Lecture Series To Showcase Faculty Scholarship
The John Wesley Honors College of Indiana Wesleyan University has scheduled the fifth annual Principium Faculty Lecture Series for the 2009-10 academic year. "This lecture series is an opportunity for faculty to present their research and solicit feedback from an audience of peers and students," says Todd Ream, associate director of the Honors College and assistant professor of humanities. "Such a venue is intended to provide faculty members with an opportunity to present their research in its initial phase—and then leading to national or international dissemination through publication. In essence, the Principium Faculty Lecture Series seeks to provide faculty members with the support and encouragement necessary to open new lines of research." Interpretations, theories, wisdom and dreams On September 22, 2009, Dr. Steven J. Lennox, professor of religion in the College of Arts and Sciences, will present "Experience Outweighs Theory: Biblical Interpretation in the Late Nineteenth Century American Holiness Movement." Dr. Willem Van De Merwe, professor of physics in the College of Arts and Sciences, will present "Current and Future Scientific Theories: Challenges for a Judeo-Christian Worldview?" on September 29, 2009. On February 2, 2010, Dr. Vern Ludden, chair and professor of the Division of Graduate Studies in Leadership School of Business and Leadership in the College of Adult and Professional Studies, will present "Wisdom and Leadership." Ron Mazellan, professor of art in the College of Arts and Sciences, will present "Dream Once, Dream Again" on Feb. 9, 2010. Mazellan is a commercial illustrator who has illustrated advertisements, brochures and books. Each lecture is free to attend, open to the public and includes a question and answer period with the speaker. IWU blessed with gifted scholars"Because of the importance of undergraduate research to the Honors College curriculum, it has been essential for us to connect Honors College students with IWU faculty in their disciplines who are actively engaged in research," says Dr. David Riggs, director of the John Wesley Honors College and associate professor of history. Riggs founded the Principium Faculty Lecture Series in 2004. "We established the faculty lecture series as a recurring venue in which to showcase some of the research and scholarship being pursued among the IWU faculty," Riggs explains. "God has blessed our university with a wealth of gifted and passionate Christian scholars in numerous fields and disciplines. The lecture series was created as an opportunity for our campus community to become better acquainted with the fruits of these labors. The hope is that the faculty lecture series will serve as a catalyst both for increasing the number of faculty involved in research and scholarship and for facilitating interdisciplinary conversations and research endeavors among our faculty." Professors Todd Syswerda, Marc Wooldridge, Keith Drury, Burton Webb and Kurt Edwards were presenters at last year’s lecture series. 2009-10 Principium Faculty Lecture Series"Experience Outweighs Theory: Biblical Interpretation in the Late Nineteenth Century American Holiness Movement" Increased scholarly attention to theological interpretation of the Bible comes with the opportunity to explore traditions that have employed this interpretive approach, such as the late 19th century American holiness movement. Quite against the grain of evangelical Christian culture, this movement made very wide use of more-than-literal interpretation, largely due to the spiritual experience they called entire sanctification. This study is significant for the insights it provides into modern examples of theological interpretation, particularly the role of experience in shaping interpretation. As well, an understanding of the holiness movement allows us to better understand its theological cousin, Pentecostalism, which represents the growth edge of Christianity worldwide. "Current and Future Scientific Theories: Challenges for a Judeo-Christian Worldview?" New scientific theories, discoveries and their applications have proliferated at an unprecedented rate especially during the last 150 years. This continues to greatly affect how we "see" and "understand" the physical and biological universe, including the "phenomenon of man" and "self-awareness." There is a great lack of historical and philosophical understanding among scientists, and among those in the humanities, of scientific knowledge. Often interpretations of new scientific "insights" are offered by those without much expertise in either science or philosophy, leaving the general public little opportunity to establish or verify the validity and/or limitations of the interpretations of the theories. It is clear that some of these new and yet to appear scientific developments could pose potentially serious challenges to a traditional Judeo-Christian worldview, especially if one does not understand the presuppositions of the theories and their explanations. I will argue that many well-meaning individuals, in their efforts to merge "Christianity" with modern science, are promoting an incoherent narrow worldview with a potentially devastating impact on personal faith as well as on a society that previously was built on Christian principles. "Wisdom and Leadership" Socrates said, "At any rate it seems that I am wiser than he is to this small extent that I do not think that I know what I do not know." (Plato: Apology). Thus, Socrates posits that the beginning of wisdom is knowing what we do not know. Wisdom is a concept that has fascinated great thinkers from ancient philosophers such as Plato to modern psychologists such as Robert Sternberg. Today, scholars are still interested in wisdom but the focus for leaders has been more on intelligence (Sternberg), multiple intelligences (Gardner), and emotional intelligence (Goleman). Sternberg, Kunzman, Baltes and a growing number of scholars in psychology, organization theory and management have been among the social scientists interested in pursuing a research agenda that considers the meaning and manifestations of wisdom. The emphasis in business and public administration on statistical modeling and financial analysis has proven to be lacking as the basis for effective leadership. Ethical, economic and social stresses on government, business and nonprofit sectors suggest that not only intelligence but wisdom is needed for leaders to guide their organization through treacherous circumstances. This lecture will explore wisdom and how it can support leadership using a model based on both classical thought and modern social science research. It will also consider how wisdom can be examined from a Christian perspective to bridge the gap between modernism and postmodernism. The model presented in this lecture examines how wisdom is manifest through intelligence, knowledge, authenticity, experience and interaction with wise people, creativity, intuition, spirituality and critical thinking. This lecture will be based on a chapter being written for a book on organizational leadership now being written by the faculty of Graduate Studies in Leadership. We are beginning a conversation with Steven Piersanti a publisher at Berrett-Koehler regarding the development of this book. "Dream Once, Dream Again" A dream is defined as something hoped for, a possibility, however unlikely. Despite improbability, thousands of aspiring young men cling to the hope of making it to an NFL training camp while an adolescent. Yet, statistics hardly detour focused individuals who yearn for the orchestrated drama that takes place on brisk fall afternoons. Even young adults from coveted collegiate programs are rarely drafted, and fewer still will make it through their first arduous summer with an NFL team. |
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