe same? One could hardly say that. They are at variance with each other: they are even contradictory on many points. They might conceivably all be wrong, but we fear that they cannot all be right on all points. But here is the basis for dialogue: to understand and appreciate each other on campus. We are here at UBC from all round the world and from a grand diversity of religious backgrounds; we ought not settle for stereotypes but ask our friends what they actually believe and why. Learn from and respect your laboratory and research neighbour.

We conclude that it does matter very much what you believe. All religions make strong exclusive claims; if one digs below the surface, each one believes they have the truth on many matters. We need to examine these claims to determine which are true, which are most plausible. This can be a fun and enlightening exercise. Considering that the majority of our world’s population espouses some faith, this is not trivial at all. Let’s keep the conversation going!

Gord Carkner

Reference: Eerdmans Handbook on the World’s Religions; JND Anderson, The World’s Religions. See also the post called Dialogue on Worldviews.

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Posted in Apologetics, Seeker Corner

Posted by: gcarkner | August 17, 2012

GCU Identity Note

GCU members proceed with a willingness and a calling to ‘think differently’ (a phrase often used by Michel Foucault to signal a radical stance). In an age of nihilism (loss of meaning, cultural absence of God, and trivialization of self), ennui (existential boredom which often leads to self-medication), and cynicism (refusal to see the good motives in others or institutions), we articulate and write a story of hope, substance, creativity, a saga of a deeper, redemptive possibility. We see through the disillusioning elements of culture to heavenly intentions for the way, the truth and the life. We pursue the recovery of enduring ancient academic and cultural virtues, remembering that the secular age or the age of will-to-power is a more recent phenomenon. We want to restore a human vision that is realistic about brokenness, yet empowering for change and enduring in its cultural relevance towards the promotion of hospitality and community. This entails a strong belief in the deep and enduring good that Christianity has to offer, a good that is rooted in the profound and extensive goodness, grace and love of God, and the goodness with which he has imbued creation.

Ancient Faith meets Modern Scholarship and Research

As members of the GCU community, we encourage each other to contribute holistically to the ongoing university discourse (conversation and pursuit of knowledge, goodness, beauty and wisdom) in various disciplines, recovering the best of its Christian heritage, redeeming its not so positive tendencies as we have influence, and serving its community with dedicated intentionality. We carry a vision to listen and communicate relevantly, to effectively engage, raise good questions, appreciate and challenge the thinking and vision of our colleagues. We want to know where their hope lies. As witnesses of Christ, we want to answer the questions and complaints of skeptics and cultured despisers of religious faith, while challenging narrow assumptions, stereotypes and claimed positions of hegemony or dogmatism. We pray for and seek to bless the university community, working for justice and fairness as we find opportunity to speak for God and for the weaker members of our extended community. We respect the diversity of our colleagues, while developing strong convictions of our own, and value dialogue on lifestyle issues.

Gord

Okanagan Reflection

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Posted in Faith & Culture, GCU Personality, Grad Student Strategies

Posted by: gcarkner | August 15, 2012

Worldview Discussion that Connects

Some Lively Questions to Probe into the Personal Worldview Convictions of your Friends

The ability to think, dialogue and examine within the context of worldview gives tremendous latitude and creativity to any discussion or debate. It eliminates the defensive factor for both interlocutors. It liberates and opens up the field of discussion rather than getting it trapped in a corner, drawing a line in the sand, or becoming reduced to a tug-of-war contest between your opinion and mine. Apply emotional intelligence and humour. Key worldview revealing books: E.F. Schumacher, A Guide for the Perplexed. (reductionism) James Sire, Why Believe Anything at All? (epistemology); the literature of Dostoyevski, The Brothers Karamozov as a point of entry to one’s worldview or a provocative movie such as Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors (can we have ethics without God?); Walker Percy, Lost in the Cosmos is another intriguing transition author. Glenn Tinder The Political Meaning of Christianity: essay “Can we be good without God?”

