Academics in the real world?

I learned several things last weekend at the Southwest Commission on Religious Studies. For those who don't know (which is, of course, almost everyone--part of the point of this blog), this is the regional meeting of members of such austere groups as Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), American Academy of Religion (AAR), American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR), and Association for the Scientific Study of Religion (ASSR). I have included these names and their alphabet soup abbreviations for a purpose, which you will soon learn. At this meeting, academics present papers representing their research to groups of other academics who share their research interests. Yes, it can be as scintillating (and boring) as it sounds.  

I learned that presenting papers at these meetings makes you feel more a part of the conference. I know this seems obvious, but since I have been doing double-duty at the school (teaching and administration) for several years, I have not written many papers. This year I presented two papers, which gave me a new sense of credibility (perhaps only imaginary, but it still felt good) to discuss a variety of matters with people in the meetings. 

The other things I learned--the real point of this blog--is that many people feel my frustration at the failure of academics to make connection with the world at large. I presented two papers on Jeremiah 29:11. One of these papers was an interpretation of the verse based on the Hebrew text. However, the paper was more than this. I wanted to suggest ways that academics could help the church read this verse. As many of you know, Jeremiah 29:11 is everywhere these days--from websites, plaques, posters, t-shirts, songs, blogs, and magazines (this ubiquity was the topic of the second paper). However, the verse is usually misread to be a promise to every individual follower of Jesus that God has a great plan for that individual life. Sometimes it becomes a mantra recited in faith to somehow bring about the hope which it presents. Now, I am not against the idea that God has a plan for individuals, but I do have a problem with reading Jeremiah 29:11 this way. The verse is a promise to the exiled people of ancient Israel that, even in the darkness of Babylon, God is with them. God is watching over them. God will deliver them--after they are faithful to make Babylon better and learn to seek God wholeheartedly again.

My purpose in blog is not to interpret the paper. I will post the paper to the blog at a later date for that. For now, it will suffice to say that I found virtually no academic work that sought to discuss the application of this verse in the church or individual lives. The academic writers did not acknowledge the popularity of the verse in current Christian culture. They did, in other words, leave the people in the church and culture on their own to make application the verse. I think this is a mistake. Academics need to serve the church by helping non-academics--whether they are teachers, pastors, college students, teenagers, seekers, disciples, well, everyone--understand the Bible better. Unfortunately, we academics have indeed built our ivory towers and placed ourselves above the rest of the world that we need to teach. Shame on us. 

However, I learned at this meetings that many others feel the same as me. I know because they told me. Now, we just need to find ways to connect with the public better. There is hope for our future!