Author: Jonathan Dodson

I knew very little about the setting or schedule of the retreat going into it–three talks and a sermon to Yale grad students and New Haven young professionals–that’s about it. When we arrived in the Berkshire mountains of Massachusetts I was pleasantly suprised. What a wonderful setting for discussing creation, culture an our role in God’s creation project!

The talks were well-attended in the basement of the large holiday house nestled in the woods. Forty plus crammed into the basement sitting on blow-up mattresses, chairs, whatever they could find in order to consider the biblical-theological basis and a practical paradigm for participating in culture to promote human flourishing and the glory of God!

Using the heuristic of a web browser, I proposed that we all too often use different browsers to surf the Worldwide web of culture and ideas. For movies and music we use secularism, for work and commerce we use consumerism, for church and bible studies we use christianity. Our worldview and approach to culture is seriously flawed and fragmented. Therefore, my aim during the talks was to promote repentance of using multiple fallen browsers and faith in the Creation-Fall-Redemption-New Creation browser our triune God has provided. To that end, the talks were: 1) Creation and the Goodness of Culture 2) Fall and the Brokenness Culture/Work 3) Redemptively Engaging Culture: Colossians as a Test Case 4) New Creation and Culture: How Will We Glorify God Forever?

Running on about four hours sleep, I gave my first talk and stayed up discussing it and other things with a table of students until 1AM. Saturday morning things went really well. The break out groups were so good I took notes on their discussions! Saturday evening was difficult. We were all tired, but God gave me strength to get through it, presently the material fairly clearly.

Sunday was awesome. Tolivar Wills led the worship service and I preached from Revelation 21.22-27. We took communion in the basement and sensed God’s presence in Christ. This was followed by lunch and a spectacular cleaning job of the entire house (talks applied!).

Thanks for your prayers and support. I especially felt God’s presence during the sermon.

I will be giving three talks and a sermon for Christ Presbyterian Church Graduate Fellowship this weekend in New Haven, CT on “Redemptively Engaging Culture: A Biblical Basis and Practical Paradigm.“

I am very excited about this opportunity. As you may know, we spent the last week and a half moving from Boston to Austin (we are thrilled to be here!). As a result, I am still working on my talks and would appreciate your prayers for my preparation and delivery.

Redemptively engaging peoples and cultures thru Christ…

In a recent NY Times article, Stanley Fish called for the academcizing of education. According to Fish, to academicize is to “look into a history of a topic, studying and mastering the technical language that comes along with it, examining the controversies that have grown up around it and surveying the most significant contributions to its development.”

Using these academic terms, Fish argues that moral and political conclusions should be banned from pedagogy: “The list of academic terms would, however, not include coming to a resolution about a political or moral issue raised by the materials under discussion. This does not mean that political and moral questions are banned from the classroom, but that they should be regarded as objects of study – Where did they come from? How have they been answered at different times in different cultures? – rather than as invitations to take a vote (that’s what you do at the ballot box) or make a life decision (that’s what you do in the private recesses of your heart). No subject is out of bounds; what is out of bounds is using it as an occasion to move students in some political or ideological direction.”

But what of social and educational contexts that are morally charged, like genocidal geography in Africa, Eastern Europe and so forth? Fish writes: “There is nothing virtuous or holy about teaching; it’s just a job, and like any job it aims at particular results, not at all results. If the results teaching is able to produce when it is done well – improving student knowledge and analytical abilities – are not what you’re after, then teaching is the wrong profession for you. But if teaching is the profession you commit to, then you should do it and not use it to do something else.”

Is this avoiding indoctrination or neutering knowledge? Is the postmodern turn in education a liberation or incarceration of knowledge? Is teaching simply the process of refining a students knowledge base and anaylitical skills or does knowledge inherently possess an ethical imperative, a moral obligation, to not only faithfully inform, but to personally reform?

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Jonathan, Robie, Owen and Ellie (in Feb) Dodson
2239 Cromwell Cr #1302
Austin, TX 78741

We will miss our New England friends.