The King’s Green Pad

The King's University College

There are a few books on the market involving the theme of Christian Scholarship.  One is The Outrageous idea of Christian Scholarship by George Marsden. The editor of the website Leadership University refers to this volume when he states,

“One peculiarity about American evangelical Christianity is that few Christians challenge the American cultural convention that religious belief should have nothing to do with other things one thinks about in higher education. Christians believe in a God who is great enough to create this unfathomably vast universe yet personal enough to care for each of us. One would think such beliefs would have immense implications in many areas of thought, scholarship, and teaching. Yet many Christians in academia blithely accept the idea that when they do hard thinking about the rest of reality, they should think as though God did not exist.” 

I believe this quote begins to address the need for Christian scholars of many disciplines to “think Christianly” about creation care and sustainability.

A book closer to the heart of folks at The King’s University College is Wolterstorff’s Educating for Shalom.  This Reformed author provides three points about Christian scholarship that are significant for studies on Christian sustainability and stewardship, and which supply foundational reasons for launching The King’s Green Pad. The first is that Christian scholarship must go beyond merely adding “faith talk” to the already existing knowledge in disciplines.  Instead, it must challenge conceptualizations, theories, models & methodologies within a discipline.  For instance, Christian scholarship must address issues such as Dan’s post “Is Christian scholarship accountable to the poor?“  I’m hoping for a future theme by Dan or another scholar – “Is Christian scholarship accountable to the creation?”  The second point in Wolterstorff’s thought is that scholarship is a social practice that must occur in community.  This is why it is critical for “The Pad” to be a collaborative interdisciplinary, intergenerational and interdenominational blog.  Finally,  Wolterstorff believes Christian scholarship must have the courage to question and challenge some of its cherished articulations of  worldview.  This may be the most critical point for the Creation Care movement, as presently there are countless Christians who do not believe we have a Biblical responsibility to steward the creation.

I personally hope this collaborative endeavor will significantly contribute to Christian scholarship in the numerous fields associated with Creation care, – and particularly in regard to social, economic and environmental sustainability – by going far beyond simply adding faith talk to environmentalism, by providing a community format for the social practice of scholarship and by challenging the status quo.

THE PAD LAUNCHES IN TWO DAYS!

This post was written by Michael Ferber, Assistant Professor of Geography and Director of Environmental Studies at The King’s University College in Edmonton, AB.