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.