What Will it Measure? That’s the Question!

Last updated on: October 9, 2013 at 7:40 am By Scot McKnight

Alan Kantrow at HBR, on new administrative decisions about education: What do you think the administration should concentrate on in its educational assessments? The world over, the performance of colleges is under fire. It’s about time that happened, but there should also be serious concerns about the new report cards that are being fashioned for tertiary educational institutions. The Obama Administration in the U.S., for instance, plans to create a new performance-based rating system with teeth. In future, it says,... Read more

Weekly Meanderings, 12 October 2013

Last updated on: October 12, 2013 at 6:47 am By Scot McKnight

Sleep more, live longer, be healthier, be more creative from BBC: “It has been known for some time that the amount of sleep people get has, on average, declined over the years. This has happened for a whole range of reasons, not least because we live in a culture where people are encouraged to think of sleep as a luxury – something you can easily cut back on. After all, that’s what caffeine is for – to jolt you back... Read more

Kairos, Kairos

Last updated on: October 10, 2013 at 9:19 pm By Scot McKnight

Last week I was in Nashville for a special event for me: Kairos at Brentwood Baptist Church in Brentwood (Nashville), undoubtedly one of my favorite places to speak — and more than that, one of the fine ministries to 20/30somethings in the USA. I’m a huge fan of Mike Glenn, and this time I got to meet a number of the ministry team and staff. Mike Glenn has empowered young adults into ministry, and wrote about it in his book In... Read more

Conflictual, Always

Last updated on: October 6, 2013 at 7:09 am By Scot McKnight

Elizabeth Corey, prof at Baylor, says motherhood and a professional life will always be conflictual because they are two modes of being. What does she ignore in her essay? What is your wisdom? At least once a semester, a young female student will come to my office with questions about an assignment, and after we have finished our official business, will mention her concerns about the future: whether she should apply to medical school or take the less demanding physician’s... Read more

Jesus at the Margins: Shame (by John Frye)

Last updated on: October 9, 2013 at 5:37 pm By Scot McKnight

This post is by John Frye. Jesus at the Margins: 2- Shame Pastors fix their eyes on Jesus the Good Shepherd. Jesus made being marginal central. He did it primarily by his meal-time practices. In Jesus’ day the Jewish culture operated on the power of shame. We in the West know little about the dehumanizing effects of an extreme shame-based culture. In 1st century Judaism social relationships were arranged hierarchically with those closest to God: the High Priest, then priests,... Read more

Productivity Habits

Last updated on: October 11, 2013 at 6:22 am By Scot McKnight

This is an extract from an extract of a book about the habits of productive writers. What are your best creative habits? Here’s the first paragraph of the extract by Oliver Burkeman and then the six habits he found in reading Mason Currey’s Daily Rituals: One morning this summer, I got up at first light – I’d left the blinds open the night before – then drank a strong cup of coffee, sat near-naked by an open window for an hour, worked all... Read more

10 Old English Words for Your New Vocabulary

Last updated on: October 4, 2013 at 7:15 pm By Scot McKnight

I like these two. Which is your favorite? 5. GRUBBLING “It’s time to check whether you’ve got your keys and your phone and your purse or wallet. This is done by grubbling in your pockets. Grubbling is like groping, except less organised. It is a verb that usually refers to pockets, but can also be used for feeling around in desk drawers that are filled with nicknacks and whatnot.” 6. MUGWUMP “Mugwump is a derogatory word for somebody in charge who affects to be above petty... Read more

Bias or Just Natural? (RJS)

Last updated on: October 10, 2013 at 6:04 am By RJS

Whenever issues of bias or stereotype have been raised on this blog someone, usually a different person each time, has been quick to jump in with the claim that we shouldn’t be aiming for equality in that way. Often others rapidly agree. People have different abilities and desires. And some of these may be tied to gender. (I suspect that some want to say they may be tied to race as well – but don’t dare.) Of course desires and... Read more

Rome as Empire and Emperor Worship

Last updated on: October 10, 2013 at 5:34 am By Scot McKnight

I have been reading theological books for forty plus years. In that time only one truly great piece of writing stands out as a book deserving reading for the poetry of its prose, and that was Albert Schweitzer’s Quest of the Historical Jesus, a book with a story so good and a conclusion so wrong. Yet, no book stands next to it when it comes to prose. Until N.T. Wright’s Paul and the Faithfulness of God, a book zippered up... Read more

No Wonder Kierkegaard was an Existentialist

Last updated on: October 10, 2013 at 10:11 pm By Scot McKnight

Here’s how Kierkegaard, that splendidly odd Danish philosopher, took his coffee: Delightedly he seized hold of the bag containing the sugar and poured sugar into the coffee cup until it was piled up above the rim. Next came the incredibly strong, black coffee, which slowly dissolved the white pyramid. The process was scarcely finished before the syrupy stimulant disappeared into the magister’s stomach… From Mason Currey, Daily Rituals, 20. Read more

What did God write the Ten Commandments with?