Last Friday night, I was elected President of the Evangelical History Association. Before you fall over yourselves to congratulate me, though, note that there wasn't much competition. I was the only nomination for President and the position of Vice-President is still vacant!The EHA has been around for just over twenty years. Its original purpose was:
To encourage evangelical Christian scholars to explore the relationship between their faith and historical studies;
To provide a forum for discussion of philosophies of history, to survey current scholarship, and to foster research perceived generally from the point of view of Evangelical Christianity; and
To establish more effective means of interaction among historians professing evangelical Christian faith and associated with tertiary institutions in Australia.
A strong and vibrant group during the late 1980s and 1990s, the EHA was instrumental in stimulating and disseminating historical research on evangelicalism in Australia. In recent years it has maintained a seminar series and issued an occassional journal, Lucas. However, its membership base has dwindled and the organisation has struggled to maintain its former energy. The founding generation of scholars (including Mark Hutchinson and Stuart Piggin) are keen to encourage the Association's reinvigoration and reinvention - by passing its leadership on to new people ... hence my election.
What exactly am I in for? I suspect its partly up to me!
Pic: detail from the Berlin wall [ML]
5 comments:
Saludo El Presidente!
Perhaps compose a rousing anthem to be sung at each meeting? :-)
Anyway, good to see the baton passed on. All the best.
Funny you should mention singing, Stephen. The AGM was tacked on to the end of a meeting marking the 500th anniversary of calvin's birth. There was a research paper on an aspect of calvin's thought about worship and church, a sermon on a passage from Timothy and ... a birthday cake for the reformer himself! I was out of the room feeding Jemima when it happened, but the group actually sung happy birthday to him! One of the more bizarre experiences I've had recently.
Congragulations!
I guess to reinvigerate the association it would be quite strategic to get a website up and running (I'm assuming the EHA don't have one).
The cake thing certainly is unusual.
Post a Comment