Lots of ex-CITE-ment

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Cite Jesus conference for the third time (see posts about the previous Cite conferences). Cite is the annual national conference for Christians working in academia (the Simeon Network), whether as lecturers/professors, researchers or postgraduate students. Around 35 academics, researchers and postgraduate students met alongside the 1500 undergraduate students at the AFES National Training Event in Canberra. The Cite delegates came from universities in Sydney, Bathurst, Wollongong, Newcastle, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Canberra. Hopefully next year we'll have people from all the other states and territories, too.

The 5-day Cite conference was focused around 3 strands: Doctrine, Public Christianity and Overseas Mission. In the 'overseas mission' strand, we heard from a number of academics working (or preparing to work) as missionaries in universities around the world. In particular, we heard from three Australian academics - Dr Neville Carr and his wife Elspeth, and Dr Judy Lund - who have been working at St Johns University in Tanzania - a new Christian university, only 4 years old, which was set up by the Anglican church in Tanzania. The Carrs and Dr Lund helped us think through what a 'Christian' university might look like in practice and what our disciplines might look like through a gospel lens.

 They also impressed on us the great needs at the university, operating as it does in a developing country where material resources are scarce (think Internet cable, library books, classrooms, money for field trips), locals with PhDs are extremely rare, and the immediate material needs of the students often mean that attending classes (which is beneficial in the longer term) has to be sacrificed in order to work or harvest or care for family members in rural villages (which is absolutely necessary in the short term). But the need for higher education is great, particularly in teacher education, agriculture and other fields that will help provide for and improve the lives of the Tanzanian people in the longer term. The Carrs and Dr Lund estimate that it could be another 10 years before the university can achieve some stability in terms of staffing, resources and student attendance.

So what can be done? There are some Tanzanian students currently completing doctoral studies overseas with a view to returning to St Johns as academic staff, but this obviously takes time. So there is a great need for foreigners with PhDs to go to Tanzania to teach and help build up the curriculum (see e.g. Malcolm Buchanan and his family who went there with CMS last year). If you don't have a PhD, you could help out by purchasing a length of broadband cable (1m or 5m)! The Tanzanian government is apparently setting up a fibre optic internet backbone for universities around the country, which is great, but the university needs to purchase fibre optic cable to establish a network on campus which can link up to the backbone outside the campus boundaries. Maybe it would make a thoughtful gift for someone you know who is an internet addict!

Reason and Faith

During the Easter break I had the opportunity to read some thought-provoking online newspaper articles and their associated comments, on topics connected with religion. It's interesting that around Easter it becomes more acceptable for newspapers (including The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald, and some overseas papers) to allow Jesus to be discussed publicly. I'm thankful for the persistence of the folk at the Centre for Public Christianity (this time it was Simon Smart, John Dickson and Justine Toh getting a piece of the action) to make sure Jesus is not left out of public discussion, especially at these times.

If the truth be told, sometimes the comments are more thought provoking than the articles (not necessarily in this case). Two things particularly interested me about the comments, neither of them new phenomena. Firstly, I was appalled by the lack of respect for others shown by individuals on both sides of the divide. It must be the relative anonymity of the online comment platform that makes people feel they are free to treat others with such disdain. Would they do the same face to face?

Secondly, there is a very persistent argument from atheists that the natural consequence of education and intelligence is a break away from religion. As someone who has had the opportunity to receive many years of solid education and earn a doctoral degree, I find that a baffling claim. There are many intelligent, highly educated people who are also followers of Jesus. I meet with a group of them every week at one of the universities I work at, to read the Bible, pray, and participate in seminars about the intersection of faith and academic disciplines or academic work. There is a growing nationwide network of us who meet each year in Canberra for a national conference.

Education/reason and true faith are not mutually exclusive. The Christians I know have not been brainwashed but have spent considerable time and effort inquiring into Christianity, the evidence for the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and questions of the origins of life. Some have turned from atheism to Christianity after lengthy periods of enquiry. Some have grown up in Christian families but have still had to make their own decision to continue following Jesus, and for many this involved a lot of soul searching. I did not make the decision to follow Jesus lightly, and neither did the other Christians I know. Why would we blindly choose to follow such a costly faith?

Those of us in the academy (and those in other sectors) who are followers of Jesus need to take a bold stand for Christ, making ourselves known as rational, intelligent people who put our faith in Jesus. We must be prepared to explain our reasons for the hope that we have, in order to dispel the myth that belief in God is a result of brainwashing and ignorance.

Cite 2009

I've just returned from the inaugural Cite Conference in Canberra. Around 40 academics and postgrads from all around Australia gathered (alongside around 1300 undergrads who were there for AFES's National Training Event).
It was such a full week - full of useful, encouraging sessions, full of new and interesting people to meet, full of things to think about for the future.
Along with the undergrads, we heard Bible talks from John Dickson and Andrew Reid on the Kingdom of God and his appointed King, Jesus Christ. We also joined the NTE-ers for meals en masse in the enormous Budawang Pavilion.
Our own sessions included sincere, convicting talks from Daryl McCarthy from the International Institute for Christian Studies (www.iics.com), brainstorming and planning sessions for The Simeon Network (www.simeonnetwork.org), and Research/Gospel/Public Interest sessions with Malcolm Williams and a host of guest speakers with media experience to help us think about how we can use media opportunities to get a Christian worldview on our research area out into the media space. This blog is my first practical step following on from that.