Liberamente issue 11

Student News | Issue 11, 2012

In This Issue: Staff and student welcome Tabor Adelaide Library Award ATEA Conference Science and Faith Seminars Creativity as a call to virtue Intermed

Liberamente

‘freely, with liberty’

A New Academic Year WELCOME BACK TO STUDENTS AND STAFF 2012!

Tabor Adelaide offers a warm welcome to students and staff beginning and recommencing their time at the university in 2012.

We hope that the 2012 academic year is filled with growth, learning, friendship and much success!

Tabor Adelaide welcomes Oksana Feklistova as our new Library Manager

Position Vacancies

Remember to make note of the following dates:

20 February Semester 1 begins 19 - 28 March Science and Faith Seminars 21 April Tabor Adelaide Graduation Ceremony - Class of 2011

Prior to joining Tabor Adelaide, I worked in academic, government and special libraries, including the Barr Smith at Adelaide Uni, the Curriculum Centre at the Education Department, the Ministerial Research library at the Department of Business and Trade, and the State Library of SA. The last five years have been filled with teaching computing and managing the library at the Centre for English Language at UniSA. Starting at Tabor Adelaide in October 2011, I can’t stop being impressed by the qualities, talents, warmth and generosity of people here. Both staff and students are so dedicated, passionate and fun to talk with!

Key dates to remember!

13 February Orientation Week

Teaching qualification at Flinders University.

Back then libraries were places for quiet individual study, with no talking or noise allowed. What we used to do was go to a café after lectures and share our study notes and ideas around a coffee table. I hope we can promote this sort of environment in the Tabor Adelaide library, for the exchange of academic ideas and to develop academic camaraderie.

Eighteen years ago I made the physical, spiritual and cultural journey from my home in Estonia (then part of Russia) to Adelaide. In Estonia I studied at the University of Tartu, which was established in the 1600s and one of the oldest universities in Europe. I completed a double degree in Philology (Literature & Linguistics) and Education. Boris, my first son, was born in between my courses of Latin and Arthurian legends. He was 3 when we came to Australia and it took him just a few months to learn English, while I’m still struggling, and people around me have to get use to my strong Russian accent. Sorry guys! My other son Dennis, is now in year 4 and teaching me all about digital games.

In Adelaide, I studied for a Grad Dip in Information Management at UniSA, and a

We live in a multidimensional world of print and digital material and mobile devices. It’s challenging and constantly changing. You “blink”, and everyone around you talks about things you don’t understand. Kids learn about laptops and iPhones before they can speak - we have to learn it the hard way! It’s wonderful to see staff at Tabor not being afraid to learn new skills and smiling as they face these challenges.

I’d like our students and staff to see the Library as a safe, comfortable work space where you can find help when you need to, share your ideas with your friends and colleagues, prepare for group assignments, and help each other to discover the best ways of getting good quality academic sources for your studies and research.

I hope you will all share in the excitement of developments in the library in 2012.

Oksana Feklistova - Library Manager

02 | Liberamente. “freely, with liberty”

From the Principal 2012 ATEA Conference Going for Gold!

Please join me in congratulating the School of Education for their initiative and involvement in the 2012 Australian Teacher Education Association (ATEA) Conference. Both our involvement and being co-badged with the three Adelaide Universities on all the conference promotional material makes a huge statement to key players about our quality, capacity and acceptance in the sector.

Great initiative and great perseverance to work it through. Well done indeed!

Don Owers - Principal

Tabor Adelaide selected as an ISSR library award recipient In the second week of January 2012 eight large boxes of books were delivered to Tabor Adelaide’s Millswood premises. The boxes contained a remarkable 224-volume library of scholarly books, bound in matching black hard covers with gold lettering, which collectively provide a comprehensive foundation for study, teaching and research in science, religion and related fields.

The titles are representative of the most important authors in their field, and treat the vast range of interdisciplinary subject matter at the highest level of quality and scholarship. The award was given by the International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR) based in Cambridge, England, to only 150 institutions worldwide, following a competitive judging process. Institutions were selected on the basis of their commitment to research and study in science and religion, institutional support for related projects, and original and promising plans for scholarly activity related to the Library.

The collection will be housed in the new Graeme Clark Research Institute (GCRI) resource centre at Tabor Adelaide, alongside other resources devoted to the interface between science and religion.

