Ontology before Analysis

I'm not sure why so many of us are chaffing at the use of the Ontological Argument. I do enjoy the discussions though.

I think that one of the critical questions that came up on Tues. was, "Why would an analysis be undertaken unless the existence of the referent of the concept were assumed?"

By the very fact that we're trying to analyze "the greatest conceivable being", we must have some idea in our mind as to what that characteristics (or essence as you say) of that being are.

Therefore the concept of a greatest conceivable being exists. One of the essential characteristics of the greatest conceivable being is its necessary existence (if it were contingent it surely wouldn't be the greatest).

Therefore the referent greatest conceivable being must exist.

Now where you can strike at this argument is that while it defends the existence of a "supreme being" it definitely doesn't get you directly to the God of Christianity. (Is that where you were going with your initial question, David?) Maybe my "greatest conceivable being" is Allah...

But hey, baby steps.

Ian

Next step?

First, I want you all to know how blessed I feel to be able to study, learn and grow with each of you. You have all been an inspiration and source of encouragement to me during my time at DenSem. Becky, thanks for getting this blog going.

Second, I agree with David when he said “I believe strongly that God is raising up a generation of Christians who will begin to represent the truth in [the university]” and I believe around the world. I think we are in an important time in our history when people have begun to recognize the failures of modernity’s rejection of the supernatural, miracles and revelational knowledge as it focused solely on reason. Postmodernism is in the process of making just as grievous an error in rejecting objective truth and the validity of rationality and science to discover truth. We can, with God’s help, be a light in this time of searching for so many and make a stand for Christ.

Third, I think BJ’s first two paragraphs would be a good place to begin in writing a “DenSem PR Future Manifesto”. I think he has laid out a good plan that we can and should expand on and take serious action on. My fear is that when classes start on Monday that we will become busy and this will be pushed back because of our demanding schedules. I too often feel out of the loop because of distance from campus and each of you. So, are there any of you that would be able to get together this weekend sometime to work on this manifesto and make some plans? I am teaching a class at church Sunday morning but would love to get together and work on this before the semester swallows me up.

Fourth, I think we have something special in the people we have in the program and our desire to not only stand for the Truth but to build a community like the one around this blog and those interested in taking the PR program to new heights. I would also like us to think about how we make this a continuing, ongoing group. I would love to figure out some way to help us make more personal connections as well as professional. A regular “conference” or get together that would not only build this community while at the the seminary but also extend beyond our time at DenSem. Some way of taking the passion, desire and efforts we are beginning to exert and keep them going.

Any takers?

Matt

"What Matters" or "Why we care about this at all" -- and a plan

Friends,

You all know I am wholeheartedly behind this vision.

To recap, and just to pump us up a little, allow me to remind us why we want to pursue this vision

We believe in the truth. We believe that truth is real, objective, and corresponds to reality. We believe the content of that truth to be that there is a God, that humanity is in dire straights in separation from him, but that he loves us so incredibly that he reconciled us to himself although we were unworthy of it by his work on our behalf: the death and resurrection of this God made incarnate in Christ. We believe that this truth is the answer to all of humanity's problems. That this truth lays the metaphysical groundwork to allow existence to have meaning and purpose. This truth allows ethics and morality to have sustainability and coherence. This truth allows those who believe and follow the truth to be born again and live a new life free from the shackles of rebellion and be formed as a community of Christ called the church. And that this community is a radical light to this world lost in depravity and darkness. Further, we believe that as members of this Church, we can contend for the truth. That is, we believe in the truth because it is the most "believable" option. We believe that the truth is not only plausible, but likely, and not only likely, but highly likely, indeed the most probable of all the options -- and we have arguments to prove just that. Against the lies and darkness of other claims to truth, THE truth shines through.

We believe that this is what matters most. And we long to give our lives to the defense of and spreading of that truth. As up and coming philosophers we believe we can do battle for the truth in perhaps the most influential and foundationally important arena of the modern Academic community. Our influence in this arena of philosophy, we believe, can send reverberations throughout the rest of the academic world, and then ultimately through the entire world, as the truth of Christ is seen for what it is: the truth. We want to take back the University for Christ and return those institutions of thought into bastions of the truth. We want to train, equip, and establish confident throngs of believers who not only know what they believe, but why they believe, and most importantly, can effectively and powerfully defend why they believe the truth to those who do not. We also want to establish confident scholars at the highest levels of Academia who are not only unashamed of their faith, but bold in their proclamation, and defense, of it. It's about Christianity taking its rightful place as the truth. It's about the academic world, and by consequence the whole of contemporary culture, no longer being able to shuffle Christianity off to a corner of quaint irrelevance. It's about Christianity taking the high ground in every battle for every mind and soul on this earth -- so that Christ's gospel may be known, and believed. We want to give our lives to be God's tools in that endeavor.


Now, since that's why we care... I recommend the following course of action:

We assign a couple of us the job of drafting a "DenSem PR Future Manifesto". This proposal would effectively get down on paper our passion for PR and desire to be trained in it so that we can contend for the truth in the marketplace of ideas, our desire to see it grow and be strengthened at DenSem for that end, and our suggested ideas on how to accomplish this (i.e. more faculty, increased recruiting, etc).

Then, a few of us, will schedule a meeting with the Dr. Williford and Dr. MacFarland and other important leaders at DenSem and present our vision -- give em' our pitch.

