September 2005
To: Extraordinary friends
From: Esther Meek
Re: Longing to Know
My second year of teaching at Geneva College is underway. I love walking into a new class and beholding new and beautiful faces full of possibilities, and the familiar and dear faces of students from last year. I am especially looking forward to further developments in conversation and study with a couple students who has done serious work with LTK already.
LTK for students
This fall I will be teaching entering students Introduction to Philosophy, a one-semester immersion in the history of Western philosophy. They also read LTK as part of a personal engagement of philosophy assignment. LTK will once again be the centerpiece of Christian Understanding of Life, as students work through it and related works to craft a personal statement. LTK is being used as a text in one of Dr Brad Frey’s sociology classes this fall. I will have the chance to present in that class. Over the summer I spoke in two of his summer classes whose students has been assigned LTK.
LTK for faculty
On September 5 I present LTK’s proposals to the faculty at a luncheon. I welcome the chance to invite my colleagues into the conversation, and I anticipate that their own insights and expertise will amplify my understanding.
Book Sales
Brazos Press reports that something under a 1000 copies remain of LTK’s first printing. Sales have been slower so far this year, and so the next few months will be significant for their decision to reprint the book. My hope is that a reprint will happen, and that sales will continue steadily. I think LTK is a book whose implications unfold over time, and that people will continue to recommend.
Inviting the Real
I'm also hoping that having a second related book in the works will further secure the LTK’s niche in the market. I have submitted a book proposal to Brazos for Inviting the Real. A possible subtitle: An Introduction to Covenant Epistemology. In it I argue that we should take as our paradigm of human knowing the interpersonal covenantal relationship. This summer I utilized a faculty development grant to write its early chapters.
LTK in other literature, virtual and otherwise.
- My essay, “Rekindling the Longing to Know,” appeared this summer both in Geneva Magazine, and as five posts on Common Grounds Online. I am set to write my next post September 12.
- The July issue of Tradition and Discovery: The Polanyi Society Journal is primarily devoted to LTK, with Polanyians Dale Cannon’s and David Routledge’s review essays and my response, titled “Longing to Know and the Complexities of Knowing God.”
- Wheaton philosopher Mark Talbot’s essay “Can You Hear It? Esther Meek’s Longing to Know on Knowing as Skillful (and Joyful) Activity,” appeared in Christian Scholars Review in the Spring 2005 issue.
LTK in Seattle
RUF Campus Minister at University of Washington Ed Dunnington has invited me to speak in November in Seattle. I also hope to work out contacts with RUF at University of Oregon, with Mars Hill Graduate School and at an area church. I am looking forward to this!
Jubilee, February 2006
I will present LTK at Jubilee 2006, the historic annual Pittsburgh conference of CCO, Coalition for Christian Outreach, a campus ministry organization. A couple thousand college students from the region gather at the Hilton downtown to consider how Christians may steward resources to redeem the earth. Breakout sessions span all professions.
I look forward to hearing from you. Pass along whatever LTK news and connections you may have. Thank you for sharing the conversation and spreading the word.