David S. Cunningham

This book is the first of three projected volumes to be published with the support of the Scholarly Resources Project of the Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE) with the goal of deepening and broadening current scholarly engagement with the themes of calling and vocation. It proposes various pedagogies of vocation that can help undergraduate students reflect on larger questions of meaning and purpose, and demonstrates how academic institutions can more actively engage students by encouraging vocational reflection and discernment.

Vocation and Higher Education

At This Time and In This Place

Seeking to deepen current scholarly engagement with vocational exploration in both theory and practice, At This Time and In This Place champions the themes of calling and vocation as key elements of effective undergraduate education. Growing out of a year-long seminar sponsored by the Council of Independent Colleges and its Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE), this book brings together a nationwide group of scholars from a variety of disciplines in order to produce new scholarly writing on this topic. It offers a historical and theoretical account of vocational reflection and discernment and also suggests how these endeavors can be carried out through specific educational practices. Attending both to the current state of higher education and to broader cultural trends, the contributors examine the contours of vocation from historical, theological, and philosophical perspectives. They consider the relationship between vocation and virtue, both of which encourage the cultivation of habits that lead to a life marked by flourishing and fulfillment-for oneself and for others. The authors also discuss how to engage students in actively reflecting on questions of meaning and purpose through classroom conversations, co-curricular activities, programs for community engagement, and attention to a campus's physical features. At This Time and In This Place offers a compelling argument for vocational reflection and discernment in undergraduate education and represents a significant contribution to the emerging scholarly literature in this field.

Geoffrey Wainwright

Ralph Del Colle

Lucas Lamadrid

This is a collection of 20 essays written in honour of the noted theologian and ecumenist Geoffrey Wainwright. The editors have assembled an international roster of contributors and have organized the volume around three major themes in Wainwright's work: worship, liturgy, and mission.

Essays Presented to Geoffrey Wainwright on His Sixtieth Birthday

Ecumenical Theology in Worship, Doctrine, and Life

Over the past twenty years, scholars in a wide variety of academic disciplines have been giving increasing attention to rhetoric - the study of persuasive argument. In Faithful Persuasion David S. Cunningham offers the contemporary era's first sustained account of the relationship between rhetoric and Christian theology. Cunningham argues that Christian thinkers should abandon their attempts to codify argumentation within the canons of formal logic and suggests that they should instead come to a more organic understanding of the process of persuasion. This rhetorical approach to theology can cast new light on longstanding theological controversies and establish a new agenda for the study of the methods, sources, and norms of Christian theology. Drawing chiefly upon the rhetorical insights of Aristotle, and on the reappropriation of Aristotle's views by numerous modern rhetoricians - ranging from John Henry Newman to Kenneth Burke and Chaim Perelman - Cunningham establishes a firm foundation from which to support his central assertion that "Christian theology can best be understood as a form of persuasive argument." In addition, he explores the implications of a rhetorical method for studies in doctrinal formulation, biblical exegesis, and church history. Written for theologians, clergy members, and laypeople with a strong interest in theology, this book will introduce readers to the richness of the rhetorical tradition and its important implications for the discipline of Christian theology.

In Aid of a Rhetoric of Christian Theology

Faithful Persuasion

Many colleges and universities have begun using the language of vocation and calling to help undergraduates think about the future direction of their lives. This language is used in both secular and religious contexts, but it has deep roots in the Christian theological tradition. Given the increasingly multi-faith context of undergraduate life, many have asked whether this terminology can truly serve as a new vocabulary for higher education. If vocation is to find a foothold in the contemporary context, it will need to be re-examined, re-thought, and re-written; in short, higher education will need to undertake the project of hearing vocation differently. In this third volume on vocation from editor David S. Cunningham, the thirteen contributing scholars identify with a wide variety of religious traditions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Sikhism. Some contributors identify with more than one of these; others would claim none of them. The authors met on multiple occasions to read common texts, to discuss agreements and differences, and to respond to one another's writing; some of these responses are included at the end of each chapter. Both individually and collectively, these contributors expand the range of vocational reflection and discernment well beyond its traditional Christian origins. The authors observe that all undergraduate students--regardless of their academic field, religious background, or demographic identity-need to make space for reflection, to overcome obstacles to discernment, and to consider the significance of their own narratives, beliefs, and practices. This, in turn, will require college campuses to re-imagine their curricular and co-curricular programming in order to support their students's reflection on issues of meaning, purpose, and identity.

Meaning, Purpose, and Identity in the Multi-Faith Academy

Hearing Vocation Differently

Christian Ethics provides a biblical, historical, philosophical and theological guide to the field of Christian ethics. Prominent theologian David S. Cunningham explores the tradition of ‘virtue ethics’ in this creative and lively text, which includes literary and musical references as well as key contemporary theological texts and figures. Three parts examine: the nature of human action and the people of God as the ‘interpretative community’ within which ethical discourse arises the development of a ‘virtue ethics’ approach, and places this in its Christian context significant issues in contemporary Christian ethics, including the ethics of business and economics, politics, the environment, medicine and sex. This is the essential text for students of all ethics courses in theology, religious studies and philosophy.

