By: Mary Kamau on January 28, 2023
We are living in interesting times, and I often find myself trying to reconcile my mind with things that are hard to believe are happening because they defy logic and convention. Where are they coming from, this is a question I find myself asking many times as I look at the trends in our world…
By: Kally Elliott on January 28, 2023
For the next eight weeks I get to teach a Family to Family Course for NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness). The Family to Family Class is an education program for family members and caregivers of individuals living with mental illness. The program is designed to provide family members and caregivers with the tools and…
By: Jenny Steinbrenner Hale on January 27, 2023
Edwin Friedman, in his book, A Failure of Nerve, Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix, offers groundbreaking and challenging insights into successful leadership. In my first reading of Friedman’s book, I was struck by his emphasis on the importance of leaders to show up with a strong sense of self, an ability to…
By: Chad McSwain on January 27, 2023
There is no better masterclass in leadership than Failure of Nerve. It brilliantly diagnosis the problem of modern society and the lack of leadership, only to invite the leader to look at themselves to understand where the problems truly lies. This is the unique and timeless perspective that Friedman offers in the ubiquitous leadership environment…
By: Jonathan Lee on January 27, 2023
In this book, The Genesis of Gender, Dr. Abigail Favale presents her current Christian position on the question of gender by bringing her personal experiences and professional expertise in a theological framework that is written in a style of using and weaving many personal stories together. Favale writes to tell many real stories of different…
By: Jean de Dieu Ndahiriwe on January 27, 2023
Edwin H. Friedman’s book A Failure of Nerve “Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix” is excellent; Friedman’s unique experience and observation on leadership took him to different essential spheres of our society, including family, church, and politics. There are several lessons; I want to look at some and will reference some other resources…
By: Shonell Dillon on January 27, 2023
Anxiety Disorder: Separation anxiety (f93.0) Developmentally inappropriate and excessive fear or anxiety concerning separation from those to whom the individual is attached. Selective mutism (f94.0) Consistent failure to speak in specific social situations in which there is an expectation for speaking despite speaking in other situations. Specific phobia (f40.248) Marked fear or anxiety about a…
By: Becca Hald on January 27, 2023
Somewhere in the midst of storms, voluntary evacuation, and quick trips back to our property to grab what we needed, I grabbed the wrong book. I did my reading and wrote my blog post on our flight home. I went to post last night and realized that the book I grabbed was Thinking, Fast and Slow…
By: Elmarie Parker on January 27, 2023
One of the theology students recently visiting Lebanon shared this concept from one of her professors: “read and listen with critical generosity.” What I took from her explanation is the invitation to listen and read with a critical posture rooted in scholarship and a generous application of the famous prayer of St. Francis—one line of…
By: Jana Dluehosh on January 26, 2023
Mitchell Airport in Milwaukee, WI is known as one of the “happier” airports in the USA. Why you ask? Well Barry Bateman the former airport director who retired in 2020, Bateman made up the word and suggested the signage in order to add some comic relief to what can be a tense aspect of air travel. …
By: Kristy Newport on January 26, 2023
Stephen King has provided a personal reflection on the art of writing in his book: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. King’s book is 316 pages long and the content is jam packed with great advice for beginning writers. His advice spanned the depths of creating plot and character to simple suggestions of having…
By: Nicole Richardson on January 26, 2023
The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory written by Dr. Abigail Favale engages the subject of gender theory and its impact on one’s identity from a historical, biological, and philosophical perspective while applying a narrow theological construction. Her agenda is, “analyzing the genealogy of gender, providing an account of how the gender paradigm emerged and…
By: Troy Rappold on January 26, 2023
Dr. Abigail Favale is an outstanding writer and she focuses her sparkling prose intensely on the issues of feminism and the gender paradigm. Dr. Favale is also a fellow Bruin: she earned her B.A. in Philosophy from Geoge Fox University only to return many years later to teach in the Humanities Department. A conversion from…
By: Sara Taylor Lattimore on January 26, 2023
In A Failure of Nerve Edwin Friedman writes about leadership and the various aspects of being a self differentiated leader. A leader who can avoid the traps of being consumed in the crisis or fears of the people or organization that they lead. As a leader I have seen these traps repeatedly entangle good leaders,…
By: Roy Gruber on January 26, 2023
Abigail Favale’s book, The Genesis of Gender, is personal, philosophical, historical, and theological. Positioned as a book on theology and sociology, Favale begins by recounting her journey from a traditional childhood, to different forms of feminism, to her current position, not easily categorized into the extreme ends of the gender debate spectrum. Even the subtitle,…
By: Henry Gwani on January 26, 2023
Based on a Catholic perspective to scripture including the theology of Aquinas, The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory highlights the extreme views of secular feminism on gender and, on the other end of the continuum, sadly, evangelicalism. It then proposes what may be considered a balanced, Biblical perspective on the subject. Written by Catholic…
By: Michael Simmons on January 25, 2023
Abigail Favale’s book, The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory, is somewhat appropriately named. On one had the subtitle indicate that this book explores the origins of gender from a uniquely Christian perspective. On the other hand, it is clear that this book was written for an evangelical, rightwing, conservative etc. audience. Favale sets the…
By: Todd E Henley on January 25, 2023
One week ago I started my inspectional reading of Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge by Jan H. F. Meyer and Ray Land. After 46 pages I was negatively asking, “What in the world is this book about?” In discouragement I placed the book down and was not looking forward to this post. I even thought,…
By: Caleb Lu on January 25, 2023
Edwin Friedman’s A Failure of Nerve continues to pique my interest in how it presents good leadership as a journey of discovering one’s own identity as an exercise of self-differentiation. As I examined the book for a second time, the chapter on “the fallacies of self”[1] helped to clarify the balance that must be struck…
By: Denise Johnson on January 25, 2023
One of the apparently pressing issues within the privilege of Western culture today is that of gender identity. I have now been living in the US for more than a year and this topic and all the focus on it leaves me in unfamiliar territory grappling for handholds within an emotional hotbed of discussions. My…
