"daring to discuss the important and the amusing"

NEWSLETTER #1

SUMMER 2000

Reviewing Chuck Colson and Nancy Pearcey’s recent book How Now Shall We Live? J. Budziszewski writes the following:

There is something wrong with the historical development of the evangelical mind, something that the best evangelical minds are the first to acknowledge. It is a theological defect: not exactly an error, but a lopsidedness, a prodigious development of one divine gift coupled with the atrophy of another. The prodigy is our devotion to "special revelation," which God has particularly disclosed to believers in His word. The atrophy is our near ignorance of "general revelation," which He has promiscuously divulged to mankind in the very order of His creation. We know a great deal about saving grace, but next to nothing–though it is one of our doctrines–about common grace.

This lopsidedness has two crippling consequences. It hinders us not only in explaining divine truth to people who are unimpressed by Scripture, but in applying it to matters that Scripture does not explicitly address. Perhaps I am sensitive to the problem because I spend time around college students, who are a cultural magnifying glass. Surrounded by neopagans, young evangelicals have no idea how to translate biblical concepts into language that friends and hostile teachers can understand. Worse, there are whole continents of life in which their faith does not function at all. The cables just haven’t been connected. A bright, Bible—minded student may be able to discourse learnedly about what Paul said to the Ephesians, but if you ask him to explain what the triune God has to do with his intended profession of biochemistry, engineering, or commercial law, he comes to a dead stop. None of those things are in his Bible’s concordance.

"Overcoming the Scandal of the Christian Mind." First Things 100 (February 2000): 52-56.

Budziszewski puts it well. The failure of evangelicals to tend to the resources of common grace has indeed led to a lopsidedness in evangelical thinking, or what historian Mark Noll has called the Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. Noll’s book by that title is at once an indictment of evangelical thinking and a challenge to evangelical students and scholars.

Welcome to the first newsletter of Chesterton House, a Centre for Christian Studies located adjacent to the Cornell University campus. The mission of Chesterton House is to facilitate discovery of the intellectual riches of the historic Christian faith, thereby empowering more faithful Christian living. This is the familiar project of integrating faith with scholarship, or, put differently, of "thinking Christianly." In short, Chesterton House is a response to the need and the challenge of developing more mature Christian minds–of thinking Christianly not only about theology, but also about biochemistry, engineering, and commercial law.

Four months ago I first shared my vision for this ministry with a small group of trusted friends and colleagues. We are still in a very formative stage, but have made significant progress during that time, including the formation of a board, and the forging of a mission statement and statement of faith (among other documents). Due to some generous donations, our fledgling library has over 600 quality volumes. We plan to acquire three to five thousand volumes of the best Christian literature across the disciplines over the next few years. This library will be open for this first time this fall, in addition to which Chesterton House will be sponsoring reading groups and movie nights. There are many other ideas and plans for this ministry–more than I will take the space to describe here.

The purpose of this newsletter is to provide interested parties with concise updates on the Chesterton House ministry. Until we have a real newsletter, I will send these electronic updates quarterly. If you decide that your inclusion on yet one more email list is taking you further from the good life, I trust you will let me know promptly. More than likely, however, you have two or twenty friends who are anxious to know the skinny on Chesterton House, and you’ll be forwarding me their contact info any day now.

One final note before the details. I am grateful for the assistance and encouragement many of you have provided over the months (and years). It warms my cockles to know there are folks at the other end of all these wires who care about this ministry. Chesterton House is both an answer to prayer and an occasion for prayer. As we strive to serve students in meaningful and substantial ways during our first semester of operation, we especially appreciate your prayers toward that end.

I look forward to keeping you abreast of the development of this ministry in the coming year.

Sincerely,

Karl E. Johnson

I am very pleased to report that the following individuals have agreed to serve with me as founding board members:

Christian Anible, InterVarsity Graduate Faculty Ministries

Robert C. Fay, Professor, Cornell Dept. of Chemistry

Steve Froehlich, Pastor, New Life Presbyterian Church

Hugh Gauch, Jr., Research Specialist, Cornell Dept. of Plant Breeding

David Jones, Pastor, Bethel Grove Bible Church

The Chesterton House ministry has already benefited immensely from the wide variety of talents and perspectives these committed individuals have to offer.

As you have already noticed, we have named this ministry after the prolific British journalist and Christian apologist G.K. Chesterton. Chesterton was larger than life (in more ways than one), and our aim is that Chesterton House will be a place where students can come to talk about the most serious things in the most informal of ways. For more information on Chesterton, see www.chesterton.org.

Following from the mission statement noted above, our goals for Chesterton House include assisting students with the integration of faith and learning, increasing the "pipeline" of young Christian scholars, and providing reasonable explanations of the Christian faith to honest skeptics.

Few things are more important for a student ministry of this sort than location. Chesterton House is privileged to be located in the upstairs of the Crossroads Life Center, a new coffee house located just one block off the Cornell campus. The Crossroads facility has been renovated and gorgeously redecorated by Crossroads Director Mark Chandler. Stop by if you have not already seen it–I promise you’ll be impressed!

Consistent with our mission to assist students in integrating their faith with their academic studies, our goal is to have the resource room open and staffed by volunteers during convenient afternoon and evening hours this fall semester. In addition to our small library, internet access will also allow us to steer students toward innumerable other quality works.

Also this fall we plan to initiate at least one reading group (in the philosophy of science), and monthly movie nights. The reading groups will provide a forum for fairly in-depth discussion among those with interests in specialized topics. The movie nights will be designed to challenge students to think critically about pop culture.

Long-term plans include the sponsorship of lectures, seminars, and conferences. Until then, Chesterton House will co-sponsor Bethel Grove Bible Church’s annual Institute for Biblical Studies, and speakers brought to campus by other campus ministries.