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Who is Gord Carkner, the GCU resource person?
Cell: 778-840-3549
Phone: 604-222-3549
Email: gcarkner@shaw.ca
B
Sc. in Human Physiology, Queen’s University; Master of Divinity,
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Chicago; PhD University of Wales
in Philosophical Theology studying a critique of the postmodern moral self.
Research and reading interests: a student of science, theology and the
humanities. Gord has diversified his interests over the years (1980s in
the relationship of science and theology; 1990s and beyond in
Postmodern thought and culture). He is presently focusing on the
recovery of the good in ethics in Western thought, following the lead
of Canadian philosopher, Charles Taylor, of McGill University. His
dissertation (completed in 2006) focused on a critique of the moral
self in the famous Parisian intellectual Michel Foucault. He also holds
a strong interest in Christian Apologetics, as it facilitates dialogue
with those who believe differently, and holds out a strong optimism for
the potential contribution of Christian thought and debate to academic
discourse.
He has been serving with grad students and faculty at UBC over the past
decade and more. Prior to that, he worked in Ontario at University of Waterloo,
Wilfrid Laurier and Guelph with IVCF Canada, mostly with undergraduates.
Father of two girls, Kierianne and Hannah, in partnership with his wife
Ute who is known for excellent hospitality and a strong commitment to
prayer and spiritual depth.
We
also have a student leadership executive and you will be hearing from
them as well. But 'we' are fundamentally 'you' and your contribution to
life and witness at UBC. Join us for an exciting adventure and some
great conversation.
To be added to the email listserv, contact: gcarkner@shaw.ca
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Seven Pillars of GCU: keeping balance in our growth and skill development.
'Pillar'
represents those goals which gives life stability, depth and rootedness, and
offers meaning. The image comes to mind from watching a huge
machine hammering steel posts into the soil in order to build a good
foundation for a condo building on a beach on Vancouver Island. These
pillars are fruitful commitments that help us keep life’s
anxieties, storms and troubles in perspective, but also feed us with
inspiration and guidance. These GCU pillars are
grounded in the goodness of God and a dynamic attitude of thankfulness.
Evil or human brokenness is not the appropriate marker for our
identity. We refuse cynicism and despair in favour of faith, hope and
charity. These are values that can be taught to your children and
grandchildren, and they offer us a basis for fruitful conversation
within the GCU community this year. They will help us balance work,
service, family, God, reflection, healing and creativity in our
narrative quest, carry us a good distance in life’s journey
towards happiness, meaning and personal depth of self—spiritual
wholeness or shalom. Below find the seven pillars of creative faithfulness which
we can continue to pound deeper into our lives over the years ahead.
Creation:
this poorly understood doctrine of the faith is absolutely vital in
understanding what is distinctive about the Judeo-Christian religion.
It has significant implications for knowledge of self, the world and
knowing who God is. Genesis 1: “And it was good, this God-shaped
and inspired world, a product of his passion for goodness. Humans are
made in his image to embrace and do the good, for fellowship with the
divine; they are created out of love to be loved, and to love, and
finally to steward in love. This is our first marker.
Charity:
This pillar includes the creative gifts of compassion and hospitality,
justice-seeking, expressed as a commitment to the good of the Other
(especially the disadvantaged). There are over a thousand verses of
scripture dedicated to concern for the poor and marginalized. How are
we to wash their feet? We are given so much in terms of our gifts and
the privilege of study at the postgrad level of education. As followers
of Jesus, we are called to humble servanthood, to take responsibility
for the well-being of others. Our education is not only for our
personal growth; we have a greater task. How may we give back to
society and help to build community, a sense of neighbourhood and
village? Christians ought to be active ‘entrepreneurs of the
good’ as they shape the use of their freedom and set the course
of their lives. Romans 12; I Corinthians 13.
Thankfulness:
This involves appreciating all of life as an ongoing gift from God
daily, appreciating his goodness to us in the everyday details of our
journey. It is a cultivated art. Life is deeply enriched through the
vulnerability and appreciation of gift, sheer wonder at the mercy of
God. The Sabbath Principle as an outlook is important to nurture this
element of creative faithfulness: we need time to retreat and collect
our soul or self, in order to refocus on the ‘God texture’
of the world, rather than lose our soul in the busyness of our
pursuits. This means allowing God to be God and not myself and my
worries; we recover transcendence and awe. “Give thanks to Yahweh
(the Lord) for he is good and his love endures forever.”
