Annotated Bibliography.

Journal of Psychology and Christianity

2019, Vol. 38, No.3, 191-192

Copyright 2019 Christian Association for Psychological Studies

ISSN 0733-4273

191

such networks in both my scholarship and my leadership ever since.

At the same time, though, I have also dis- covered two perplexities about the power of those networks. One I learned through the Campaign, and the other I have wrestled with since the Campaign. The one I learned through the Campaign is just how challenging it is to cultivate and sustain those network relationships. Everett Worthington (2019) writes poignantly about the complexities of working with diverse funders and aligning their interests (and constraints) with particular projects and other funders. In addition, it was often easier to support individual scholars in their particular projects than it was for them to cultivate a more networked approach that might cultivate a community of scholars work- ing on forgiveness. The power of disciplinary socialization remains strong in the academy.

The second perplexity is about the relation- ship between networks and institutions. One of the weaknesses of the Campaign was that we created a new organization to support the work, an organization that by design was intended to go away. The Campaign under- played the significance and power of institu- tions to support and sustain ongoing work. The lack of a powerful institution as a context for the work resulted in a flowering of research that has had significant impact, but also a sense that it was a time-bound period of research that has not sustained the power- ful momentum of the early 2000s.

One of the central questions facing intellec- tual work in the 21st century is how to hold networks and institutions together. We live in a time that highlights networks and denigrates institutions. Yet we need vibrant institutions that can encourage the development and power of networks, and we need networks to renew and deepen the significance of institu- tions. To emphasize one without the other

Response: Sustaining Networks and Institutions: Lessons Learned from the

Campaign for Forgiveness Research L. Gregory Jones

Duke University

A Campaign for Forgiveness Research (here- after, the Campaign) was an extraordinary project from which I learned a great deal. Its impact was transformational in many ways, and Everett Worthington’s (2019) paper beau- tifully lays out the impact as well as chal- lenges and lessons learned.

I benefitted personally as well as profes- sionally from serving on the steering commit- tee for the Campaign. I also gleaned some important lessons and discovered some pro- found questions that I have continued to wrestle with through the years.

Personally and professionally, the Cam- paign deepened my appreciation for the diverse ways in which scholars from different disciplines address similar topics and ques- tions. I developed a keen sense for the pow- erful lenses through which talented scholars see issues, and it both confirmed my habits of reading and working across disciplines on the one hand, and challenged me to go broader and deeper on the other.

The Campaign also challenged my thinking about the relationships among scholarship and teaching in the academy on the one hand, and communications and public understanding on the other. I had tended toward a unidirectional approach that presumes that scholarship comes first, and then “dissemination” of that scholarship follows. But I discovered through our engagement with diverse media the importance of paying attention to the ques- tions and issues being presented by the public and media. I learned to recognize that interac- tion with public understanding and media is a multi-directional task, requiring a much richer set of networks of relationships than scholars in the academy typically cultivate.

One of the profound lessons I learned from my work with the Campaign is the power of networks across disciplines and scholarly methods as well as among diverse sectors of our society. I have paid more attention to

192 RESPONSE: SUSTAINING NETWORKS AND INSTITUTIONS

results in projects that flower for a season but then fade.

How can we cultivate and support initiatives designed to achieve innovative breakthroughs across disciplines and sectors through net- works while also emphasizing the importance of institutions that ensure long-term visibility, engagement, and impact? This is a challenge for funders, institutions, scholars, and adminis- trative leaders to search for solutions. The Campaign offers a powerful context for reflecting on this question in the light of its enormous achievements, significant chal- lenges, and uncertain legacy.

References

Worthington, E. L., Jr. (2019). A campaign for for- giveness research: A lesson in studying virtue. Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 38, 184- 190.

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