The "Eights"
The "Eights"
On Thursday, I got to teach one of my favorite class sessions of every fall semester, discussing with my First-Year Seminar students George Saunders' Fox 8, Psalm 8, and Romans 8.
It's not spoiling anything to say that this short book is in the form of a letter from a fox. As an in-class exercise, my students have to write letters back, drawing explicitly on Psalm 8 and Romans 8.
You do not need to be in class to pick up on the connections between these three, so grab a copy of Fox 8 and give these a read.
Quote
Jacques Ellul in "Christian Faith and Social Reality"
Links
- More faculty and staff should understand the finances at their institutions
- On the intersection between the pandemic and financial challenges in higher education.
- Colleges work on adapting to climate change-driven extreme weather and other challenges
- The relationship between racist housing policies and climate vulnerability in U.S. cities
- Systemic racism at the heart of Chicago's nine-year life-expectancy gap between Black and White residents
- Two pieces on the myth of "urban flight" and why it's playing like a broken record right now: One about Portland, in particular, and the other a podcast uncovering the origins of the myth
You keep using that word
Freakonomics on "Does anyone really know what socialism is?"
Join the discussion
On Wednesday, I kicked of a five-part series on The Gardeners’ Dirty Hands: Environmental Politics & Christian Ethics, and we had a great discussion of Chapter 1. On Wednesday, September 30, we'll discuss Chapter 2, which examines scarcity, tragedy, and risk as symbols of the tragic in modern environmental thought.
These will be 30-minute sessions, and we’ll go through the book one chapter at a time with a few brief overview comments from me and then Q&A/discussion.
Want to join? Pick up a copy of the book, read a chapter every two weeks, and join the discussion.
Pass this along to anyone else who may be interested.
Recommendations
Anyone can attend this year's virtual ceremony honoring the 2020 Templeton Prize Laureate, Dr. Francis Collins. Get more information and register here.
In the meantime, check out this video on Dr. Collins' work.