Hello, everyone. The ASA blog has been a long time coming, but I am very glad we are finally there. Terry and Randy deserve our thanks for getting it off the ground. They are also ahead of me in launching their parts, which is ironic given that I am the Council member who made it such a priority to establish a blog for you, our members. It is you whom we serve, so please keep your opinions coming, including opinions about the ASA list that is presently taking a sabbatical. We have not yet decided its fate, and your views on this are being heard. The place to express those views, however, is over on “ASA Voices,” not here.
This particular blog is devoted to discussing the essays in our journal, Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith. I also want to have your thoughts about how best to do this, but please send them privately to me at tdavis@messiah.edu. I’d like to keep this space focused as far as possible on the content of the journal, not the logistics of blogging about it. Let me admit from the start my own very limited experience with this format; many of our members and most of my students probably know a great deal more than me about how to blog effectively. I ask for your patience. If you get frustrated with me, an offer to help in substantive ways is likely to get more results than a pointed comment about my ignorance – which (I assure you) is all too great.
There are also many demands on my time—is this not so for most of us? Consequently I won’t try to keep a breakneck pace here. In most cases I will try simply to initiate conversations that others will dominate: conversations involving the authors of essays with our members, conversations that I will facilitate but not participate in more than anyone else. I don’t expect to say very much, frankly, unless the essay under discussion relates to my professional expertise or I simply can’t restrain myself from asking a particular question or adding a particular viewpoint. Mostly, I expect to follow the conversation quietly and occasionally, not loudly and constantly.
As long as everyone adheres to our policy, I shouldn’t need to make a nuisance of myself. Express your views freely; disagree with any idea you don’t like, as long as it’s relevant to the topic; don’t shy away from vigorous engagement with ideas and pursuit of the truth. In all things, however, be as charitable as you can toward those who hold those ideas you don’t like. We all hope to spend eternity together, and there in the presence of our Lord we will continue relationships that we have only just begun during our short time on this earth. Let’s try to get them off to a good start.
Having just said that ordinarily I want to be more in the background than the foreground, I will deny all of that for the moment—though soon you will be able to hold me my implicit promise. To get us started, I invited Jack Haas to ask me some questions about my essay on Arthur Compton’s religious life and views, which was serialized in the three most recent issues of PSCF, June 2009, September 2009, and December 2009. (Let me add that the March issue will contain John Compton’s fascinating, invaluable memoir of his father. Be sure not to miss it.)
Jack, a retired chemistry professor from Gordon College, is a former editor of PSCF. In addition to his scientific and editorial experience, Jack has published refereed articles on John Wesley’s interest in natural philosophy (the forerunner of what we call “science” today) and some other historical topics. In short, I thought he might be the ideal person to interview me about my work on Compton. His questions are brief, clear, and thoughtful. My answers are unfortunately much longer.
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