Reading the Bible and the World
Protestant Wisdom Foundations I
A 12 day summer program
With Dr. Joseph Minich
Date
JuNE 17-29
Summer 2024
Cost
$1200
Standard Price
About the Program
This two-week residential course will introduce you to the patterns of God’s self-revelation in his world and his Word, to tools and strategies employed by the church historically and today for reading this revelation well, and to wisdom in applying this discernment of God’s will to your own life and calling.
Each day will begin with Scripture study on a passage relevant to the theme of the course, with afternoons spent in lectures and Socratic discussion seminars. In addition to accessible contemporary introductions, students will grapple with key texts in the Christian tradition that shed light on the relationship of Word and world.
“The biggest and perhaps most useful thing I got out of the course was a framework for Christian discernment. Whether discerning marriage, discerning a call to marriage, or thinking through current events, I believe the things I learned over our two weeks together have given me a very helpful framework with which to think through these things.”
Jacob Harding
“I think every Christian would come away from this course with skills to help them think wisely about their faith and God’s creation.”
Coleman Rafferty
Reading the Bible and the World
The Lord reveals his glory to us through what many of our fathers in the faith called his “two books”: Scripture and nature. Both lie open to us: the latter sufficient to render us without excuse, the former sufficient to make us wise unto salvation, and both together sufficient to guide our footsteps faithfully on the tortuous paths of discipleship that lie before us. However, we are fools if we imagine that the clarity of God’s communication to us excuses us from the duty of being good readers. The great calling of every Christian is to grow in our skills of learning to attentively, discerningly, humbly read and interpret God’s revelation in both Scripture and nature, standing on the shoulders and sitting at the feet of the church’s wisdom through the centuries.
YOUR READINGS
Readings will include selections from:
- Andrew Wilson and Alastair Roberts, Echoes of Exodus
- Albert Wolters, Creation Regained
- John W. Hilber, Old Testament Cosmology and Divine Accommodation
- Richard Hooker, Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity in Modern English
- Pierre Emonet, God Seen in the Mirror of the World, The Dearest Freshness Deep Down Things
- C.S Lewis, Discarded Image
Together, readings and discussions will provide an intense but rewarding time of intellectual stimulation, laying a foundation for faithful Christian discipleship in the modern world, rooted in the wisdom of the past.
ALL ARE INVITED TO APPLY
For Davenant Hall Students: If you are pursuing the Certificate or M.Litt degree, participation in this residential program is required. It is worth 3 credits, as is PWF I (Only Protestant Wisdom Foundations I is required for Certificate students, Both I and II for M.Litt students).
WHY TAKE THE COURSE?
You will join us this summer for one of our Protestant Wisdom Foundations courses at The Davenant House and experience a deep dive into how to be an intelligent, faithful, and historically-grounded Protestant in the twenty-first century.
Students will spend twelve days in the beautiful and restful setting of our Davenant House retreat center in the Carolina Blue Ridge foothills: worshiping together, preparing meals together, reading together, debating together, and learning from our team of gifted teachers.
Each day’s schedule will also have time for gardening, quiet reflection, or nature walks in the woods.
The cost for attending the program is just $1200 ($849 if you register by April 15th), with some scholarship opportunities available.
This includes all of your meals, room and board for the period of your stay. Although we encourage students to be residential for the full experience, a limited number of commuter students will be accepted. Some scholarships are available for students for whom the cost is prohibitive.
If you are tired of easy answers for hard questions, you fit the vision of the Davenant House.
“The Church, now as always, needs open discussion of important, intellectual issues, as well as active collaboration and fellowship among Christians in advancing the mission of the Church, and the Davenant House is a good effort towards that direction.“
Angie Tang
MEET YOUR INSTRUCTOR
Dr. Joseph Minich
Dr. Joseph Minich (Ph.D. University of Texas at Dallas) is the Residential Teaching Fellow with The Davenant Institute and Editor-in-Chief of The Davenant Press. The founding editor of Ad Fontes, he is also the author of Enduring Divine Absence (Davenant Press 2017) and Bulwarks of Unbelief: Atheism and Divine Absence in a Secular Age (Lexham Press, 2023), and a current co-host of the Pilgrim Faith podcast. His public writing can be found at The Calvinist International, Mere Orthodoxy, Modern Reformation, and the Ad Fontes blog. He lives at Davenant House in Landrum, South Carolina.
“The Davenant House has all the ingredients for a stimulating period of intellectual and spiritual growth: excellent books, stirring conversations, homemade meals, stunning nature vistas, and a commitment to pursue wisdom together through communal work, reasoning, and recreation. I’ve never experienced such a unified curricula, where each week—drawing on Aristotle, Aquinas, Calvin, and post-Reformation theologians—built upon the last and the selected texts incrementally brought us closer to the real, enduring, and solid principles of life in God’s world.“
Jonathan Kuo
