Check it Out: Kennedy on Science and the Church

Please check out this link to Point Loma’s Professor Rick Kennedy’s (Former CFH President) latest work.  It’s of particular interest to folks interested in science, Darwinism, and how that intersects with faith.  The historian/philosopher’s take is engaging if also re-orienting.  

As historians, this is an important read.  It shows that not only do we not have to check our faith at the door of secular universities, but also that it is a worthwhile (perhaps even necessary) conversation.

http://biologos.org/blog/jesus-history-and-mount-darwin-an-academic-excursion-part-1

 

CFH Latin America Initiative

The following is an event recap by former CFH President Rick Kennedy on the Latin America Initiative of the CFH.

Hola!  Graduate student member of the “Asociacion Conference on Faith and History (organism afiliado a la American Historical Association)” should know that they were well represented in  Mexico City where CFH has begun to develop partnerships supporting Global Christian Scholarship.  Remember this was NOT a conference simply for Latin Americanists.  The Latin America Initiative of the CFH is designed to support the communication and shared purpose of scholar-historian-Christians from many disciplines and research interests who work in all the Americas.  At the end of the conference, at a meeting in a five hundred year old building where the Spanish Inquisition used to meet, the Spanish-speaking participants from all over Latin America gave hearty applause to the CFH in appreciation for our goal of All-American shared purpose.

I counted four of our US graduate student members giving papers along with maybe six or so other US graduate students in attendance.  The four giving papers were Joe Super (University of West Virginia), Erika Heigen (Yale University), Devin Manzullo-Thomas (Temple University) and Jonathan Mikes (School of Intercultural Studies, Fuller Theological Seminary).  A large number of graduate students from the University of Mexico attended too.  We hope all these scholars become the foundation for the future of CFH’s Latin American Initiative in Global Christian Scholarship.

Here is a copy of the program: 
http://www.ftl-al.org/images/stories/Programa_FINAL_FINAL_Coloquio_Protestantismo_octubre_20111.pdf

Of the professors from the US who attended, several of us were woefully lacking in Spanish.  For any all-America partnerships in CFH to work, the language issue will be a problem while also being maybe the best kind of problem.  Unlike many other Global Christian programs where English is the default language known to most, a North-South American collaboration will find that the Spanish speakers and the English speakers are on an equal footing.  Most Spanish Scholars do not speak English.  Most US scholars do not speak Spanish.   There is an amazing array of  Spanish-language Christian scholarship that we in the US need to know.  It was evident at the conference in Mexico City that Spanish Speaking historians want to know better what we are doing.  We are entering a true partnership!  Neither Northerners or Southerners will dominate.  As Christians we fellowship.  Language has long been the great issue hindering a truly global Christianity.  With the Latin America Initiative we embrace the issue!

By the way:  Mexico City was wonderful!  The historic center is amazing.  The museums are everywhere and fascinating.  The Mexicans everywhere we went treated us very well.

Rick Kennedy

Professor of History

Point Loma Nazarene University

Featured Book Series: *History and the Christian Historian* Ed. Ronald Wells (1998)

After featuring the recent *Confessing History* on this blog, former CFH President Rick Kennedy (Point Loma) advised that we also feature an earlier, yet similar confessional history book.

*History and the Christian Historian* Edited by Ronald Wells

Kennedy explained, “The earlier book is rooted in our 1996 meeting at Calvin College and includes essays by an earlier generation than the essays in ‘Confessing History.’  The two together manifest great wisdom and the role of CFH at the center of thinking about historiographical issues that intersect Christian faith.”

Graduate student scholars of the CFH, particularly those concerned with the issues of integrating faith and vocation, can benefit greatly from both of these books.

Q&A with the Pres.

CFH President Rick Kennedy reflects on his graduate school experience…
How did you choose your area of specialty (i.e. US History, Puritan history, etc.)?

I stayed at UC Santa Barbara from undergrad through Ph.D. and found my specialty in plankton-esque fashion as I floated through the department.  I enjoyed everything and settled in with a professor, Harold Kirker, who believed whole-heartedly in the good life of a liberal arts scholar.  I had had his classes as an undergrad.  He told me that graduate school was between me and the library.  He would take me for lunches, long walks, and recommend books to me  such as Portrait of a Lady.  He was very concerned that I know the names of all the kinds of birds on campus.  I picked a vague specialty because he was not interested in me having a specialty.  In the end it was the perfect education for someone who would become a teacher  at a dinky Christian college.

How did grad school challenge and/or strengthen your faith?

At UC Santa Barbara there was a dynamic medievalists named Jeffrey Burton Russell.  He was writing a five volume history of the concept of the Devil when I first started studying with him.   He was the center of a Faculty and Graduate Student group called “Faith and the Intellectual Life.”  We met once a week for years.  It was great!  Catholics, Prots, liberals, conservatives, scientists and humanities-types.  Ten or fifteen of us every week.  It was ad hoc.  We just reserved a room and did it.  I went to church every Sunday, helped out with youth groups, and attended “Faith and the Intellectual life.”    My faith was stronger after grad school.

What was the most enjoyable part of grad school?

The most enjoyable part of grad school for me was the hanging out.  So many interesting people doing interesting work.  When we were teaching assistants and had offices a bunch of us were sort of department rats, hanging around in the late afternoons thinking the big thoughts.

What was the most challenging?

The most challenging matters for me were learning languages and getting documents.

What did your scholarly “community” look like? How did you make use of other scholars around you and how did such collegial relationships enhance your own work?

What I learned best from my colleagues in grad school was during our work as teaching assistants.  The jobs I later got threw me into various teaching situations.   For good and ill, I had learned to handle such situations from three years as a teaching assistant.

What strategies helped you most in writing your thesis/dissertation?

My strategy for finishing my dissertation was No  Procrastinating! and lowered expectations.   Every day had to see some progress.  As for publication, I would think about that later; right now the job was to do as best as I could given the constraints of my life.