The South Carolina Study Center

AI is seemingly everywhere, and has already made a swift and profound cultural impact. We need to slow down and make room for critical reflection and clear moral reasoning. Is ever-increasing technological immersion inevitable for us? Is there a better way? How does Christian wisdom help us think about technology and humanity? This panel is in part a response to Pope Leo XIV’s recent encyclical, as well as a broader conversation about being human in the age of AI. 

What do we do with our emotions? Few questions generate so much contradictory advice, even within the church. “Don’t live by your feelings.” “Listen to your anger.” “Anxiety is sinful unbelief.” “Faith is not a feeling.” “Love is an action, not an emotion.” “If you love God, you should delight in him.” Christians often feel tension between the counsel that they receive in the pastor’s office or on the therapist’s couch. This session will propose a clear model for understanding emotions, their significance, and how they are formed.

Frederick Buechner (1926–2022) famously said: "The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet." While it contains some truth, this idea departs significantly from a more ancient picture of vocation. In Luther's reading of the valiant woman in Proverbs 31, work and human identity come to us from outside as a gift, not from our deep gladness within. It assumes the unfolding providence of God over against financial goals and life plans. It regards suffering and boredom not as evils to be avoided at all costs, but as circumstances often used by God for good. It also centers on imitation of Christ with the goal of union with God, not an impressive résumé for my LinkedIn page. This talk will follow Luther's lead to help us rethink vocation through the lens of Holy Scripture. 

Frederick Buechner (1926–2022) famously said: "The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet." While it contains some truth, this idea departs significantly from a more ancient picture of vocation. In Luther's reading of the valiant woman in Proverbs 31, work and human identity come to us from outside as a gift, not from our deep gladness within. It assumes the unfolding providence of God over against financial goals and life plans. It regards suffering and boredom not as evils to be avoided at all costs, but as circumstances often used by God for good. It also centers on imitation of Christ with the goal of union with God, not an impressive résumé for my LinkedIn page. This talk will follow Luther's lead to help us rethink vocation through the lens of Holy Scripture. 

Our culture has lost its bearings, so it is not surprising that College-aged students are increasingly experiencing emotional challenges and vocational confusion. And fewer still know older trusted friends to confide in to find new orientation in spiritual matters. We need to consider again the value of mentoring within our churches and ministries as a way of nurturing wholeness and holiness in those seeking a flourishing life before the Lord. Rather than seeing mentoring as an optional extra, perhaps we might better understand it as an individualised ministry of the Word, which takes its place alongside other ministries of the Word to build up the body of Christ. In this lecture, we investigate what the Bible says about mentoring, what it might look like for us as mentors or mentees, and how we can get started.

The question of technology is always ultimately the question of the human. If we are to think well about the challenges and opportunities presented by any new technology, we must think well about what it is to be a human being and what constitutes a flourishing human life.

Dr. Kruger answers questions on his life, academic career, and the reliability of Christian Scripture.  

In the modern academy, Holy Scripture is encountered, approached, and understood very differently from the ways that it has been historically in the Church. How is the interpretative task transformed when the text is moved from the world of the Church to that of the academy, and why does it matter? 

What impact is digital media having on human flourishing and the life of faith?

 An Embodied, Relational, Christian Approach to Healing from Mental Health Problems