Calvin Interim Offers Unusual Courses

January 7, 2008 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Full story see http://www.calvin.edu/news/interim/

That Calvin philosophy professor Kevin Corcoran’s January Interim class in
England attracted a surplus of applicants is to be expected, perhaps, given its
title: “Pubs, Clubs and Alternative Worship.”

“I probably turned a half a dozen students away,” said Corcoran, while
hastening to explain that the Interim, which he is teaching for the first time
this year, is not a three-week, college-sanctioned drinking binge, but an
exploration of the “emergent church” movement in Great Britain.

In that country, he explained, the emergent church emerged in the pubs and
clubs.

“There were a lot of Christians who were disenchanted with the church and
found something resonating with these environments,” Corcoran said of the
movement, which evolved in the late-1980s. “They would have sort of worship
services, and they would hold them in the clubs with the regular patrons
there.”

Corcoran and the 23 students signed up for the Interim will visit eight or
nine alternative worship communities and meet several well-known leaders of the
movement, Brian McLaren and Peter Rollins among them. They will also meet the
Archbishop of Canterbury and attend traditional services at some well-known
sanctuaries.

“Pubs, Clubs and Alternative Worship” embodies the sense of intellectual
exploration that has been the hallmark of the January Interim since its
beginning in 1968.

“Interim is three weeks of intensive study that allows both faculty members
and students to dig deeply into unique areas that don’t fit into our regular
curriculum, said Calvin provost Claudia Beversluis, a ’74 graduate who
remembers her own Interims spent rock climbing, film making, and studying the
psychology of William James.

Interim also allows students to pursue offbeat research interests as they do
in “Applications of Fluorescence,” taught in a Calvin laboratory by
chemistry professor Mark Muyskens.

“It’s kind of glow-in-the-dark science,” he said of the class, wherein
students examine the fluorescent qualities of minerals, household cleaners,
olive oil and markings on high-security documents.

“If you want to see something spectacular—put your title to your home
under a black light,” Muyskens suggested.

-end-
Received on Mon Jan 7 10:07:56 2008