Has the American university gained the whole world but lost its soul? Christian universities must reimagine excellence in a time of exile, placing the liberating arts before the liberal arts and focusing on the worship, love, and knowledge of God as central to academia. This pioneering work charts the history of the university and casts an inspiring vision for the future of higher education.
Has the American university gained the whole world but lost its soul? Christian universities must reimagine excellence in a time of exile, placing the liberating arts before the liberal arts and focusing on the worship, love, and knowledge of God as central to academia. This pioneering work charts the history of the university and casts an inspiring vision for the future of higher education.
Humanity’s creative role within the living pattern of nature • Explores important scientific discoveries that reveal the self-organizing intelligence at the heart of nature • Examines the idea of a living cosmos from its roots in the earliest cultures, to its eclipse during the Scientific Revolution, to its return today • Reveals ways to reengage our creative partnership with nature and collaborate with nature’s intelligence For millennia the world was seen as a creative, interconnected web of life, constantly growing, developing, and restoring itself. But with the arrival of the Scientific Revolution in the 16th and 17th centuries, the world was viewed as a lifeless, clocklike mechanism, bound by the laws of classical physics. Intelligence was a trait ascribed solely to human beings, and thus humanity was viewed as superior to and separate from nature. Today new scientific discoveries are reviving the ancient philosophy of a living, interconnected cosmos, and humanity is learning from and collaborating with nature’s intelligence in new, life-enhancing ways, from ecological design to biomimicry. Drawing upon the most important scientific discoveries of recent times, David Fideler explores the self-organizing intelligence at the heart of nature and humanity’s place in the cosmic pattern. He examines the ancient vision of the living cosmos from its roots in the “world soul” of the Greeks and the alchemical tradition, to its eclipse during the Scientific Revolution, to its return today. He explains how the mechanistic worldview led to humanity’s profound sense of alienation, for if the universe only functioned as a machine, there was no longer any room for genuine creativity or spontaneity. He shows how this isn’t the case and how, even at the molecular level, natural systems engage in self-organization, self-preservation, and creative problem solving, mirroring the ancient idea of a creative intelligence that exists deep within the heart of nature. Revealing new connections between science, religion, and culture, Fideler explores how to reengage our creative partnership with nature and new ways to collaborate with nature’s intelligence.
From old-fashioned bricks-and-mortars to cutting-edge startups, businesses are moving into uncharted territory as they determine how to move from an analog past to a digital future effectively. How can you make sure not to leave human instinct behind? Businesses are leaving behind traditional meetings in favor of virtual ones, transitioning from surveys and studies to analytics and algorithms. The startling and often unacknowledged truth is that?the promise of digital transformation can only be realized when we find a way to balance it with the promise of people.?In the end, it’s the people that matter, and companies must never forget the soul that drives them. In Restoring the Soul of Business, business leader Rishad Tobaccowala?teaches you to: Understand how to unleash the significant benefit that can be realized by combining emotion and data, human and machine, analog and digital. Spot the warning signs of data-blinded companies: cold cultures with little human interaction, poor innovation stemming from discouraged employees who don’t contribute ideas, and poor customer service due to automated, robotic processes. Explore how organizations of various sizes and from different industries have successfully reoriented their thinking on how to fuse technology and humanity. Gain skills to become an expert in connections critical to growth and success, including the connection between being creative and using technology. Everyone working in an organization will find penetrating observations and guidance about how and why establishing the proper balance between human intuition and creativity and data-driven insights can lead to increased revenue, profitability, retention—and even joy—in their careers and business. Restoring the Soul of Business provides practical tools and techniques that every organization can and should implement, and challenges you to move forward with the kind of balance that capitalizes transformation and produces one great success after another.
"Every man who knocks on the door of a brothel is knocking for God." - G. K. Chesterton What if lust for porn is really a search for true passion? In a world where there are 68 million searches for pornography every day and where over 70 percent of Christian men report viewing porn in the last year, it's no surprise that more and more men struggle with an addiction to this false fantasy. Common wisdom says if they just had more willpower or more faith, their fight would be over. Is the answer really that simple? According to the counselor and ministry leader Michael John Cusick, the answer is no--but the big truth may be much more freeing.Backed by scripture, Cusick uses examples from his own life and from his twenty years of counseling experience to show us how the pursuit of empty pleasure is really a search for our heart's deepest desire--and the real key to to resistance is discovering and embracing the joy we truly want. Cusick's insights help readers understand how porn struggles begin, what to do to prevent them, and most importantly, how to overcome the compulsion once it begins. In the end, this powerful book shows us all how the barrier built by porn addiction can become a bridge to abundant life.