Dr Dan Osmond, University of Toronto, School of Medicine: “Whether we realize it or not, all university people have some sort of a view according to which they select, organize and interpret knowledge. Similarly, their behaviour is governed by a moral code [or style] of their choosing. Such views and codes differ widely in their validity and content as well as the quality of the behaviour that they engender.”

McGill Philosopher Charles Taylor (paraphrased): A worldview is a picture that holds us captive; it involves our overall take on human life and its cosmic surroundings. It is the background to our thinking, within whose terms it is carried on, but which is often largely unformulated, and to which we can frequently imagine no alternative. It includes aspects or features of the way experience and thought are shaped and cohere. It is something invisible which people inhabit and it gives shape to what they experience, feel, opine, and see.

At its very basic level, Apologetics is about a dialogue between worldviews, yours and that of your friend or colleague, and of course your professor. It is almost impossible to engage someone in serious dialogue if you do not understand their framework of thinking and assumptions. It is within your rights and academic duty to ask them to reveal their working presuppositions. This is the set of interpretive intellectual glasses with which they view everything, including you and your convictions. Ignore it to your mutual detriment. Knowledge of worldviews opens fun, productive discussions that really matter. Here are some questions to assist you, and be assured that you will get some good questions in return that will make you think hard about what you believe and why. Welcome to the marketplace of ideas!

Could you identify and define for me the framework of your present philosophical stance? Your favorite thinker? Where do you position or locate yourself in the current plural world of convictions? What influences have shaped your thinking?
Ask questions regarding its coherence, unity or consistency as a view of reality.
Is your view open to the data of other people’s experience or do you have your mind made up? Closed or open stance?
Use the three major worldview frames (Pantheism, Naturalism, Theism) to probe more deeply into the details; get all the facts and insights you can. Many perspectives are derivative from these three major views, so learn at least them. James Sire’s The Universe Next Door is a basic guide to worldviews; it has sold well and helped millions of students for 30 years.
Look for the person’s specific interpretive paradigm, the intellectual grid through which they sift ideas and issues (philosophical glasses): e.g. Marxism, feminism, scientific materialism, environmentalism, nihilism, New Age, or some form of liberation. What does freedom mean to them? This reveals what Charles Taylor calls their hypergood or dominant value. It is vital for you to understand this core dominating and controlling good in your friend–their ideological centre or anchor. Otherwise you will be speaking past each other, rather than seriously engaging one another.
Ask the questions of the livability and relevance of their view: the social pragmatic life test. How does it improve human life or solve human problems, promote more justice or hope, feed the poor, heal racial relations, help one at the bedside of a dying child? Does it have power to promote the common good or is it elitist or self-interest driven? How far can the assumptions be taken without promoting evil or destructive consequences? It must answer the Big Life Questions. Could you raise a family or run a village on its principles?
Is your friend happy with their present views or are they shopping around for something better? People have deep emotions around their cherished beliefs, so remember to be sensitive. If someone is experiencing a worldview crisis, they are most open to dialogue, and what else is on offer in the marketplace of worldviews.
Here’s a whimsical response to get conversation lubricated: Could you define the God you do not believe in? Were you brought up an atheist or did you arrive at that logically over time; are you convinced of the hope that atheism offers the world? Are they a naïve or reflective atheist, Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, anarchist, philanthropist?

Key Posture: We want all the insight and knowledge available; why shut out the insights from the supernatural/transcendent automatically? E.F. Schumacher, A Guide for the Perplexed. Alister McGrath, Intellectuals Don’t Need God?

Gord Carkner

Kicking Horse Heights

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Posted in Apologetics, Seeker Corner

Posted by: gcarkner | August 13, 2012

Dialogue on Ethical Goods

Where do we begin in talking to our friends about ethics without getting into a tense debate and alienation? Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor offers us some insight in Section One of his important book Sources of the Self recovering the ancient language of the moral good. Below are some summary points:

Try to discover the goods (values, human qualities, virtues) in your friend or dialogue partner. What are their instincts with respect to the good? Are they embracing or running from that good? What good or goods shape them and their outlook? This helps you understand key facets of their identity.

