Notes from Alcuin October 2025

ASC’s 10th Semester is Off to a Great Start!

New ASC Student Advisory Board

Let me introduce you to the strongest student leadership we’ve had yet:

Devon and the Student Advisory Board are reading and discussing a wonderful collection of essays entitled Why We Create. You can read a sample here.

Alcuin Study Center Fellows

This fine group of young men have been studying Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview by Albert Wolters. The title might be a bit misleading. Wolters isn’t writing about the age of the earth, or “creationism” vs. “evolutionism.” He’s arguing that a robust understanding the doctrine of Creation is missing from our gospel, resulting in various distortions of the Kingdom of God that have serious consequences on the ways that we understand our role and duties as disciples and ambassadors in this world.

And as for reformational, though Wolters is certainly in the broad Reformed tradition of the Church, he is actually setting up the call for reformation as opposed to the temptation for revolution. The former sees the imago Dei in every human and assumes that something of the past is worth hanging onto, however in need of redemption and reform. The latter sees the other in humans that do not think as we do, and sees a violent rejection—a revolution— of all that’s come before as the only way forward.

Those two paragraphs do not come close to doing the book justice. Buy a copy and read it for yourself.

In addition to our book discussion, the ASC fellows are attending one or both of our semester-long courses. This semester our Biblical Literacy course, taught by Brian Allred, is called The Divine Songbook: Learning the Language of the Psalms. And our Literature class, taught by Dr. Laura Romano, is The Great Chase: a Theological and Biblical Reading of Moby Dick.

We’ve had record numbers turn out for these courses. We’re wondering what our next step will be to create more space—a good problem to have, as they say.

A few profs, a few community folks, and more than 30 students gather every Monday night for an hour and a half to study the Psalms. The teaching is robust, the conversation is rich, and the fellowship is encouraging.

What has Economics to do with Christianity?

Quite a bit, it turns out.

One of the 4 pathways of ASC’s mission is engagement with existing university institutions (the other 3 are engagement with students, with faculty and staff, and with campus ministry leaders). For the last couple of years, we’ve been building a strong relationship with the Institute for the Study of Political Economy (ISPE).

This semester, we are co-hosting a reading group with ISPE. The main text is Red Plenty by Francis Spufford, a genre-bending exploration of the disparity between the economic promise of communism in the U.S.S.R. and the actual results. We also read a couple of essays by Nobel Prize winner Vernon Smith on game theory and economics.

The reading group takes place in the Whitinger Business Building and is comprised of several economics students, a couple of economics professors, and several students from Alcuin Study Center. The latter, of course, bring a Christian worldview to bear in the discussion.

The fascinating thing is that both of the authors that we are reading are Christians, and both of them have written books about their faith: Unapologetic: Why Despite Everything Christianity Still Makes Surprising Emotional Sense by Spufford, and The Evidence of Things Not Seen: Reflections on Faith, Science, and Economics, by Smith. It is perhaps worth noting that Spufford is a sassy Brit with a bit of a foul mouth & while ASC does not necessarily endorse everything in the book, we find it a great starting place for discussion. Moreover, by pointing out that these two brilliant thinkers not only are Christians, but also see their disciplines through a Christian lens—ultimately allowing them to see the world more clearly—we are able to break down the unfounded but widespread assumption that Christianity has no place in the University.

This week Alcuin will distribute both of these books to the participants and invite them to continue the reading group, studying these texts.

This collaboration has already resulted in one econ professor and one econ student—neither of whom are professing Christians—to attend other events and classes at ASC, very intrigued by our mission and our methods.

We will continue our collaboration with ISPE next semester as we work with them to bring to campus Art Carden, co-author of Mere Economics: Lessons for and from the Ordinary Business of Life. Art is also a Christian and the title of his book is a nod to C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity. You can read a bit from him here.

Homecoming Open House!

This Friday, October 17, is the annual Alcuin Study Center Open House. We’ll have BBQ pulled pork, live music, a bonfire, and corn hole. This is a great time for friends and family of Alcuin regulars to check out the space, meet the people, and feel the love. If you happen to be in the area on October 17, swing by! And if you live, say in greater Indiana, or Ohio or Michigan, make a roadtrip to visit!

Our Sign is Finally Up!

We are grateful to Westminster Presbyterian Church for providing the funding that made these signs possible!

Final Thoughts

“The days they rattle past me / Like a tunnel around a train / The landscapes and the heartaches / I don’t know what I feel”

–Mark Heard, from “I Just Wanna Get Warm” on the LP Second Hand

Sometimes it’s like that. Sons move away to college. Daughters get married. Family members die. New babies are born. Some of our children seek the face of Christ with heart, mind, and strength. Some flounder in their faith or outright reject Him. And it goes so fast.

There are precious few spaces in life’s journey where the big questions can be asked. Perhaps fewer still where they can be discussed with charity and patience and wisdom. That’s why we’re doing this. For your kids and mine. For our nieces and nephews and grandkids. There needs to be a space for them to get off the busy-train and sit with friends and mentors, fellow travelers, and ask, “Where’s this train going, anyway?”

Thank you for making our little whistle-stop a possibility.

Yours,

Dan Daugherty, Executive Director

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Alcuin Study Center is operating under a shortfall. We are aiming to raise an additional $90,000 by the end of the year. If you feel so led to give, please click here.

If you have questions, I’d love to talk.