Restoring America's Soul lays out a clear, concise and inspired vision of what made America such an exceptional nation and how we can get there again. Today's culture derides and dismisses the traditional, time-proven values that made America great--so-called conservative values. Liberal professors, the mainstream news media, and the Hollywood propaganda machine are brainwashing the nation's youth, convincing them that conservativism--the values once held by most of America--amounts to hateful extremism. Nothing could be further from the truth. The true heart of conservatism is its desire to conserve the timeless principles worthy of being kept and to pursue virtue through disciplined self-governance. Too many modern conservatives have lost sight of the transcendent goals that made America great and stand out from the rest of the world. Restoring America's Soul reignites the vision and mission of authentic conservatism and equips busy people to make a fresh and persuasive case for conservative public policy positions on specific key issues. Restoring America's Soul examines conservative's current identity crisis and how it has undermined their effectiveness in attracting citizens and motivating them to become both informed and politically active. Contrasting the popular perceptions of the two major parties, Dunaway urges conservatives to focus more energy on telling others what they support than what they oppose. She reminds conservatives of their noble roots, affirming their ideological alignment with the Founding Fathers' biblical plan for a limited federal government. Rather than solely opposing liberal-left policies, Restoring America's Soul offers genuine solutions to today's multiple crises. Refreshingly, Dunaway suggests an enlightened course forward for the thoughtful conservative.
The Soul of the American University is a classic and much discussed account of the changing roles of Christianity in shaping American higher education, presented here in a newly revised edition to offer insights for a modern era. As late as the World War II era, it was not unusual even for state schools to offer chapel services or for leading universities to refer to themselves as “Christian” institutions. From the 1630s through the 1950s, when Protestantism provided an informal religious establishment, colleges were expected to offer religious and moral guidance. Following reactions in the 1960s against the WASP establishment and concerns for diversity, this specifically religious heritage quickly disappeared and various secular viewpoints predominated. In this updated edition of a landmark volume, George Marsden explores the history of the changing roles of Protestantism in relation to other cultural and intellectual factors shaping American higher education. Far from a lament for a lost golden age, Marsden offers a penetrating analysis of the changing ways in which Protestantism intersected with collegiate life, intellectual inquiry, and broader cultural developments. He tells the stories of many of the nation's pace-setting universities at defining moments in their histories. By the late nineteenth-century when modern universities emerged, debates over Darwinism and higher criticism of the Bible were reshaping conceptions of Protestantism; in the twentieth century important concerns regarding diversity and inclusion were leading toward ever-broader conceptions of Christianity; then followed attacks on the traditional WASP establishment which brought dramatic disestablishment of earlier religious privilege. By the late twentieth century, exclusive secular viewpoints had become the gold standard in higher education, while our current era is arguably “post-secular”. The Soul of the American University Revisited deftly examines American higher education as it exists in the twenty-first century.
The Lawrence and Lynne Brown Democracy Medal, presented by the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State, recognizes outstanding individuals, groups, and organizations that produce innovations to further democracy in the United States or around the world. Voting is foundational in a democracy, yet over six million American citizens remain stripped of their ability to participate in elections. Once convicted of a felony, people who complete their sentences reenter society, but no longer with the civil rights they once had. They may return to school, secure employment to provide for their families, and become law-abiding, tax-paying citizens—sometimes for decades—and still be denied the voting rights afforded to every other citizen. Desmond Meade, director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition and a returning citizen himself, played an instrumental role in the landslide 2018 Amendment 4 victory in Florida, which used the ballot box to restore voting rights to 1.4 million Floridians with a previous felony conviction. Meade argues how, state by state, America can do better. His efforts in Florida present a compelling argument that creating access to democracy for those living on the fringes of society will create a more vibrant and robust democracy for all. He is the winner of the 2021 Brown Democracy Medal for his continuing work to restore voting rights and connect Americans along shared social values.
As we enter a new millennium, the teenage years have never been more difficult. We can tell by their behaviour: School shootings. Teen pregnancy, Fatal car crashes. Binge drinking. Dropping out. But now's not the time to give up on the next generation, says author Meg Meeker, a Michigan child and adolescent physician, who has worked closely with teens for nearly twenty years. Teens, she believes, are crying out for help -- and it's up to the parents and adults in their lives to respond. This book will help you understand why our teens are getting into trouble. Why teens are depressed and suicidal. Why teens are looking for love in the wrong places. Dr Meeker contends that the fundamental needs of teens are not being met, which results in them trying to find their own way in an unfriendly culture. Yet all is not lost, if adults are willing to be there for the teens in their lives. Uplifting, frank, encouraging and conversational, this book will inspire any adult to get involved. So what are you waiting for?
Mankind's condition has been described as a crisis in separation--from God, from others, and from ourselves. Leanne Payne shows how to overcome the three great barriers to wholeness: inability to receive God's forgiveness, inability to forgive others, and inability to accept ourselves.
