Why is there no controversy surrounding theistic embryology?
Author: Steve Matheson, Professor of BiologyChristian Perspectives in Science Seminar Series
Posted on: Jun 10, 2009
This presentation was given on May 1, 2009, in the Christian Perspectives in Science Seminar Series at Calvin College.
Those who simultaneously express Christian belief and affirm evolutionary theory are said to espouse a position called “theistic evolution.” The view holds the peculiar distinction of being reviled by both hard-line creationists (who call it “appeasement”) and prominent atheist commentators (who deride it as fallacious). I argue that these critics typically fail to articulate objections that are specific to the view.
Faith and Scientific Practice
Author: Arie Leegwater, Professor Emeritus of ChemistryPerspectives on Science and Christian Faith
Posted on: May 27, 2009
Religious faith, primarily in the active sense of believing, is both a gift and a blessing from God, and a “sure knowledge” of certain basic and deepest realities. In faith we know who God is. We know that we are fallen, but redeemed creatures. We and all other creatures are part of God’s good creation, which though fallen, is being redeemed through the work of Jesus Christ. Thus we may have a deep trust and quiet confidence in the “givenness” of God’s initial address to us in his revelation in the Scriptures and creation. God’s address invites us to patiently listen with bated breath. This address or promise elicits a posture of receptivity, of listening, rather than first (subjectively) seeing. If God’s revelation is primary (original), it should animate our faith response and allow scientific practice to retain its relative, limited, but frequently necessary and fascinating, place in our lives.
Care of the Elderly Diabetic Client
Author: Stephanie Postma, Calvin College Class of 2009Minds exclusive
Posted on: May 26, 2009
This presentation of the author’s honors project was given at a Nursing Department Seminar at Calvin College on May 7, 2009.
Through the Whitney Young Scholarship, a diabetic teaching model was created for licensed nursing staff at Clark Retirement Community. It includes a Powerpoint, a pre-test and post-test. Staff will be given 1 CEU for completing the module. A nursing professor and Stephanie partnered with the Director of Nursing (DON) and nurse educator from Clark and used resources from the John Hartford Foundation and Geriatric Nursing Education Consortium (GNEC) to develop the module.
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Nursing: A Call to Care - Comparing the current practice with the history and theory of nursing
Author: Katie Pruss, Calvin College Class of 2009Minds exclusive
Posted on: May 19, 2009
This presentation of the author’s honors project was given at a Nursing Department Seminar at Calvin College on May 7, 2009.
History continually shapes the practice of nursing. Currently, nursing is driven by science, technology, and professionalism. Although nursing has become an extremely successful business, it has shrunk from its original glory and perhaps lost some of its most fundamental values. As the emphasis on science and job increases, the art and ministry of caring seems to disappear from the practice of nursing, and people are noticing the poverty of care they experience in the hospitals. Science, efficiency, money, and technology are not bad things and greatly contribute to the practice of nursing. However, if they become the end goal, citizens will turn away from the current business of nursing. The purpose of this project is to explore the concept of nursing care and the inspired work of the early church in order to challenge and enlarge nurses’ vision of nursing and creativity.
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Rapprochement between Science and Religion
Author: Arie Leegwater, Professor Emeritus of ChemistryPerspectives on Science and Christian Faith
Posted on: May 13, 2009
What unites [readers of this journal] is the Gospel of Christ, our Savior and Lord, who invites allegiance and calls us to lead a life that is deeply committed to the scriptural injunction not to be conformed to the patterns of this age, but to be re-formed by the renewal of our consciousness, so that we may discern what God wills for our lives—our scientific practices included. Ultimately our sciences and their practices are not what unite us, no matter how firm our allegiance to an academic discipline or professional association may be. But clearly there are particular views on offer that energize us and even seemingly divide us in implementing Christ’s call to be his servants in our scientific practice.