Overview
[Currently under development. Two of Five Courses included below]
As part of the Wisdom Initiative, we are developing five courses on faith integration intended for institutions of higher education and para-church organizations that engage with faculty both in the United States and globally. Dr. Geraldine E. Forsberg is creating two such courses: one focuses on the Christian scholar Jacques Ellul, and the other on the author and cultural critic Neil Postman.
Jacques Ellul was a French sociologist and lay theologian from Bordeaux, France. He has authored over fifty books and thousands of articles. As a young man, Ellul developed a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and his readings of the Bible greatly influenced all of his writings. He serves as a model of Christian scholarship for contemporary professors. This course will draw from several of his works, including Perspectives on Our Age, The Presence of the Kingdom, The Humiliation of the Word, The Technological Society, and Propaganda. Ellul once stated that the people who are most susceptible to propaganda are intellectuals. This vulnerability arises from their engagement in the abstract world of ideas rather than the tangible realities of life. It is crucial to help intellectuals recognize the truths of our temporal world alongside the eternal reality of Jesus Christ, which was Ellul’s primary aim in all his writings.
Neil Postman was a prominent media and cultural critic in the 20th century. He founded the media ecology program at New York University and was influenced by the writings of Christian scholar Jacques Ellul. Postman explored the interconnected areas of education, media, and technology—three key factors shaping our lives and culture today. In this course, students and professors will read Postman’s books: Teaching as a Conserving Activity, The Disappearance of Childhood, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Technopoly, and The End of Education. Those taking the course will be challenged to examine their own thinking about the state of the educational system. To have a change in higher education, those teaching and working in this arena must be encouraged to think critically about their own assumptions and presuppositions. This course will strategically reach professors in private and secular universities with the ultimate Reality of Jesus Christ.