Dr Graham Buxton, Director of the GCRI, who applied for the grant last year, said, “We are honoured and thrilled to receive this exceptionally fine library of books covering a very wide range of subject areas, including spirituality, philosophy, the environment, cosmology, biology, neuroscience, the history and philosophy of science, and encyclopedic monographs. We are especially excited to be the only institution in Australasia to receive this award, and anticipate that it will be widely used by those who are keen to expand their interest and scholarship in the growing discipline of science-religion studies.”

Science and Faith Conference God and Science In the Pulpit and in the Classroom Tabor Adelaide‘s Graeme Clark Research Institute will present the free seminars God and Science – In the Pulpit and God and Science – in the Classroom, Australia wide, from March 19-28, 2012.

Beginning in Adelaide on the 19th, this seminar series aims to explore the often misunderstood relationship between science and faith, which has – over the years – often generated more heat than light. The purpose of the seminars is to dispel the myth that we have to make a simplistic choice between science and faith. This usually happens when people either fear science, thinking that it has the potential to shipwreck faith, or when they scorn faith, thinking that it has nothing to do with science, or is inferior to it. Others are simply confused by the whole issue.

Although the topic within the Christian schooling system and church community can be seen as a challenging one, the seminars aim to assure religious leaders and educators that a discussion about science is not to be feared. Questions about how we can help young minds cope with the attack that science seems to make upon their developing understanding of God and the compatibility between science and faith will be addressed.

Reverend Dr Graham Buxton, Director of the Graeme Clark Institute and one of the key speakers, comments, ‘Science and faith should be seen as allies not enemies. Two monologues don’t make a dialogue. All interested in science and faith need to adopt a spirit of humility and openness, so that each side can learn from the other. That is the purpose of these seminars.’

Seminars will run for 1.5 hours leaving ample time for questions and discussion. Key speakers will include Reverend Dr Graham Buxton, Reverend Dr Mark Worthing and Reverend Chris Mulherin; all highly respected educators and pastors.

Register at www.taboradelaide.edu.au

03 | Liberamente. “freely, with liberty”

Creativity as a call to virtue Sooner or later, the writer of creative fiction seems bound to ask just how free are my characters?

Good writers strive to make their characters as free as possible – to give them a life of their own – and often report being startled by the things their characters do or say, sometimes in total opposition to the author’s own scruples. That kind of lifelike freedom is valued in literature and is a hallmark of fine writing.

But to what extent can we accomplish this and on what does it depend?

Tolkien famously described the work of the artist as an act of ‘subcreation’, echoing the creative work of God the Father. As such, the author’s attempt to ensure the freedom of her characters is comparable to God’s relationship to his human creatures, and likewise raises the whole question of free will ‘versus’ predestination. If God is all-powerful, all-knowing, our freewill can start to look like an illusion – surely, if God’s pulling the strings, we’re bound to a fate not of our choosing. Indeed, Catholic philosopher, Peter Kreeft, suggests that if God is understood merely as supreme knowledge/power, then the problem of human freedom is most alarming. But, Kreeft reminds us, because God is also, and quintessentially, supreme, divine Love, it is possible for free will and (predestination to hang together. The two are both sides of the one coin – God gets his way, so to speak, but in the way he wants, which is by our free will.

To leap from this theological discussion back to creative writing, can we say that a capacity for love is vital for our ability to give free reign to our characters, and so to write better fiction?

Obviously, the writer’s ability on this front is not equal to God’s.

Even so, our capacity to love others (both real and imagined) seems essential to the writer’s art.

But how do we come to love others? And why should we? How and why do we love the unlovable – the rogues and the villains or simply the jaded (who are so important to a good story), and not just the more affable characters?

By what leap of faith are we able to love our neighbor as we love ourselves? What is the mode of vision that will enable us to see clearly the truth in others that warrants (in fact demands) the loving response? We might go further and ask, what can hinder such a clear vision? And how might we improve it?

It seems to me these are important questions for the creative writer. Further, the importance of such questions reinforces the idea that creative writing is very much a moral activity – not that creative writing makes you a better person, but that the pursuit of creativity entails a constant invitation to virtue.

Too often, I think, we hold to some romantic ideal of the creative individual as a kind of rogue spirit, a law unto herself, able to take all kinds of liberties with impunity for the sake of her art.

