Initiative Grant Spotlight #3

Original: InitiativeGrant Spotlight #3

"Living as Part of God's Good Earth"

The CCCU Initiative Grants to Network Christian Scholars enable Christian scholars to develop mutually supportive networks that will strengthen the work of any one scholar and will allow the collective contribution to be greater than the sum of the individual contributions. Each $15,000 grant is for a three-year period of time and is awarded to teams of three to six Christian scholars headed by a faculty member at a CCCU member institution. The following highlights the results of just one project:

The project "Living as Part ofGod's Good Earth" was directed byJohn R. Wood, The King's University College (AB,Canada). Other grant participants were Mark Bjelland, GustavusAdolphus College; Steve Bouma-Prediger, Hope College; SusanBratton, Baylor University; and Janel Curry, Calvin College(MI).

The key question of the project was: "How canour understanding of self and our moral understanding be deepenedto account for our membership in societies that are embedded inparticular places, which are, in turn, embedded withinenvironmental systems?"

"Our initial essay in answer is that aTrinitarian theological perspective yields a deeply relationaloutlook on our particular places," says Wood."We have found it very fruitful to view CreationCare through this place-based lens."

The team carried out five main activities to leverage funds fromthe Networking Grant and to maximize the exposure and publicationsfrom the project. They included: an initial Leadership Teamplanning workshop; leading a three-week summer seminar with 20participants; a two-day interim Team Leaders meeting at TrinityWestern University; and a final Leadership Team meeting.

The results of the team's efforts weredisseminated to audiences in North America and overseas, includingChina. The project resulted in: six grants (applied for orreceived), 42 public presentations, 29 papers/chapters published orsubmitted and four books to be published in 2006.

Other recently completed grants were invested into the followingprojects:
• "Aquinas'sEthics: Metaphysical Foundations, Moral Theory, and TheologicalContext." Project director: Rebecca DeYoung,Calvin College (MI)
• "Gender, Genre, andFaith: Religion and the Nineteenth-Century WomanWriter."  Project director: Pamela CorpronParker, Whitworth College (WA).
• "Testing a Model ofthe Role of Forgiveness in the Social Competence of YoungChildren." Project director: Beverly J. Wilson,Seattle Pacific University (WA)
• "Neohumanism And TheEthical Turn In Theological Perspective." Projectdirector: E. Norman Klassen, Trinity Western University (BritishColumbia)
• "A BrokenBeauty." Project director: F. Bruce Herman, GordonCollege (MA)

For more information about Initiative Grants to NetworkChristian Scholars, clickhere.