In 2025, NetVUE successfully launched a new initiative: Scriptural Reasoning for Vocational Reflection. The practice of Scriptural Reasoning (SR) is designed to provide space for small groups of people to sit together to read and reflect on sacred texts from a range of religious traditions. This practice has consistently proved useful in equipping students to be confident and effective cross-cultural communicators; we are also finding that it can play an important role in vocational exploration and discernment.
In this interactive session, participants will learn more about SR and how it can provide an opportunity to read and interpret sacred texts in ways that encourage conversation around deep reflective themes. These themes, which often form part of the backdrop for vocational reflection, range across the entire spectrum of human experience—from the sense of catastrophe facing many people, on the one hand, to narratives of divine abundance in creation on the other. The session will also provide some guidance as to how SR can become a vehicle for faculty members and staff to collaborate on student-oriented events, providing everyone with the gift of time to enter into deep conversations and a pace that fosters reflection and shared insights. Participants will leave with actionable plans as to how they might begin conversations about employing SR in appropriate settings on their campuses.
Nicholas (Nick) Adams, Professor of Philosophical Theology, University of Birmingham (England); NetVUE Scriptural Reasoning Coordinator