There may be a grain of truth behind that ideal. But with such a

conception in mind, I fear, we’re apt to forget that good writing, like all good art, requires a certain un-selfing, an ability to put oneself out of the picture. Or, as novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch put it, to ‘silence the fat relentless ego’. Interestingly, Murdoch also maintained that this ability, marked by an attitude she termed ‘the habit of attention’, is central to the moral life.

And so we begin to see that the moral life, our ethics, is part and parcel with our creativity, our life and work as writers/artists. The struggle to write well – to be a maker of good art – is of a piece with the struggle to be good: that is, to see and respond to the world as it truly is.

James Cooper - Senior Lecturer and Masters Research Coordinator School of Humanities and Social Science

Intermed - Class of 2012

In January Tabor Adelaide hosted Intermed SA’s 15th Summer School in International Health and Development, with 22 participants attending from Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and various states in Australia. The intensive 3 week course and the optional 4th week, are specifically designed to equip Christian health care professionals with knowledge and skills to practice effectively in health and development programs in less developed/ less resourced contexts of the world.

After being at Tabor for nearly a month, the Intermed course finished last Thursday the 2nd of February. God has really been with this group and the feedback about the program and Tabor facilities has been very positive.

It was fantastic to see several staff participate in the daily morning worship during the first three weeks.

The Intermed staff team thank those of you who have contributed to making their stay comfortable, welcoming, positive and worthwhile.

We look forward to having another group in 2013.

David Turnbull - Senior Lecturer in Intercultural Studies

04 | Liberamente. “freely, with liberty”

Calling all Volunteers!

Tabor Needs You!

JOB VACANCIES OFFICE SECRETARY WANTED

Are you wanting to volunteer and get involved? Tabor may have a job for you!

If you have a green thumb, an aptitude for handyman work or some library or administration skills, Tabor would love to hear from you!

Currently there are volunteer positions in the areas of gardening, ground maintenance, administration and the library.

Working hours are flexible and negotiable and your time would be much appreciated within the Tabor community.

If interested please contact the HR Manager via email address: hrtabor@adelaide.tabor.edu.au

FamilyVoice Australia is seeking a suitably motivated person to be responsible for office duties in our busy Adelaide office, commencing immediately.

This full-time paid position involves a wide variety of tasks during our normal office hours of 9 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday. The work is varied and involves computer-based applications such as database, receipting, banking, word processing, email, internet searching and spreadsheets.

For more information phone Rob Nobel (National Administrator) on 08 8223 6383 - or make an appointment to visit the FamilyVoice office at 4th Floor, 68 Grenfell Street, Adelaide.

Please send your application by Wed 29 February 2012 to Rob Nobel, National Administrator FamilyVoice Australia, 4th Floor, 68 Grenfell Street, Adelaide SA 5000 or Email: job@fava.org.au

Children/Youth Director

181 Goodwood Rd Millswood SA 5034 PO Box 1777 Unley SA 5061 tel. +61 8 8373 8777 fax. +61 8 8373 1766 www.taboradelaide.edu.au

Rivergate Christian Community is a vibrant evangelical church that is committed to hearing and obeying God’s calling. We have a growing number of children and young people and we are seeking a Youth/Children’s Director who is passionate about discipiling our young people.

Contact Us.

Initially the role will focus on discipiling our children and youth on Sunday mornings and running other activities during the week. We are seeking a mature Christian, with a passion for ministry with youth, children and their families.

The successful candidate must also be willing to become a member of Rivergate Christian Community and participate in the life and worship of the church.

Tabor Adelaide, located in South Australia, is a multi denominational Christian Education Centre offering government accredited courses at tertiary level.

The role is 2 days a week (including Sundays). Youth and/ or Children’s ministry qualifications, and experience in a similar role, are preferred.

Newsletter Enquiries: liberamente@adelaide.tabor.edu.au General Enquiries: enquiry@adelaide.tabor.edu.au Library Enquiries: library@adelaide.tabor.edu.au Student Services: studentservices@adelaide.tabor.edu.au

For a copy of the job description, please email cdbishop@ adam.com.au and to discuss the role further please call Nick Hawkes on 83655107

Tertiary education with a Christian perspective.

Applications close on Wednesday 15 February 2012.