No Ordinary Blog—I Hope

Consider these three very different questions:

• Is literature still necessary in an era when we have video games and Facebook to bring us together and make us feel not so alone?
• Is there any question more disturbing for me to hear from students than, “Do we have to know this?,” as if the goal is to keep their brains free of any knowledge that isn’t absolutely required to be there?
• As a writer, when I consider the hundreds of thousands of books published every year, added to the millions of books already available free at the library, why is it that I still can’t help myself from going through the anguish of writing one more book to add to that enormous pile?

As I launch the Life of the Mind and Soul blog, those are just a few of the many questions I hope to explore, and I don’t plan to do all the talking. As this blog develops, I particularly hope to bring in voices from the lively intellectual community where I work, Azusa Pacific University. The blog will be targeted not just to readers at my university, but also to curious readers far beyond our campus who may be interested in some of the issues we’re dealing with—issues of literature, spirituality, science, current events, writing, and others. My hope is that the blog will not simply report on…what people are saying and doing, but rather it will be an acting out of our intellectual and spiritual life, as new voices are invited to join the discussion.

The Life of the Mind and Soul blog will appear here and also on the website for the Honors Program at APU. Students and faculty—and readers beyond the university—will be invited to submit guest posts, engage in debates with other bloggers, and respond to posts from others.

Every week at APU we have guest speakers—scientists, poets, theologian, historians—giving their views on every imaginable issue. What are they saying, and what do we have to say in response? I hope to include not just overviews of some of their best moments but also interviews, debates, book reviews, and personal reflections. I hope in time to also include an occasional “Best Lecture” feature, in which a popular professor with a known great lecture shows us some of the ideas that so captivate students.

Some of this will not be in place until the Fall of 2012, when students and faculty return from summer break. In the meantime, I will begin posting on the issues mentioned earlier and invite others to join me. I will also post about issues I care about personally—writing and the creative process, spiritual issues that I deal with in my books, questions of literature, and fun items that defy any simple category. I invite you to subscribe to this blog and suggest topics and guest bloggers. I also plan to publish a Life of the Mind and Soul newsletter four times a year, which you can sign up for on my website’s home page. I hope you will join the discussion!