The End of the Law

Christian Ethics

Although the language of vocation was born in a religious context, the contributors in this volume demonstrate that it has now taken root within the broad framework of higher education and has become intertwined with a wide range of concerns. This volume makes a compelling case for vocational reflection and discernment in undergraduate education today, arguing that it will encourage faculty and students alike to venture out of their narrow disciplinary specializations and to reflect on larger questions of meaning and purpose. In conversation with a growing range of scholarly resources, these essays advance the cause of vocational reflection and discernment well beyond its occasional mention in general education courses and career placement offices. The book's thirteen contributors all work in higher education, but they do so as biologists and musicians, sociologists and engineers, doctors and lawyers, college presidents and deans, and scholars of history, literature, and business administration. Together, they demonstrate that vocation has an important role to play across the entire range of traditional academic disciplines and applied fields. Regardless of major, all undergraduates need to consider their current and future responsibilities, determine the stories they will live by, and discover resources for addressing the tensions that will inevitably arise among their multiple callings. Vocation across the Academy will help to reframe current debates about the purpose of higher education. It underscores the important role that colleges and universities can play in encouraging students to reflect more deeply on life's most persistent questions and to consider how they might best contribute to the common good.

A New Vocabulary for Higher Education

Vocation Across the Academy

This book initiates a new conversation about how theological education might be re-envisioned for the twenty-first century church. The prevailing curricular structure in today's seminaries and divinity schools was fashioned in a very different era, one that assumed the continued cultural dominance of Christianity and the continued academic dominance of the canons of Enlightenment reason. Neither assumption is viable in today's post-Christian world; hence, our new circumstances demand a new vision for theological education. The authors of this volume offer an important resource for this project through their creative appropriation of the classical rhetorical tradition, particularly as it has been rehabilitated in the contemporary context. Like St. Augustine, they believe that the chief goals of Christian theology are similar to those of classical rhetoric: "to teach, to delight, and to move." And the authors are united in their conviction that these must also be the goals of theological education in a post-Christian era. This volume arises out of a passionate commitment to the cause of theological education. The authors hail from a wide range of denominational traditions and have taught in numerous seminaries and divinity schools. They have also studied the classical and postmodern rhetorical traditions in both theory and practice. They met as a group on numerous occasions to read one another's contributions to the volume and to offer guidance for the process of rewriting. As a result, this book is much more than a mere collection of essays; it is a jointly-authored work, and one which presents an integrated vision for the future of theological education.

Theological Education in a Post-Christian World

To Teach, To Delight, and To Move

This book champions vocation and calling as key elements of undergraduate education. It offers a historical and theoretical account of vocational reflection and discernment, as well as suggesting how these endeavors can be implemented through specific educational practices. Against the backdrop of the current national conversation about the purposes of higher education, it argues that the undergraduate years can provide a certain amount of relatively unfettered time, and a "free and ordered space," in which students can consider the kinds of lives to which they are being called. The book is divided into four parts; the first of these explores the broader context within which vocational reflection takes place (attending both to the current state of higher education and to broader cultural trends). The second part examines the contours of vocation from historical, theological, and philosophical perspectives, with particular attention tonarrative as a key factor in shaping (and accounting for) one's various callings. Part three considers the relationship between vocation and virtue, both of which encourage the cultivation of good habits with the goal of living a fulfilled and fulfilling life. The last part of the book explores vocational reflection beyond the classroom, suggesting that it can also be sustained through co-curricular activities, programs for community engagement, and attention to a campus's physical features. Concluding with an epilogue that summarizes that various pedagogies of vocation that are developed throughout the book, this book also suggests that vocation may itself serve as a kind of pedagogy by encouraging undergraduates to examine larger questions of meaning and purpose. At This Time and In This Place offers a compelling argument for vocational reflection and discernment in undergraduate education; as such, it represents a significant contribution to the emerging scholarly literature in this field.

At This Time and in This Place

In this fascinating and fresh look at the Apostles' Creed, David Cunningham argues that reading fiction and film can lead Christians to a deeper, more precise, and more experiential knowledge of their faith. Drawing on novels, plays, and films by the likes of Dickens, Shakespeare, P. D. James, and Graham Greene, Cunningham discusses the Apostles' Creed in detail, using one primary text to illuminate each article. Cunningham begins with a brief history of the Christian creeds and their significance. In addition to plot summaries, each chapter includes discussion questions addressing the relationship between literature and faith and concludes with a works cited list and a list for further reading. This book will delight Christians who want to better understand the creeds and basic doctrinal confessions of the Christian faith. While academics, theologians, and literature and film aficionados will celebrate Cunningham's keen literary and theological insights, the book is equally readable for those with little background in these fields of study. Reading Is Believing is an ideal text for Christian education classes, adult Sunday school, and church-based book clubs. It will serve well as a text in theology courses, as well as various courses in the humanities, ethics, and cultural and religious studies.

David S. Cunningham

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