Redemptive
Character of Grace: This is where we refuse cynicism about people and
life in our urban landscape, where we hold out hope for redemptive
depth and impact of the divine. Nor do we give up on our self; God
certainly does not. It involves a radical optimism in the face of human
brokenness, based in God’s reality and God’s track record
of centuries of committed human redemption. This is the biblical
narrative in kind. It transcends judgment and condemnation of others,
even those most offensive to us, and leans into the strong embrace of
Christ’s self-giving, sacrificial love. II Peter 1 states that
grace is available for our ongoing transformation and that we need it
continuously to move towards maturity and to live on a spiritual
cutting edge. Solzhenitsyn once said at a Harvard graduation that we
are here on earth for moral growth, not wealth creation and
self-indulgence. Putting self under the influence of grace means a
committed pursuit of the virtues of faith and the fruits of the Holy
Spirit—power to change.
Stewardship:
This is something which is getting much media attention these days. It
calls for a new attitudinal posture from our radical Western
individualism, our conquest of nature and our acquisitiveness. It
involves thinking communally, in terms of global village and sharing
creation with all these wonderful and diverse species. This is very
relevant to the trajectory of our studies and future work. Will our
scholarship, science, technology and business management involve
life-enhancing, redemptive research and issue in the production of
helpful resources and goods. Will it serve humanity and preserve the
long-term viability of life on the planet? Stewardship is an issue for
all aspects of our lives: our time, talent and money. There is, in a
sense, a need to recalibrate, or refocus, our efforts and our
technology, time for a paradigm shift in thinking about our place in
the world. This is all endemic to thinking Christianly; it is a space
where Christians can have a powerful and creative contribution.
Ethics: The
broader culture is suffering a major deficit of conscience and
consciousness in this area; they do not have a language for it.
Aesthetic spin and managed image has often replaced moral integrity,
truth-telling honesty, the will to do the right thing, avoid evil, and
resist temptation. Vices have re-invented by a postmodern culture as
virtues with a hard focus on my freedom of choice and
self-articulation. Students cheat to get ahead at an alarming rate in
our Canadian universities, for example. So many have given up
discipline and hard work, holiness and purity of life for the famous
shortcut to get what I want when I want it. Taught to self-construct
from an early age, ethics is the last thing on their minds and often
taken as a barrier to self-fulfilment. This is a place for believers to
take a ‘prophetic stance’ and write a different story, to
think and live distinctively (avec différence). Christian
students and faculty can engage the tough ethical questions and enter
the public debates creatively, courageously, and
fruitfully—towards constructive, wise contributions.
Christian
Scholarship: One of the early church fathers, Tertullian, asked a
question that presses in on us today at UBC: “What has Athens to
do with Jerusalem?” What has faith to say to academic scholarship
at the heart of the social, political and intellectual contexts of
various disciplines? As Christians, we are called to serve the
university community as a whole and contribute to its scholarship
Christianly; isolation and withdrawal is not a viable option. There is
far too much at stake. Our incarnational discourse intersects and
engages; we start as well as join ongoing conversations on every topic
that is of public interest with thoughtfulness. God’s intention
to gather up all human activities, whether in the sciences, business,
government and the arts, into Christ and under his Lordship. Jesus
Christ goes ahead of us into the campus each day as Lord of the
universe and the university; we need to help bring his presence to
awareness with courage, clarity and wisdom. We do well to help people
access the means of grace available to them. What is the appropriate
place of art and aesthetics given the doctrine of creation? Surely it
cannot be an end in itself (art for art’s sake), nor as an
ideological structure for ethics, but rather connected to the beauty,
mystery and glory of God. What is the appropriate status of science? Is
it all we need to know, or final knowledge? How is cultural, humanistic
literature engaged by biblical literature and theology? What kind of
agenda would God have for the human sciences? We can ask tough
questions and advance important areas of discussion and research
because we believe this is a world loved by God, and we have minds to
be used creatively for him and for our fellow pilgrims.
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