a conference for
graduate students,
faculty, and
professionals

Christians who are social scientists know that God's workings with his children are social from beginning to end. The Garden of Eden, the Kingdom of Israel, the twelve disciples, the church of Acts and the Epistles, even the heavenly host around the Lamb upon the Throne — all demonstrate that God sees us, his creatures, as social, political, psychological, anthropological, economic beings.

Delegates in the Social Sciences track will be challenged to confront boldly a calling to a life that fuses social-science training with God's work in our world. Christians in the social-scientific disciplines — sociology, anthropology, economics, political science, and psychology — are called to vocations of analysis and practice in God's social world. They are called to comprehend it, to heal it, to build institutions, to nurture integrated selves, and to offer the church and the world our insight and thereby God's grace. We will debate what this means for us through large-group and small-group discussions, in collaboration with guest presenters and each other. Each discipline will have its own discussion groups, and we will benefit, too, from talking with each other across disciplines.

We will wrestle with such issues as:

• Can Christian social scientists offer a critical perspective on the institutions and processes of a fallen world?
• Does a Christian worldview offer us a distinctive vision of a polity, economy, psyche, and society?
• How do Christian social scientists help redeem economies, polities, and cultures?
• What vocations or avocations can enable Christians to deploy fully our training and skills?

We aim that all of us attending the Social Science track will leave Atlanta transformed in our visions and vocations.