In the recent film Moulin Rouge, a young bohemian playwright named Christian (Ewan McGregor) falls in love with a courtesan named Satine (Nicole Kidman) for whom love is (at first) a mere commodity.  The setting is the Parisian "red mill" music hall and sex factory.  The arsenal of pop music and dizzying camera-work employed to tell the story brilliantly embody the more general superficiality--the superficiality of relationships--the film depicts.

Before dismissing the film for its apparent immorality, we do well to remember, as Chesterton once said, that a moral story is not a story about moral people, but rather a story about immoral people.  Just as the superficiality of the film's early lyrics ("We should be lovers") gives way to a depth and devotion in the later lyrics ("I will love you until the end of time"), Christian's selfishness and Satine's shallow sensuality are transformed by true--i.e., sacrificial--love.   As one reviewer put it, "Traditional Christian categories have to sneak in for the larger story to work," making the film "a wonderful image of Christian cultural transformation."  That our faith is not so much about being virtuous as it is about being made virtuous is fortunate not only for Christian cultural criticism, but also for us.

In December, we watched Moulin Rouge with the Cornell Christian Fellowship.  In the thoughtful discussion that followed, a student commented that Christian and Satine could not love each other well because they were not whole and healthy as individuals before coming together.  To which Chesterton House resident film critic Steve Froehlich sagely responded, "That is a common understanding of relationships, but nevertheless a misunderstanding.  The Christian faith," he continued, "is fundamentally relational.  Wholeness and health are not prerequisites to relationship, but rather things forged in and through relationship."  He continued by elaborating on the doctrine of the Trinity and its implications for human relationship and maturity. 

The following night we hosted bioethicist Dr. Nigel Cameron.  Cameron communicated concern regarding the implications of humans creating humans in their own image, implying that the act constitutes a modern day tower of Babel.  That Clonaid--the alleged winners in the race to re-create--named their first baby Eve suggests that Cameron is right about the hubris of the cloning project.

Apart from their both having been sponsored by Chesterton House, and each drawing about 50 persons, these two events do not otherwise appear to have much in common.  Not only the topic, but even the venue, forum, and audience were completely different.  There are more subtle similarities, however, and ones that illuminate the Chesterton House mission and project. 

The human condition, according to Christian teaching, is both finite and free.  When we deny our finitude, we imagine ourselves to be more God-like than we are--as with the pride of the project of cloning.  When we deny our freedom, we imagine ourselves to be more animal-like than we are--as with the shallow sensuality of the Moulin Rouge.  The categories required for understanding cloning and Moulin Rouge--finitude and freedom, and the corresponding twin sins of pride and sensuality--are thus the same categories required for understanding human history. 

How shall we then understand our place in the cosmos?  Theologian and Chesterton House Advisory Board member Richard Pratt writes the following: "People all around us are confused about who we are.  In this confusion we vacillate between self-degradation and self-importance.  Scripture, however, provides a balanced portrait of human beings.  We are images of clay, but images designed to represent the authority of the King of the universe.  In this balanced perspective, we live with humility and dignity as images of God." 

Christianity thus provides a nuanced account of the human situation, and one which provides a robust foundation for cultural criticism.  Given today's obsession with with self-image (that pesky consequence of forgetting God), the Christian understanding of human persons as image bearers of God is a desperately needed alternative and antidote.  Again, Pratt is helpful.  "In reaction to the tendency of modern humanists to make humanity their chief concern," he writes, "sincere followers of Christ often go to the opposite extreme by overlooking the importance of focusing on human beings."  Pratt then embarks on the positive project of portraying our "humble yet dignified" status with a broad overview of redemptive history. 

Designed for Dignity, the title of the book from which this material comes (P&R, 1993), will be the topic of this year's annual Institute of Biblical Studies.  Dr. Pratt, Chair of Old Testament Department at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, will provide the Institute lectures January 24-26.  The Friday night lecture will again be free, open to the public, and on campus.  The rest of the conference is at Bethel Grove Bible Church--more info below.  Because last year's Friday night Institute lecture drew a standing-room-only audience of 400, this year's lecture will be in Kennedy Auditorium.  If you are interested in knowing who you are--and even if you think you have a hunch--please join us for what is certain to be a stimulating conference.

Once again, thank you for your interest in and support of Chesterton House. 