Get to know them well enough to understand what is their hypergood (dominant, organizing, or controlling good)—something in their heart of hearts or core motivation. This good defines them at a deep level. This is key to connecting with them at the core of their being (finding that common ground), breaking through suspicion and building trust. Celebrate this good with them, as you are able.

Spiritual Entry Point: Discern what they consider the source of this good (invented, self, nature, God, fantasy/mythology). Where do they look for inspiration? Where do they find their metaphors for living well? This is the motivation question, what Taylor calls the constitutive good. Where is their community of inspiration?

Affirm what you can in all of this, and begin your dialogue on this positive common platform: e.g. respect for others, concern for the environment, protection of the poor or exploited, love of children. You will also find much that you disagree with, but your common cause and bond is what they consider the good. Spend a good amount of time talking about this and understanding it.

Respectfully reveal to the person some of your common and also divergent commitments. Share something of how God’s goodness has transformed you and the joy you experience when mediating this goodness to others. Share some of the stories of the good motivated by God that you have been collecting and living. Sometimes a believer needs to get in touch with their own deeper convictions first. Try to find a key exemplar of such a good to talk about (Augustine, Mother Teresa, Jean Vanier, Desmond Tutu).

In love, challenge them that maybe they have left out or suppressed some of the most important goods in life, things that could animate their existence, give them hope, and empower their life. This suppression of a good can skew (confuse) their perceptions of reality. The discussion can begin to challenge their worldview.

Remember that ultimately God’s goodness is the measure of all human attempts, human constructions of the good (I John 4). This is a major gift to our humanity and our human flourishing. His goodness is our final or ultimate aspiration, measure or marker. This should keep us humble in our approach; human standards are always insecure, transient, subject to will to power, tribalism, self-interest and conflicts of interpretation. Theologian D. Stephen Long of Marquette University in his brilliant book The Goodness of God writes:

The task of Christian ethics is to explain the church’s relationship to other social formations as they develop, die, and mutate into different forms. It will do this by recognizing God’s goodness as that against which all things are measured (including the church). This task will remain as long as those other formations exist. It is a task where our primary vocation is to bear witness to God’s goodness. Such a goodness is not natural to us, although God seeks to share it with us. It is a gift, the gift of Jesus Christ. He is God’s goodness, for God’s goodness is God’s own self.

Gord Carkner

I have a larger paper on Charles Taylor’s Ethics based on my PhD research: gord.carkner@gmail.com Also see David Gill’s accessible book Becoming Good.

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Posted in Apologetics, Faith & Culture, Seeker Corner

Posted by: gcarkner | August 11, 2012

Book Review: Tom Wright, The New Testament and the People of God

N.T.Wright, 1992. The New Testament and the People of God. Fortress Press, Minneapolis. 476 pages plus a 4-page Appendix and a 55-page Bibliography and Index.

This is the first volume in a planned 5-volume series entitled “Christian Origins and the Question of God”. Although Professor Wright’s scholarly specializations are Jesus and Paul, he comes to “hermeneutical and theological theory on the one hand, and to the study of first-century Judaism on the other, as an enthusiastic outsider.” His enthusiasm is infectious and to another “outsider” like myself, his writing in this volume is more accessible than, for example, his volume 2 in this series, entitled simply “Jesus”.

After setting the scene for his critical realist approach to history and a helpful discussion of his non-post-modernist perspective on the importance of stories, Wright launches into the two substantive parts of his book which are entitled “First-Century Judaism within the Greco-Roman World” and “The First Christian Century”.

The historical gap between the Minor Prophets of the Old Testament and the “burning of a bishop in the beautiful seaport of Smyrna, in Asia Minor” (ca. 155 AD) has been addressed by many authors both scholarly and popular, but rarely within the pages of a single, accessibly written book.

