Academic Freedom

A friend sent me this on FaceBook, and I thought it was worth posting here, especially since Lipscomb was the host of the Christian Scholars Conference that I enjoyed so much last week. This article talks about the freedom to discuss God and a Christian worldview, but the academic freedom at the Christian Scholar's Conference goes even beyond that--people are allowed to speak freely about their faith and/or doubt, to make assertions, to disagree with the status quo, to ask questions. In other words, they are allowed to be real, to admit that they are humans with limitations and may not have all the answers. And the audiences (at least those that I was a part of) were willing to listen, to entertain other points of view, to engage in respectful dialogues, whether or not they agreed. It's exhilarating and faith-building to be with people like that, especially when you're singing the hallelujah chorus.

Friday Night Fun

The Tokens Show

A slice of Nashville. Where Bill Moyers meets Prairie Home Companionin a most exquisite intersection of faith, fine arts, and scholarship.

Doubt

Tonight, we get to see a presentation of John Patrick Shanley's play Doubt and afterwards participate in a group discussion led by the playwright himself.

John Patrick Shanley's DOUBT

At the Christian Scholars' Conference

It's 1964, St. Nicholas in the Bronx. A charismatic priest, Father Flynn, is trying to upend the schools' strict customs, which have long been fiercely guarded by Sister Aloysius Beauvier, the iron-gloved Principal who believes in the power of fear and discipline. The winds of political change are sweeping through the community, and indeed, the school has just accepted its first black student, Donald Miller. But when Sister James, a hopeful innocent, shares with Sister Aloysius her guilt-inducing suspicion that Father Flynn is paying too much personal attention to Donald, Sister Aloysius sets off on a personal crusade to unearth the truth and to expunge Flynn from the school. Now, without a shred of proof besides her moral certainty, Sister Aloysius locks into a battle of wills with Father Flynn which threatens to tear apart the community with irrevocable consequences.

Directed by Mike Fernandez, Chair of Lipscomb University's Theater Department

John Patrick Shanley's plays include Defiance, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Savage in Limbo, the dreamer examines his pillow, Beggars in the House of Poverty, Welcome to the Moon, Four Dogs and a Bone, Italian American Reconciliation, The Big Funk, Where's My Money, Dirty Story,Sailor's Song, and Romantic Poetry (a musical). His play Doubt was awarded the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2005 Tony Award for Best Play. In the arena of film, Mr. Shanley has had four spec screenplays produced: Five Corners, Moonstruck, The January Man, and Joe Versus the Volcano. Five Corners won the Special Jury Prize for its screenplay at the Barcelona Theatre Festival. For Moonstruck, Shanley received both the Academy Award and the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay. He also did the film adaptations ofAlive and Congo, as well as Live From Baghdad for HBO. Mr. Shanley directs in both theatre and film. In 2009, Shanley's adaptation of DOUBT, which he directed, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. The film stars Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis, each of whom were nominated for Academy Awards for outstanding performance.

Pre-Conference Event

One of the really nice things about the Christian Scholars Conference, in addition to the well-known plenary speakers and the excellent cross-disciplinary panel presentations, is the entertaining and thought-provoking extra events. Here's tonights': (don't know why the picture's so dark--blame the CSC website)

BURMA VJ

Ward Hall, Lipscomb University

Wednesday, June 2 • 7 p.m.

Free and open to the public.

Interfaith panel discussion with Lipscomb faculty and leaders of the Nashville Buddhist community to follow.

BURMA VJ is the crowning film in Lipscomb's 2009-2010 HumanDocs social-justice documentary series, which included Garbage Dreams, Made in L.A.,The Age of Stupid, Greensboro: Closer to the Truth, and Freedom Riders. The aim of the series is to stimulate reflection about and encourage action around key issues such as economic inequality, workplace injustice, racism, and climate change – areas of particular concern given Lipscomb's roots in the prophetic tradition of the Hebrew Scriptures and the ethical teachings of Jesus.

HumanDocs is a presentation of the School of the Humanities within the College of Arts and Sciences and the Lipscomb Center for International Peace and Justice, in cooperation with the Nashville Film Festival.

In addition to the public Pre-event featuring Burma VJ Wednesday night, the film screens Friday morning 8:45-10:15 during the Christian Scholars' Conference, followed by a 90-minute discussion, "Burma VJ: Documentary Film as Art, Truth-Telling, and Call to Faithful Action." For more information, visit csc.lipscomb.edu, "Paper and Panel Sessions."