NaNoWriMo

Ashley Scripter, a current LU student, came to Tuesday night's Sigma Tau meeting to share information about National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short), coming up in November.

She is the new Lynchburg liaison for NaNoWriMo and is encouraging LU students to get involved with the program. Here's the website if you want to check it out: nanowrimo.org.

Also, Ashley can be reached at aescripter@liberty.edu if you'd like more information.

September Meeting + Upcoming Scholarships

"I believe one writes because one has to create a world in which one can live." -Anaïs Nin

Hello guys! Our first meeting is fast approaching on September 29th. We will meet in DeMoss 1104 at 7 pm. The focus is creative writing and Professor Gaumer will be speaking. Also, our movie night went very well last week! Matilda ended up being a big hit, and thanks Kellie, Mrs. Towles, and Ms. Davis for making the chili! It was delicious!

The Sigma Tau Conference at Shepherd University is coming up next week as well. Good luck to everyone speaking and those attending!

Now for the scholarships! The Junior/Senior/Graduate Scholarships are due on October 30. Here are the applications if you wish to apply! You can receive up to $3,000!: Junior Senior

There is also another Sigma Tau Scholarship, unspecifed by year in College. This is due on the same date, October 30. For this scholarship you can receive up to $4,000: Sigma Tau Scholarship

Okay, only two more to go! These are both for if you feel like you want to get away from Liberty University for a little while! One is the Study Abroad Scholarship which is due October 30 and March 30 for up to $3,000: Study Abroad. The other is for a Summer Program Scholarship for up to $1,000 due March 30: Summer Program.

Okay that is all for now! Hope you guys are surviving the semester!

-Melanie

Events for Fall Semester 2009!

"It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it."-Oscar Wilde

Hey fellow Sigma Tau members! I'm Melanie and I am going to be doing my best to update information for you on this blog! For my first post I'm going to list the events of the semester for you, so you can kind of get a general idea of what's happening this fall.

September

18- Movie Night at the Lobby of English & Modern Languages at 6:30 pm (Bring $2 and a pillow!) We are watching Matilda.
29 - Meeting (Creative Writing) at 7 pm in DH 1104 (note date change - was the 22; rescheduled to allow STDers to attend the "Page Turners" book club meeting at the campus Barnes & Noble)

October

3- Regional Sigma Tau Conference! at Shepherd University
19 - Collaboration with Theater, Lecture on "A Raisin in the Sun," featuring Dr. Matt Towles & Professor Neal Brasher; 5:00 to 6:00 in Lloyd's Theater; light refreshments will be served, and attendees will receive a voucher for 1/2 off purchase off ticket for theater's production of the play
20- Meeting (Graduate-School) at 7 pm in DH 1104

November

10- Meeting (Jane Eyre, The Musical) at 6 pm in Lloyd Theater. If you go, you can receive a ticket voucher to get half price for the show!
17- Game Night at 7 pm (More info about this will be given at a later date)

December

12- Christmas Party at Mrs. Towles at 6 pm (Wear a Tacky Sweater and Bring $3)

So that's it so far for Fall Semester! I'll be posting more on events as the dates come closer.

-Melanie

Zeta Tau's Common Reader for 2009/2010

The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind by Mark Noll

This year, as a Sigma Tau chapter, we will be reading Noll's analysis of the contemporary state of evangelical intellectualism as well as a call for renewal and his arguments about how this renewal can be achieved. Following is a blurb from the book's publisher, promoting the book:

"The scandal of the evangelical mind," says historian Mark Noll, "is that there is not much of an evangelical mind." This critical yet constructive book explains the decline of evangelical thought in North America and seeks to find, within evangelicalism itself, resources for turning the situation around. According to Noll, evangelical Protestants make up the largest single group of religious Americans; they also enjoy increasing wealth, status, political influence, and educational achievement. Yet, despite its size and considerable intellectual potential, evangelical Protestantism makes only a slight contribution to first-order public discourse in North America: it neither sponsors a single research university, nor cultivates attitudes that treat the worlds of science, the arts, politics, and social analysis with the seriousness that God intends. The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind explains how this situation developed by tracing the history of evangelical thinking in America. Noll's analysis shows how Protestants successfully aligned themselves with national ideals and with the particular expressions of an American Enlightenment in the decades before the Civil War; explains how the fundamentalists at the start of the twentieth century preserved essential elements of the faith, but only by grievously damaging the life of the mind; gives specific attention to evangelical thought on politics and science; and discusses what some have called an 'evangelical intellectual renaissance' in recent decades and shows why it is more apparent than real. Written to encourage reform as well as to inform, this book ends with an outline of some preliminary steps by which evangelicals might yet come to love the Lord more thoroughly with the mind.

You can also find more information, including the entire first chapter, at barnesandnoble.com.

Won't you please purchase this book and read through it with us this semester--so we can promote community and intellectual discourse over the year? This common-reader series will culminate in a full-chapter discussion at April's STD meeting mediated by Professor Steve Bell.

You may purchase the book from a number of venues, including barnesandnoble.com. But, for those of you that like a bargain (which I do!), you should check out ways to purchase the book used. Amazon has about 50 used copies available starting at $5.50. Half.com is another great place for getting bargain books; it has about 38 copies available starting at $7.00.