What is excellence? Why is it not the first word that comes to mind when we think about the "Christian writing” of our own time? Is excellence different from elitism? What does it mean to pursue excellence in the way of Jesus, whose life bore so little resemblance to classical ideals of virtus or aretē? What does excellence mean for us when the four authorized biographies of Jesus are written in Greek that ranges from acceptable (Luke) to heavily accented (Matthew) to embarrassingly elementary (John) to execrable (Mark)?What would it mean for us to become people who pursue Christian excellence in the midst of a world of vanity? This talk will fail to conclusively answer any of these questions. But perhaps at the end we will nonetheless have a vision of work that is worth all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and be strengthened to pursue it. 

 Author Hannah Anderson's talk will be based in part on the themes of her latest book All That's Good but with an emphasis on calling of writers to capture and report whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and of good report. It's about serving readers by offering quality work that reflects the multi-faceted nature of God's character.