-Karl E. Johnson

Weekly when Cornell is in session:

Fridays, 1-5pm -- Resource Room Open Hours

Institute of Biblical Studies

Friday:  Kennedy Hall Auditorium, 8:00pm (free)

Saturday & Sunday AM:  Bethel Grove Bible Church

Early register by 1/19: http://www.bg.org/ibs.html       

Movie Night

Crossroads Life Center

RQ Forum--a discussion

Crossroads Life Center

Movie Night

Crossroads Life Center

Saturday, March 29, 7:00 pm
Graduate Christian Fellowship Roundtable

Dr. Kent Fuchs, Dean, College of Engineering

Anabel Taylor Hall

Saturday, April 5, 9:30am-5:00pm

Upstate NY InterVarsity Grad/Faculty Conference

Dr. Christopher Barrett, Cornell University

Warren Hall, Rm 401

Movie Night

Crossroads Life Center

All Chesterton House events are open to the Cornell and Ithaca communities.  For a complete schedule of events,  please visit the Chesterton House website. 

RESOURCE ROOM UPDATE

The Chesterton House Resource Room has many new volumes, thanks to a recent $5000 grant.  Space doesn't allow for all the titles, but here are just a few new titles in the area of science and faith.  You will see from this list our strategy of acquiring the best works from both Christian and academic presses.

Ian G. Barbour, Religion and Science: Historical and Contemporary Issues (Harper, 1997).
Michael Behe, Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution (Touchstone, 1966).
Henri Blocher, In the Beginning: The Opening Chapters of Genesis (IVP, 1984).
John H. Brooke, Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives (Cambridge, 1991).
William Lane Craig & J.P. Moreland, Naturalism:  A Critical Analysis (Routledge, 2000).
Russell W. Howell & W. James Bradley, eds., Mathematics in a Postmodern Age: A Christian Perspective (Eerdmans, 2001).
Phillip Johnson & Denis Lamoureux, Darwinism Defeated?  The Johnson-Lamoureux Debate on Biological Origins (Regent College, 1999).
David N. Livingstone, Darwin's Forgotten Defenders: The Encounter Between Evangelical Theology and Evolutionary Thought (Eerdmans, 1987).

David C. Lindberg and Ronald L. Numbers, God & Nature: Historical Essays on the Encounter between Science and Christianity (UC Press, 1986).

David C. Lindberg, The Beginnings of Western Science: The European Scientific Tradition in Philosophical, Religious, and Institutional Context, 600B.C. to A.D. 1450  (U of Chicago, 1992).
James Nickel, Mathematics: Is God Silent? (Ross House, 2001).

Ronald L. Numbers, The Creationists: The Evolution of Scientific Creationism (UC Press, 1992).
Alister McGrath, Science & Religion: An Introduction (Blackwell, 1999).

Michael Polanyi, Science, Faith & Society (U of Chicago, 1946).
John Pokinghorne, Belief in God in an Age of Science (Yale, 1998).
Thomas Torrance, Christian Theology & Scientific Culture (Wipf & Stock, 1998; 1980).

Roger Trigg, Rationality & Science: Can Science Explain Everything? (Blackwell, 1993).

Jitse M. van der Meer, Facets of Faith & Science: Papers from the 1st International Pascal Centre Conference on Science & Belief (U Press of America, 1996).

Richard T. Wright, Biology Through the Eyes of Faith (Harper, 1989).


HEARTS & MINDS

The integration of faith and scholarship--Chesterton House's raison d'etre--might also be described as the integration of head and heart.  It is no surprise then, that we find kindred spirits at a bookstore named Hearts & Minds books.  This is not your ordinary Christian bookstore.  Hearts and Minds is an independent bookstore that elevates, rather than merely serves, Christian taste.  This is where we buy our books, and I invite you to take a look at their informative website, complete with bibliographies and reviews: http://www.heartsandmindsbooks.com

Two longtime Cornell faculty members have recently joined the Chesterton House board of directors.  We are privileged to announce that the eight member board now includes Martha H. Stipanuk and James R. Stouffer.  Dr. Stipanuk is Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell, where she has been a faculty member since 1977.  Currently the Director of Graduate Studies for the Field of Nutrition at Cornell, she has published numerous research articles in the area of amino acid metabolism, and has edited Biochemical and Physiological Aspects of Human Nutrition (2000).

Dr. Stouffer is Professor Emeritus of Animal Science at Cornell University, where he taught from 1956-1988. He has served as Food Science Advisor to University of Nigeria, and as a visiting professor at several universities, including University of Goettingen, West Germany. He is the founder of Animal Ultrasound Services and a consultant to the livestock industry. 

-Douglas Jones

(from "Seducing the Underworld," a review of Moulin Rouge)