David S. Cunningham - Böcker

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 to narrative 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.

Although the language of vocation was born in a religious context, the contributors in this volume demonstrate that it has now moved well beyond that context to be of value to a much wider 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 include 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.

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.

This book presents twenty essays written in honour of the noted theologian and ecumenist Geoffrey Wainwright, Cushman Professor of Christian Theology at Duke University. The editors have assembled a remarkable international roster of contributors and have organized the volume around three major themes in Wainwright's work: worship, liturgy, and mission. Contributors include Nicholas Lossky, Eberhard Jungel, Dietrich Ritschl, and Gunther Gassman.

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 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.

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 arisesthe development of a ‘virtue ethics’ approach, and places this in its Christian contextsignificant 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.

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 arisesthe development of a ‘virtue ethics’ approach, and places this in its Christian contextsignificant 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.

Theologian and writer David Cunningham draws from novels, poems, and plays to give a resource for humans who face suffering, death, and new life. He provides a religious reading of important literary texts, with three studies for each of the three themes--drawn together by the weekly sequence of Friday-Saturday-Sunday and the events of Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. These reflections on universal experiences are enriched by Cunningham's presentations of Christian perspectives which are significant resources for dealing with grief and pain, separation and absence, and transformation and renewal.

The doctrine of the Trinity has recently been rescued from relative obscurity in Christian theology, but its profound implications have not yet been fully realized.

The doctrine of the Trinity has recently been rescued from relative obscurity in Christian theology, but its profound implications have not yet been fully realized.