Education as Soulcraft: This is a topic that I have been researching as of late. Studies in Christian Ethics published an issue on this topic a few years back. I have been reading through the various articles. It is so interesting. The basic idea is that for Christians especially, education is not only about intellectual development—and it definitely should be focused on this—but also the moral and spiritual formation of the student. This is easy to pay lip-service to, but a curriculum that only requires students to regurgitate information is not focused on soulcraft. On one hand, this is not a revolutionary idea, but the language and recent insights are helpful. The articles have proven to be really interesting, insightful, and unexpected. I plan on listening to “Cultivating the Christian Mind: Education as Soulcraft” (42 minutes) by Albert Mohler in the next couple of days while taking notes.
The Life of the Mind: One reason—a beautiful one in my view—for being a Christian is that the Christianity does not require one to choose between faith in God and the life of the mind. If it did, I probably would have fallen away. As God’s creatures, we are designed to learn, think, reflect, and bring these natural, God-given abilities into our faith. We love the Lord our God with all of our “heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37).
J. Machen in Christianity and Liberalism: Several people around me have read the book just named and I have not. It was written in the early 1900s and I am now about 40% of the way through (Kindle). It has been a wonderful read. It is amazes me that 100 years after its publication (1923), it in some ways feels as though it was written yesterday. Here is one quote that I read today: “Christianity is founded upon the Bible. It based upon the Bible both its thinking and its life. Liberalism on the other hand is founded upon the shifting emotions of sinful men.”
La Croix: I love drinking La Croix sparkling waters, but the following are funny!
BJ Condrey, Ph.D. 