One of my teachers at school used to joke about slow students. “You’re going to be here with a white beard one day” he’d say. I don’t quite have a white beard yet but I am certainly not done in the classroom. Learning, once you catch the bug, is pretty hard to stop doing. We are all life-longer learners. In fact, the longer we think of ourselves as learners, the better. I’d rather be still asking difficult questions when I finally get a white beard than think I know it all already. If you want to keep learning here are some tips: Read something you don’t understand. This sounds nuts,…
-
-
A Christian View of Scholarship
How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding is to be chosen above silver (Proverbs 16:16) Most attempts to reconcile faith and scholarship are in terms of personal faith and the task of scholarship: how do I, as a Christian and a scholar, integrate what my faith with my academic task? While this is a worthy question, there is a more fundamental question that should precede it. To see this consider what we mean by “faith.” There are at least two ways of taking the term. [1] In a subjective sense faith means the believer’s trust in God and his word. However, Jude uses the…
-
Faith and Study
Just how do faith and academic studies relate? More particularly, how should students relate their beliefs to their studies? Before we examine the relationship between faith and study we should figure out what we mean by faith and study. Faith, simply put, is as a set of beliefs. A Christian believes, for example, that Jesus Christ is God. She does this not because she can see God in Christ through her eyes or logically deduce that the man Jesus is necessarily God, but by believing Christ’s and the apostles claims. She might also say that God, the Holy Spirit affirms the truth of scripture to her. Faith, then, in basic terms, is a set of basic…
-
For Those About to Study
It is very nearly time to return to school. For those who are about to hit the books again I have three helpful thoughts. Well, they helped me: “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31) Education systems are usually based on achieving some kind of honor. You are honored for your work, praised for success and spurred on by merit. This might be a motivating factor for academic achievement, but for those who love God it is the honor of God that takes primary place. As Paul implies, even a Math quiz can be done for the glory…