Pondering the Opposable Mind

How does everything fit together? That’s what I’ve been wondering.

Well, I’m back with a short post flowing out of my current academic distraction: dreaming up an Institute for Integrative Christian Thought (ICT). Tall order and it’s only in the early embryo stages, but, if the beginning of the journey is any indication, it’s going to be a fabulous ride.

During this first stage of curriculum writing (using Understanding by Design), I am plowing through an ample pile of books to gather as many details as I can before synthesizing them into a workable definition of ICT and then in to the big ideas and essential questions for the curriculum.

Books in the Stack

• Thinking in Systems: A Primer, by Donella H. Meadows
• Conceiving the Christian College, by Duane Litfin
• Mechanism of Mind, by Edward de Bono
• Idea of a University, by John Henry Newman
• Philosophy for Understanding Theology, by Diogenes Allen and Eric O. Springstead
• Thinkertoys, by Michael Michalko
• He Shines in All That’s Fair, by Richard J. Mouw
• The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship, by George M. Marsden
• Serious Creativity, by Edward de Bono
• Think Better, by Tim Hurson
• Various pamphlets from The Foundation for Critical Thinking
• sundry others not remembered just now

and

• Opposable Mind: Winning Through Integrative Thinking, by Roger Martin

Martin’s book is quite a find. He is the dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto: a business school that teaches integrative thinking as the foundational component of the MBA program. I am leveraging his findings as a launching pad for my thinking about ICT.

As a first step, I’m working on a concept map. It’s admittedly rough, but then, such is the way of a work in progress. (Click on the image for a larger version.)

I look forward to your thoughts and, most especially, your questions. Thanks for reading!