Introducing the IPC Academic Review Panel Featured Blog

Dear Crossleft Community,   The Institute for Progressive Christianity, fashioned out of the CrossLeft community approximately two years ago is a Christian think tank that ecumenically weaves together the progressive Christians of Orthodox, Catholic, Evangelical, Mainline Protestant, and Liberal backgrounds.  In its two years of existence it has been gathering momentum toward a faithful, inspired, impassioned and yet reasoned and analytical articulation of Christianity as a progressive journey of greater love and justice toward others and a deeper personal communion with God.  The Academic Review Panel is the work group at the IPC charged with incubating, generating and supporting the products of the IPC.   This featured blog, “IPC Academic Review Panel” is the presence of the IPC’s Academic Work Group here at CrossLeft.  Here you will see. -         Editorial blog posts, that is commentary on current events and news. -         Announcements regarding new academic pieces and explanations of their relevance to the task of integrating the spirituality of our faith with the spirituality of our political and civic action. -         Online article series on subjects the IPC is engaging. -         Press Releases of the IPC and of other organizations with which the IPC is in partnership.   One thing that some will find intriguing about this blog is the flexibility and variety of the styles employed in our writing.  Some of our posts will be standard academic texts written formally in third person language.  Other posts will be narrative in nature, written from a first person perspective.  This flexibility and variety of styles is reflective of the IPC’s commitment to integrating reason and faith.     An aspect of the Academic Review Panel’s philosophy of production is that it consciously seeks to unite the intellectual and analytic with the artistic and the intuitive.  This desire to integrate is a conscious choice born out of a creative process that intentionally invites the Spirit into the academic analytic process.  As the ministry of Jesus indicates, narrative formats are able to convey certain types of meaning that third person objective analytical prose cannot.  Moreover, this integration acknowledges the insights of our post-modern time in which we understand that truth is perceived by both our intuition and our intellect.   No matter the form or style of the presentation of the material, the entries on this blog represent the wider perspective of the IPC Academic Review Panel.   We hope that you find the material presented here to be engaging and inspiring to your deepening connection to God and to others.   Zeus Yiamouyiannis PhD and Otis Gaddis III, Esq. Co-Directors of IPC Academic Review Panel.