[soc.religion.christian] Call for papers for *The Crucible*

lines@hatteras.cs.unc.edu (David Lines) (10/07/90)

                                  *The Crucible*
                    Call for Papers and Other Contributions

The Crucible is a new quarterly journal produced by and for graduate
 (and advanced undergraduate) students from all over the United
 States. It is intended primarily for an evangelical Christian
 audience, and we hope it will accomplish the following purposes:

 --help us articulate the fierce struggles and tensions we
    experience as we try to balance the intellectual, spiritual,
 	emotional, and social dimensions of our inner world
 --provide discussion opportunities as to what our faith really
     means and what its practical outgrowth should be
 --encourage us to understand the worldviews of people around us
    and give us insights into how we can communicate the gospel
    most effectively to their particular subcultures
 --facilitate exchange of ideas between Christian graduate groups

The journal deals with the following topics:

*Ordering our private world.*  As we seek to recognize Christ's
 lordship in our lives, many questions and struggles besiege us:  How
 should we divide our time between our studies, our families,  social
 life, prayer, and church activities?  How do those of us who are
 still single deal with the loneliness?  What must a woman do who
 faces the prospect of a career but also desires children?  We are
 expected to be leaders, but how to say No when necessary?  How can
 we avoid being all head and no heart?  How can we overcome our
 introspection and become more socially adept?  How can we keep
 from being condescending with those who have less education?  

*Facets of faith*:
	(1) Understanding our faith.  Here we  discuss faith issues
 that affect how we live.  The topics should be of broad interest
 (e.g., relationship of theology and ethics, modern heresies, past
 mistakes of the church, fundamental doctrines, uniqueness of
 Christianity) rather than technical and specialized.  This is not a
 playing field for the experts:  you don't have to have figured
 everything out in order to contribute.  These papers, as the ones in
 the following sections, may require high horsepower from their
 readers, but should not require detailed knowledge of the subject. 
	(2) Applying our faith.  How do the assumptions and methods of 
 our respective disciplines align with the plumbline of Scripture? 
 We invite articles such as  "The Christian historian," "Concerns
 about genetic engineering," "Is creationism scientifically valid?" "Is
 a Christian poetics viable?" "How is a Christian physicist's work
 different from that of an unbeliever?" "Christians and censorship,"
 "Should scientists work on SDI?" "A Christian philosophy of
 education," "Issues in medical ethics."  
	(3) Communicating our faith.  How far is a scholar to go in
 expressing his Christian worldview in his teaching and other
 professional communications?  We invite philosophical articles on
 the question, but also investigations of how various Christian
 scholars and authors (e.g., C.S. Lewis) did or did not try to
 communicate their Christian perspective in their scholarly work,
 and why.  We hope to include poetry, fiction, and graphic art as
 possible models for communicating our Christian worldview.
	(4) Acting out our faith.  Why and how should we reach out to
 international students, feminists, gay/lesbian groups, the
 homeless? To what extent does Christianity demand political
 involvement?  What issues of social justice should graduate
 students address?  Are we informed and concerned about problems
 such as AIDS, abortion, the exclusion of religion from the
 classrooms, affordable housing, the environment, and social
 security and health insurance issues?  
  
*Currents in contemporary thought* we will approach through:
	(1) Synthetic and feature articles.  What are the assumptions of
 people and groups to whom Christians are/should be reaching out
 (but possibly even Christian groups)?  What do they think of
 Christians, and why? Analyses of current political events and social
 movements, but also of theological/philosophical movements, would
 be most welcome.  We hope to include interviews with leaders of
 various groups (or with an influential playwright, theologian,
 novelist, artist).  
	(2) Reviews.  What recent books (usually not more than two years
 old) are interesting for their conclusions or their worldview?
 Besides scholarly works, reviews of creative works would be
 appropriate:  collections of poetry, fiction pieces, plays, music, art
 exhibits, films.  The works chosen for review need not be about
 Christians or by Christians.  We suggest communicating with the
 editor before undertaking a review.
         (3) Essay by  scholar.  Established Christian scholars will,
 we hope, leap at the opportunity to communicate with us whatever
 is on their heart and to describe how they see things changing in the
 world of ideas today.  Some possibilities for authors might be
 George Marsden, Martin Marty, Cleanth Brooks, Bruce Metzger, Fred
 Brooks, Kenneth Kantzer,  C. Everett Koop, Doris Betts.

*Inter-collegiate network* for the U.S. and abroad:
	(1) Research ideas, reports, calls for help.  What research are
 others conducting that is parallel to ours? Are there possibilities
 of comparing notes and findings? 
	(2) Randy Bare column.  Opportunity for Randy (from
 InterVarsity's  graduate student office) to communicate his vision
 and burdens to us graduate students.
	(3) Graduate group calendars, reports, and concerns.  This section,
 organized by region, will include schedules of major events
 sponsored by various graduate groups  and perhaps short
 summations of what was said at some of the meetings.  It will also
 discuss  questions such as how to balance discipleship and outreach
 goals, how to interact with undergraduates, and what has worked
 from an organizational perspective.  Also, how to organize prayer
 groups, Bible studies, discussion times, seminars, social times,
 weekends away, etc.  In each issue we hope to include a feature
 article on the history, problems, successes,  and failures of one or
 two graduate groups. 

 We at *The Crucible*  see the magazine as a wonderful opportunity
 for us graduate students to put forward our ideas and have them
 discussed.  We encourage you to take part by contributing articles
 and reviews.    Articles should be no longer than 10-12 pages double
 spaced and should follow the MLA stylesheet.  Reviews should be no
 longer than 3 pages double spaced, unless they review more than one
 book.  Reviews should give a short summary of the contents and
 thesis of the work in question, point out the author's conceptual
 bias (worldview, theoretical slant), and give a critique from a
 distinctly Christian perspective.  Poetry, fiction, and graphic art
 (black and white) are most welcome.  All submissions should
 include a brief biographical sketch of the author. 

 Please send us two copies of your typewritten manuscript.  These
 will be sent to referees for review.  We cannot return your articles
 unless you accompany them with a self-addressed, pre-stamped
 envelope. Submissions of articles or reviews on diskette,
 accompanied by hardcopy, are especially welcome.

We hope that you will enjoy  the first issue of The Crucible, which
 we will send to you free if you send us your address, and that you
 will want to subscribe to the magazine.  Inter-Varsity Christian
 Fellowship is giving us some help with the expenses, but
 subscriptions will have to cover most of the costs.  
 Subscriptions cost $8 per year.  

Please send your submissions and/or comments to David Lines,
 editor (snail mail: Department of Computer Science, UNC, Chapel
 Hill, NC 27599-3175; e-mail: lines@cs.unc.edu).   Also feel free to
 call him (919/ 942-7759 at home; 919/ 962-1930 at work) if you
 have any questions or suggestions.