Church Leadership Conversations

I finished Godric (1980) by Frederick Buechner. From the first sentences, the writing is extraordinary. It was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. It is Buechner’s imaginative retelling of the life of a holy man (1065-1170) of whom there are historical accounts. A theme is bodily lusts.

I finished the 1936 French novel The Diary of a Country Priest by Georges Bernanos. I would have appreciated a sketch of some plot points to better appreciate it so spoilers ahead. It is about a 29-year-old priest whose parishioners don’t attend mass and the children tease him. Meanwhile he is suffering with stomach cancer. But eventually most are won over by his meekness. It is a thought-provoking meditation on how to pastor and more generally how to live as “innocent as a dove” (Matthew 10:16) in a cruel world.

And chapter 6 “Contemplative and Active Life” in The Scandal of Holiness (2022) by Jessica Hooten Wilson on The Diary of a Country Priest is very good. She emphasizes the priest modeling a life of prayer. And she quotes Hans Urs von Balthasar, Bernanos: An Ecclesial Existence.

A few current thoughts on how I’m thinking about AI and essay writing as a professor.
1) the only real answer is in class hand written tests or oral exams.
2) my essay prompts invite personal application from the readings. Grade lower if not there.
3) I emphasize to students that their digestion of the material is most important for their formation and future not a passable essay.
4) I can’t discern AI use perfectly. I tell students that if they learned to write academic papers formally or parrot back the answers to please the professor then it will look like AI. I need to see wrestling with the material: disagreeing, questioning, applying.
5) I think it helps to ask for analysis of a video and two different selections of writing for one essay (rather than just a textbook chapter summary, etc.). The AI is not great yet with finding and picking and analyzing a short quote from each resource in a way that looks human.