After that we'll just see what meetings we can get in on. If there is some board meeting happening somewhere, we'll try to get on the agenda and present our case. We will continue to schedule meetings with influential and important players to incessantly emphasize our point. Perhaps we can get some endorsements on our Manifesto from the likes of Dr. G, Dr. Lewis, Dr. Obitts, and any others connected to the seminary who are sympathetic to our cause. After a short while we will re-address and schedule more meetings with those same leaders to "follow-up" and show them that we have determination in this goal.

Sound like a plan?

Let's do it. Who wants to write up our thoughts on all this in a cogent and brief piece? Who wants to meet with the President and Dean and make our case? (I volunteer to be one of the ones on this group).

You all rock.
-BJ

New (Non-PR) Faculty on the Horizon

From the latests DenSem News Letter:

Faculty Interview

Dr. Steve Young, interim coordinator of the leadership degree program, is being recommended for a permanent faculty position as director of the leadership program. All students are invited to participate in a "brown bag" interactive session with Dr. Young on Thursday, January 22 from noon - 1:00 p.m. in the Hannay Conference Room. Students in the MA or M.Div. Leadership programs are especially encouraged to attend. Student feedback on all faculty appointments is highly valued by the faculty in their decision-making process. Don Payne

Faculty Interview

Dr. Terry Burns, director of the Intercultural and Parachurch training centers in the Training and Mentoring program, is being recommended for full-time faculty status as a training center director. Dr. Burns also teaches in the area of urban and intercultural mission. All students are invited to participate in a "brown bag" interactive session with Dr. Burns on Tuesday, January 27 from noon - 1:00 p.m. in the Hannay Conference Room. Students in the Intercultural and Parachurch training centers, as well as those in the UIM degree program, are especially encouraged to attend. Student feedback on all faculty appointments is highly valued by the faculty in their decision-making process. Don Payne

Contingent of Professor

I think we're entering the "chicken or the egg" area here. What Talbot has that our department doesn't have is lots of students in its PR program. The Seminary can't justify bringing on another full-time prof when there's only a couple dozen students in the entire program at DenSem. In order to take the leap of faith that it would require in order to bring on another full-time prof they (the seminary big whigs) must also see some prospect at increasing numbers in the program.

Here's where I think that we students can best use our energy - recruiting. By that I don't simply mean that each of us needs to find more full-time MA PR students. I mean that we need to do all that we can to assist the MA PR program's recruiting efforts. The entire recruiting process at DenSem is a little haphazard (IMHO). Those who go on recruiting trips are not trained in any way. If they don't know anything about the MA PR program, they probably won't push it when they're out at schools recruiting. I know that Elizabeth Sausele (Director of Student Recruitment) definitely pushes the program when she's out, but what about the student recruiters? This brings me to my first recommendation: I think that those of us who have flexible enough schedules should volunteer to be student recruiters.

Next, I think that we should take our concerns about recruiter training to the DenSem student council. When I used to recruit for the aerospace company I worked for, we had to undergo a minimum of one day of training - 1/2 on how to recruit in general and 1/2 on the various areas within the company that we would be recruiting for. This in no way made us an expert on each area, but gave us a base level of understanding as well as a list of contacts within each of those areas that were willing to be contacted by prospective recruits. A basic recruiting trip would consist of talking to a person to see where there interests were, if it was in my area of expertise I would talk in depth with them, or if the person that I was recruiting with (we worked in pairs) was in that area I'd refer the applicant to them. If neither of us was working in that area, we would talk generally from the information we received in our training and direct the potential recruit to literature for that program, which included the contact information for people currently working in that program. If the applicant was willing, we would take their contact information and have someone from that department contact them to explain the job more fully. How cool would that be, getting a phone call from Dr. G to talk more about the MA PR program? I've broached the training (or lack thereof) with Dr. G and he said that he would be more than happy to set aside a half-day each year or semester (whatever's appropriate) to help train the student recruiters on the MA PR program.

Next, we should develop innovative ideas for recruiting new students for the MA PR program. What this looks like I don't know. It should be a completely wide open brain storming session. Then we could bring the results to the DenSem administration for implementation. Those that don't require financial backing by the seminary, we should implement ourselves. Maybe we can begin our own guerilla PR recruiting campaign.

The final thing I think that we need to do is encourage the seminary to decide what the future roadmap is for the MA programs (other than CO which seems to have a strong base of support). My end goal from these discussions would be a "money where your mouth is" investment in the MA PR program. If the numbers aren't there to support another full-time prof, then put the money into recruiting (advertise more than just cheesy half-page ads in Christianity Today).

My ideal outcome would be a new commitment from DenSem to the MA PR program. This commitment would consist of hiring another full-time prof to start Fall 2004 in concert with a focused effort to recruit more PR students.

Thoughts?

PR as a priority

BJ & everyone else,

At the PR get together we had mentioned "making some noise" regarding Densem making the PR program a priority. There are too many of us that are seriously interested in pursuing a Ph. D. to not do something to make DenSem a place where people like us can get accepted into Ph. D. programs. So, what are we going to do?

I am taking two courses this semester online so I will not be on campus regularly but I could definitely arrange to be there if we want to do a little prodding. Any ideas, suggestions comments about this? Let's be proactive and get this done.

Matt

BJ is a dork when it comes to APA catalogs.

David,

SORRY! I've been a slacker on getting you that catalog. (It's actually Becky's and I've been borrowing it).

I'll get the catalog to you. It is very helpful... the APA is cool stuff.

-BJ