{"id":485,"date":"2023-11-17T21:30:48","date_gmt":"2023-11-17T21:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.messiah.edu\/politicsinternationalrelations\/?p=485"},"modified":"2025-09-04T13:53:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T13:53:03","slug":"for-times-such-as-this-the-purpose-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.messiah.edu\/politicsinternationalrelations\/2023\/11\/17\/for-times-such-as-this-the-purpose-of-life\/","title":{"rendered":"For Times Such as This: The Purpose of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_69\" style=\"width: 189px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.messiah.edu\/politicsinternationalrelations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2019\/10\/Profile.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-69\" class=\"size-full wp-image-69\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.messiah.edu\/politicsinternationalrelations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2019\/10\/Profile.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"179\" height=\"179\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.messiah.edu\/politicsinternationalrelations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2019\/10\/Profile.jpg 179w, https:\/\/blogs.messiah.edu\/politicsinternationalrelations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2019\/10\/Profile-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 179px) 100vw, 179px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-69\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dr. Robin Lauermann, professor of politics, edits this series<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em><strong>This post is the fifth of our new season, For Times Such as This.\u00a0 If you have not yet done so, please read <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.messiah.edu\/politicsinternationalrelations\/2023\/10\/27\/for-times-such-as-this-thoughts-from-politics-and-international-relations-capstone-on-alan-aldas-if-i-understood-you-from-the-field\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">this season-opening post <\/a>\u00a0for some brief context.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Students in our politics and international relations capstone course just finished their second book of the course,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/691260\/life-worth-living-by-miroslav-volf-matthew-croasmun-and-ryan-mcannally-linz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most<\/em> <\/a>by Miroslav Volf, Matthew Croasmun, and Ryan McAnnally Linz.\u00a0 In this recently released volume, the scholars in theology and religious studies walk their readers through traditions in thought from various religious and philosophical perspectives, encouraging them to evaluate a range of ideas.<\/p>\n<p>Wading into the field of political science requires a carefully developed and nuanced foundation.\u00a0 Students certainly received much food for thought from individuals across time and from around the world.\u00a0 As an educator at an institution that seeks to help its students nurture their own authetic faith, it is my privilege to share a selection of their takes on the book and its impact on their thinking.\u00a0 We unanimously invite you to read it as well!<\/p>\n<p>Read on for the <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.messiah.edu\/politicsinternationalrelations\/?p=481&amp;preview=true\">first student response<\/a>&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post is the fifth of our new season, For Times Such as This.\u00a0 If you have not yet done so, please read this season-opening post \u00a0for some brief context.\u00a0 Students in our politics and international relations capstone course just finished their second book of the course,\u00a0Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13588,13575,12096],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-for-times-such-as-this","category-for-times-such-as-this-life-worth-living","category-from-the-field"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.messiah.edu\/politicsinternationalrelations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.messiah.edu\/politicsinternationalrelations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.messiah.edu\/politicsinternationalrelations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.messiah.edu\/politicsinternationalrelations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.messiah.edu\/politicsinternationalrelations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.messiah.edu\/politicsinternationalrelations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":486,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.messiah.edu\/politicsinternationalrelations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485\/revisions\/486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.messiah.edu\/politicsinternationalrelations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.messiah.edu\/politicsinternationalrelations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.messiah.edu\/politicsinternationalrelations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}