The reader is left with the impression of enormous complexity of worldviews, beliefs and hopes of first-century Judaism and the shining miracle of the evolution of the first-century Christian community of hope, within the context of internal challenges and controversies. Wright does not shy away from historical critique and engages seriously with gaps in the evidence. But neither does he withhold his personal forthright rejection of fanciful theories.

This book opens up new understandings of the context into which both Jesus and Paul were born. The book also assists in demonstrating the power of Jesus’ and the early church’s use of stories. For me, this book enhances my sense of God’s omnipotence overruling the incompetence of the people of God; it enhances my thankfulness for the way in which the simplicity of the Gospel, as projected by both Jesus and Paul, spoke to the confusion of the times; and it informs my Bible study and prayer life in surprising ways.

Because the scope of the scholarship is so vast, it is impossible for this brief review to do justice to the details. I simply recommend this book to your careful reading. You will find many parallels to the challenges we face in contemporary, multicultural Canada.

Dr. Olav Slaymaker, UBC Department of Geography

August, 2012.

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Posted in Faith & Culture

Posted by: gcarkner | August 11, 2012

Graduate & Faculty Network

GCU Links to Lots of Good Resources & Discussions

Veritas Forum http://www.veritas.org/ university lectures, debates, etc. (Christian base) See the exciting Kelly Monroe books Finding God at Harvard and Finding God After Harvard

Faraday Institute on Science & Religion: http://www.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/faraday/Multimedia.php Brilliant variety of lectures available for download; they also have summer one week courses.

Test of Faith Video Series (produced by Faraday)—order DVD from Wipf & Stock Publishers. Good resource for campus or church context.

Test of Faith Blog Site: http://www.testoffaith.com/events/us-tour.aspx

American Scientific Affiliation (ASA)—God and Nature: http://www.asa3.org/godandnature

Canadian Science & Christian Affiliation (CSCA) ( local contact: Dr. Arnold Sikkema TWU Physics) http://www.csca.ca/

Christians in Science (UK) http://www.cis.org.uk/ (affiliate of CSCA & ASA)

Biologos Dialogue on Science & Faith http://biologos.org/

Center for Christian Study, University of Virginia http://www.studycenter.net/

Kuyper Study Centre University of Western Ontario http://www.kuypercentre.ca

Cardus Centre/ Convivium Magazine http://www.cardus.ca/convivium/print_issues/3364/ (Public Policy)

IVCF USA Emerging Scholars Blog: http://blog.emergingscholars.org/

Regent Bookstore Audio http://www.regentaudio.com/ You can download free talks or buy some. Regent Bookstore is simply the best Christian bookstore in Canada and Bill Reimer its manager is very knowledgable and current. The store is set up in sections, so you will probably get to know your section well.

Regent College Library: with a UBC library card, you can take books out of Regent Library free, again one of the finest resources of its kind in Canada. Just talk to the librarian. There are also CD courses in the library which you can listen to for free. Imagine that!

Special Regent Lectures: Laing Lecture Series, various other free evening and daytime lectures, Tuesday Chapel Services (11:00 a.m.) http://www.regent-college.edu/

Visual Arts: ArtWay Meditations www.artway.eu Marleen Hengelaar” <marleen@artway.eu> to receive these periodic reflections on your email.

Christians in the Visual Arts: http://civa.org/ Local consultants are Laurel Gasque & Dal Schindel. Also see Rob Des Cotes at Fairview Baptist, Vancouver and his Imago Project.

Christian Drama: Pacific Theatre Vancovuer for regular shows http://pacifictheatre.org/

Outreach Canada Ministries http://en.outreach.ca/default.aspx

Canadian L’Abri http://www.labri.org/canada/index.html

A Rocha http://www.arocha.ca/

The Association of Christian Clubs at the University of British Columbia www.ubcacc.org/