Graduate students Archives

A Grander Story, Rick Hove and Heather Holleman. Orlando: Cru Press, 2017.

Summary: An invitation to professors and graduate students who are Christians to live for the grand vision of God’s story in their life in higher education, including narratives of six professors, and practical recommendations.

Very simply, this book nails it in casting a vision for Christians called to academia. The writers, associated with a sister ministry to the one I work with set out a vision of lives nobly lived as part of God’s great story. I found myself saying “Amen” on almost every page and thinking of groups of grad students and faculty who would be helped by reading and discussing this book.

The opening four chapters of the book articulate the grander story, the story of God’s redemptive purposes in the world and the grand person of Christ at the heart of the story. Then they turn to discuss the grander being and grander doing that faculty captivated by this vision might experience. It begins with being a different kind of person under a new leader. It extends into all that faculty do in teaching, research, relationships, and service. They invite faculty to consider the metanarratives of their disciplines and the distinctive contributions Christian thought might make in the research questions they explore. This life is also marked by the different ways they engage disagreements and how they serve others.

The second part of the book consists of six narratives by faculty working in different fields: Ken Elzinga in economics, Susan Siaw in psychology, Walter Bradley in mechanical engineering, Phil Bishop in exercise physiology, John Walkup in electrical engineering, and Heather Holleman in English. Their accounts describe their academic work, their relationships with students and how they have had opportunities to witness to Christ with students and peers, opportunities in missions, and participation in faculty groups on their campuses. Heather Holleman’s account was especially striking to me in its narrative of how she intentionally arrives early and prays for each of the students who will be in the seats of her classroom.

The final two chapters summarize these accounts in “best practices” and a concluding chapter that articulates the authors longings for higher education and Christian presence in this arena. The book also includes two appendices dealing with legal questions. Many professors are obeying laws that don’t exist and not availing themselves of the freedoms they have. At the same time, there are appropriate cautions of being aware of policies about use of university emails and facilities.

The book is designed to be read and discussed by graduate students and faculty. Short chapters with many personal examples that readers can identify with are very helpful. Each chapter ends with several discussion questions that could be discussed in a 45 minute luncheon meeting. I also think the book does a great job in casting a vision and offering hope for what can happen in colleges and universities for those in the church who might despair about the “godless university.” Anyone who reads this has to conclude that our colleges and universities and the people who work in them are part of the grander story God is writing.

It’s a hidden reality that is a grief some of my friends carry, and something some of my colleagues and I have been talking about this week. It is the challenge many of our friends who are believing graduate students and faculty face. It is that they are understood neither by their departments in the university nor the people in their churches. Universities often don’t get or actively challenge the “believing” part. And the church often doesn’t know what to do with the “faculty” or “graduate student” part.

The university’s response can be somewhat puzzling given the emphases on “tolerance” and “open inquiry” and “pursuit of truth”. Sadly, there is often an intolerant edge to tolerance, an a priori decision to rule out certain beliefs from discussion, and a reluctance to admit the possibility that if some things are true, others may not be.

While I could do a blog just on this (and may at some point) I want to focus on faculty in the church. Often the sense faculty get in the church is that the university is “the enemy”, and therefore they are a bit suspect. Sometimes the rigorous process of questioning that goes on in every academic discipline arouses suspicion that secretly they are at work undermining the faith of students. Sometimes faculty are thought of as simply these really smart people who do things that are incomprehensible to the average parishioner. Then there are the times that faculty hear discussions of science or technology drawn more from talk radio programs than serious research that they know are based on erroneous notions. This is most difficult when they hear these things from the pulpit.

On this matter of questioning, questioning is at the heart of academic work. The posing of questions is seen not as a means to undermine belief but to pursue greater understanding. On the incomprehensibility of academic work, there is an element of truth in that as you read some academic papers. The truth is that none of us has the technical knowledge to understand everything in the research world. But I’ve been amazed that many of these people are the kind of good teachers who can take complex things and explain them on a level where I can get at least a basic idea of their work if I’m willing to devote the attention. And how interesting it could be if pastors and others consulted with faculty who have expertise in certain areas when those areas arise in sermons, classes, or board discussions.

One of the things to be considered is that believing faculty and graduate students are part of the body of Christ. When the faculty and grad student part of the body is hurting, it affects the rest of the body. And when the gifts of the faculty part of the body are welcomed and received, including the gifts related to their academic calling, the rest of the body is immeasurably enriched.

Perhaps one of the greatest challenges is growing in our understanding of what it means to say “all truth is God’s truth”. The difficulty is that we don’t always see how truths in the Bible and truths uncovered in research connect. It seems that part of the problem is how uncomfortable it is when the connections aren’t apparent. Our faculty and grad students can help because many often spend years or entire careers seeking to resolve research questions. In the church, we often seem uncomfortable if we can’t resolve a question in 45 minutes. Yet not all of life’s and the world’s big questions are that easily resolvable.

By the same token, when researchers see something that doesn’t immediately square with their understanding of the Bible, that doesn’t mean the Bible is messed up or wrong. I would propose that we say, “that’s an interesting question, but let’s not jump to conclusions but work on our understanding of how these things connect”

I’d love to hear your experiences of the intersection of church and academia. What’s been hard? And what’s been good?