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fully combine all three activities.Good popularizing requires special

skills: an ability to develop a broad syn-optic vision; an instinct for quickly discerning the most crucial issues; a personality and mind that enjoy mov-ing quickly from one issue to another; and the ability to write clearly and powerfully. Plato said that if the wise disdain the task of politics, then they must suffer being governed by fools. Somebody will write popularizing books. If those with scholarly training will not do it, they should not complain when those with little expertise do it badly, embar-rass the church, and mislead laypeople with one-sided, simplistic nonsense. (That is not to say that scholarly training guarantees wisdom or that lack of schol-arly training entails lack of wisdom.)

I hope and pray that at least a hand-ful in the next generation of Christian scholars will prayerfully recognize in themselves the gifts, develop the skills, and pay the price of becoming far better popularizers and more effective activists than I have managed to be.

I’m excited that Palmer Seminary at Eastern University (where I teach) and the Sider Center on Ministry and Public Policy/Evangelicals for Social Action (which I direct) are partnering to offer two new programs designed to nurture precisely such a generation of scholars/popularizers/activists.

A new joint appointment (see the ad on page 3), to begin in the fall of 2008, is now being announced: a tenure-track appointment for a professor of public policy and Christian ethics at Palmer Seminary and coordina-tor of public policy programs for ESA. This person will teach three or four courses a year at the seminary and coor-dinate ESA’s numerous activities in public policy. This person will be encouraged to combine good teaching and scholar-ship with popular writing and organiz-ing Christians to shape public life.

We already have one such joint

appointment (Al Tizon, who is assistant professor of evangelism and holistic min-istry at Palmer and also director of ESA’s Word & Deed Network), and now we will have a second.

If interested in applying for this posi-tion, write to me (rsider@eastern.edu) or Palmer’s academic dean, Dr. Elouise Renich Fraser (efraser@eastern.edu).

The second new program involves an exciting new scholarship pro-gram at Palmer Seminary (see the ad on the back cover). Palmer is offer-ing 10 Sider Scholarships and 10 Wallis (as in Jim Wallis) Scholarships for 2008-2009. Each scholarship (for full-time students) covers half of tuition and is worth over $6,000 per year. Each schol-ar will work 10 hours a week (September through May) in a variety of ESA-relat-ed programs in public policy, holistic ministry, and popular writing (working on PRISM and the ePistle). Four of these scholars are also eligible for an Ayres or Wilberforce Scholarship worth an addi-tional $4,000 a year (these scholars work 15 hours a week). These scholarships are renewable for two to three years. Many of these students, I hope, will go on to do doctoral studies in ethics, politics, economics, sociology, theology, etc., and then become leaders in church and soci-ety as scholars/popularizers/activists.

These scholars can enroll in the MDiv or MTS program at Palmer. The MTS program includes a concentration in Christian faith and public policy. (Interested persons can contact Dr. Steve Hutchison, director of admissions at semadmis@eastern.edu.)

I am excited about both of these pro-grams and intend to be an active men-tor for the Sider and Wallis Scholars, and I look forward to encouraging and nur-turing the new joint appointment in public policy. In both cases, I pray, God will be at work raising up younger scholars/activists/popularizers who will faithfully lead the church in the com-ing decades. ■

Needed: A Few More Scholars/Popularizers/

Activists

Church and society are often misled by people offering simplistic, one-sided answers to the big issues of their time. They pretend to know what they are talking about, even though they lack the necessary expertise. Evangelicalism, espe-cially, with its strong anti-intellectual strain, has often—whether one thinks of eschatology, science, family life, or poli-tics—been badly served by popularizers and activists with simplistic ideas and superficial solutions. Nor will that change unless more people with good scholarly training become effective popularizers and successful activists.

I did not consciously set out to com-bine scholarship, popularizing, and activ-ism, but that’s where my journey has led.

I spent several years of my life in intense academic study preparing to be a Renaissance/ Reformation historian and then taught only one course in that area in my entire life. When people come up and thank me for “my book,” I assume they mean the nontechnical, easy-to-read Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, not my scholarly dissertation on a 16th-century theologian.

A few years ago I wrote an article for Christian Scholar’s Review reflecting on my personal journey trying to be a scholar, popularizer, and activist. In it I said that such a road is not for everyone. While there are a few exceptions, like Martin Marty, most people cannot attempt the level of popularizing and activism I have sought and also become a widely recognized scholar. Both church and soci-ety need more people who can success-

RON SIDER

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