Note: This is an excerpt adapted from Dan Doriani’s new book, Work: Its Purpose, Dignity, and Transformation. After years of teaching about work and interviewing hundreds of people, I sought to supplement the excellent recent publications on work. For that reason, one chapter reviews a neglected topic, the history of thought on work – with […]
Seminary Spotlight: Bethel Seminary
Since 2012, Bethel Seminary has been engaging the conversation about whole-life discipleship through our Work with Purpose initiative. Seven years later, that conversation and the impact of the initiative continue within the seminary and beyond. Through partnerships with local churches and our network of alumni, we provide opportunities for learning beyond the seminary community. We […]
Spotlight: The Gospel of Creation and Shalom
Note: This excerpt spotlights the work of Mark DeVine, an individual faculty partner in the Oikonomia Network. It is taken from his new book, Shalom Yesterday, Today and Forever. Without warning and with unexpected power, the first article of the oldest Christian creed arrested my attention. These opening lines seemed to illumine not subsequent articles of the […]
New EWP Talk: Vocation Is Integral to the Gospel
Evangelism versus justice. Great Commission versus Great Commandment. Kingdom work versus ordinary work. Proclamation versus discipleship. Gathered versus scattered. Missionaries versus deacons. Justification versus sanctification. Faith versus love. A lot of people are sick and tired of setting the things of God against each other. Some have been seeking this change for a long time. […]
New EWP Talk: A Sacred Church
What if we’re getting the whole sacred/secular problem backward? The faith and work movement is concerned that Christians have divided a sacred church from a secular world, cutting off the world from the mission of God – and cutting off most of our own lives from the path of discipleship in the process. But what […]
Business Modules in Curricular Workshops
This the latest in a series of articles sharing insights from a joint curricular development initiative of the ON, the Theology of Work Project and three ON schools (Asbury, Assemblies of God and Western). In our curricular workshops, we only had one conversation with a business school faculty member. However, business issues also arose in […]
AU Fellowships Available
Note: This article is the latest in a series highlighting resources for theological educators. In June 2019, the Acton Institute will welcome 50 Oikonomia fellows to Grand Rapids, Mi. to attend Acton University. Being awarded an Oikonomia fellowship is a unique opportunity for a cohort of seminary professors to network during our four-day conference promoting sound anthropology and economic understanding in seminaries […]
Seminary Spotlight: Wesley Seminary
Wesley Seminary at Indiana Wesleyan University has had an integrative mission from its founding in 2009. It is against this backdrop that we view our partnership with, and participation in, the Oikonomia Network. There are strong affinities between the way Wesley Seminary fulfills its mission to “prepare Christian leaders to engage in missional ministry locally […]
Seminary Spotlight: Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
One of the many things we have discussed among our faculty and with our students over the past five years is how work and economics represent a major arena in our lives, through which we have opportunities to love and serve our neighbors. It is a reminder that we exist in a network of relationships […]
New EWP Talk: The Portable Trinity
The Trinity isn’t about counting to three, it’s about the God who sends us – including the “sending” we can remember and rest upon in our daily work. That’s the message of Fred Sanders’ talk at Karam Forum 2019, now available as an Economic Wisdom Project Talk for use in your classroom. Is the doctrine […]
Vocation & TOW Curricular Workshops: Insights
This the latest in a series of articles sharing insights from a joint curricular development initiative of the ON, the Theology of Work Project and three ON schools (Asbury, Assemblies of God and Western). Previous articles in this series have dealt with the integration of vocation and theology of work elements in core seminary courses. […]
Miroslav Volf on the Crisis of Theology
At a joint meeting of the 2019 ON faculty retreat and three ON-sponsored scholarly colloquia, Miroslav Volf gave a provocative talk on “The Crisis of Theology.” Speaking after dinner on January 2, just before Karam Forum, Volf laid out what he saw as the nature of the crisis – or, rather, two deeply connected crises […]
Moses, Modern Finance, and Payday Lending
When friends learned I was studying lending in the Old Testament, some asked: What about “payday loans”? Let’s see how the Old Testament’s teaching about loan ethics applies to this controversial practice. As we have seen, one component of Old Testament generosity for the working poor is loans to support subsistence expenses; in such loans, […]
Seminary Spotlight: Sioux Falls Seminary
Previous articles on Sioux Falls Seminary have shared stories of how our innovative approach to theological education, Kairos, is enabling students to cultivate human flourishing in both ecclesial and non-traditional contexts of ministry. Since the Kairos model was launched in the fall of 2014, its success has required ongoing, overlapping processes of assessment, evaluation and […]
Seminary Spotlight: LABI College
Founded in 1926 by Alice E. Luce, LABI College is one of the oldest Hispanic Bible Colleges in the country. Over the past ninety-two years, LABI has trained and equipped thousands of pastors, ministers, superintendents and professional leaders. Recently, LABI has made new progress on a number of fronts, continuing our mission to prepare students […]