In April Chesterton House hosted a retreat of the directors of the twelve Christian Study Centers that now exist at major research universities. This was the first meeting of its kind since the study center movement began growing significantly over the last several years, and thanks to a generous grant from the Barney II Foundation, the event included directors who travelled to Ithaca from the state universities of California, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Virginia, Wisconsin, among others.

To help us navigate these questions we invited Nicholas Wolterstorff, the Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology at Yale University. We had the privilege of hosting Wolterstorff for a three-day visit that also included the Upstate NY InterVarsity Faculty Conference as well as a talk given to the philosophy department.

Looking backward, Wolterstorff said, one of the major recent developments in the academy has been "perspectival learning"--the notion there is no "view from nowhere," but that academic inquiry is more conditioned than previously thought by the particulars of who we are--our race, class, gender . . . and faith. This of course constitutes a departure from the earlier ideal of the "scientific method," understood narrowly as the formulating and testing of hypotheses, as the archetype of all objective, academic inquiry. Perspectival learning is most evident in fields such as women's studies and African-American studies. It is also evident in "Christian studies."

Although sociologist Alan Wolfe has argued that Christians' embrace of perspectival learning is ironic given that it tends toward relativism ("The goal is religious while the means are liberal--even secular"), Wolterstorff would not agree. He described his own experience in the field of aesthetics as an example. After being appointed to his denomination's liturgical committee in the 1960's, he came to see that most aesthetics textbooks made assumptions that rendered liturgical art unimportant. Moreover, he realized that when artists and aestheticians attributed to art the power to unify all that is fragmented in life, this is the very sort of claim that Christians make about the person of Christ. Over time he came to see that most modern teaching about art and aesthetics tends to be grounded in a progressivist and ideologically freighted narrative of art as self-expression. "Fidelity to Christ," he concluded, "required rethinking the narrative."

Wolterstorff set out on a quest to discover where these assumptions came from--a project that took him almost thirty years, and culminated in the publication of two books in 1980: Works and Worlds of Art (Oxford, reprinted 2003) and Art in Action (IVP). All of this work was "perspectival" in that it was occasioned precisely by his being situated within a tradition of faith.

Wolterstorff further observed that the old academic ideal of setting aside the particulars of one's identity rendered Christian ministry in the academy "supplementary"--i.e., it consisted of adding prayer, bible study, worship, and student formation on top of academic learning. To be sure, these are good and important projects, but in such supplementary strategies faith has no direct bearing on a university's central task of academic learning.

Looking forward, Wolterstorff continued, the Christian Study Center movement is a new kind of campus ministry that coincides with the move toward perspectival learning, and that strives to be more than merely supplementary. Working alongside both Christian faculty members inside the university and traditional campus ministries largely situated outside the university, the task at hand is to help Christian students and scholars "to think with a Christian mind and to speak in a Christian voice." His charge to the directors was severalfold, but started with the importance of resurrecting the knowledge of the richness of the Christian faith--its history and theological tradition.

Wolterstorff was a great encouragement to all of the directors about the work to which have set ourselves. And needless to say, when I shared with him the Chesterton House mission statement--"to facilitate discovery of the intellectual riches of the historic Christian faith, thereby empowering more faithful Christian living"--he heartily approved.

Wolterstorff's visit came in the middle of a very full semester at Chesterton House that began with the Institute of Biblical Studies and culminated with our Heaven in a Nightclub concert in New York City. As we have stepped up our level of programming this past year, it has been our pleasure to hear from many more of you who have taken advantage of these events and the audio recordings on the website. Please know it is our privilege to serve the university community with these events and resources. Please also know how much we value your prayers and support that make this work possible.

Wow. What a night! On a warm May evening across the street from Central Park, many of us enjoyed an extraordinary presentation of music and history with Dr. Bill Edgar, Ruth Naomi Floyd, John Patitucci, and Joe Salzano, along with Master of Ceremonies Andy Crouch. For those were missed this wonderful event, no words can possibly describe it. The good news is that we have something better than words--we have a recording! Stay tuned for more info on the CD in the next newsletter.

One of our goals at Chesterton House is to encourage and help mobilize students to take new initiatives to enact their faith in various ways on campus. Last year, we recruited a great bunch of students to start a new Christian thought publication on campus. This year, the students came out with the first issue of Translations Magazine (http://translations.magazine.googlepages.com/). Please pray for them as they work on their second issue that is scheduled for distribution when students return in August. Please also pray for us as we meet with other students to explore other new initiatives, such as the founding of a Cornell chapter of the International Justice Mission (http://www.ijm.org/).

Many thanks to the Friends of Tompkins County Public Library for a $1000 grant this past year that enabled us to continue acquiring books for our resource room. We are now the proud owners of about 40 new volumes--mostly recent titles, many of them in the area of sociology of religion. In addition to Peter Berger's classic work Invitation to Sociology, we are now the proud owners of Robert Wuthnow's book on diversity, two Michael Emerson volumes on race, and Elaine Howard Ecklund's recent volume on Korean Americans. Other acquisitions include reference works such as the two-volume Teachings of Modern Christianity on Law, Politics, and Human Nature, and the recently published Complete Works of Hans Rookmaaker.

With the changing seasons we also have some changes in the make-up of the Chesterton House board. Camille Wilson and Josh Pothen have both recently moved off of the board--Camille has relocated to the Washington, D.C. area, and Josh has just graduated from Cornell. We thank them for their service to Chesterton House and wish them the very best with their relocation and new endeavors! Joining the board this year is Dr. Richard Baer. Dick is a Professor Emeritus of Natural Resources at Cornell, a longtime friend of the Chesterton House ministry, and a favorite among Christian students and alumni for his popular undergraduate course "Religion, Ethics, and the Environment."

Thanks to all who helped us out during the matching grant campaign that concluded in January. We raised a little more than $160,000. Along with the matching funds, this generates over $240,000 for the ministry over a two year period. During the recent Christian Studies Center directors meeting, one of the consistent comments from other directors was that Chesterton House manages to provide a lot of programming relative to its modest budget. There is no lack of opportunity for even further programming and ministry, and we look forward to partnering with our supporters to continue growing in the future. Summer is historically a slow time for ministries such as Chesterton House. To support the ministry at this time, please see the three easy ways to give to Chesterton house listed here: http://www.chestertonhouse.org/donate.

Many of you either know Christian Anible or have heard his name in association with the Chesterton House ministry. Christian is the InterVarsity Grad /Faculty ministry worker here at Cornell, a founding board member of Chesterton House, and a great friend to the ministry in many ways--giving talks, providing wise counsel, donating a large portion of the books now in our resource room, etc.

Christian has been battling glandular cancer this past year. He has had two surgeries in the past two weeks--the first to replace vertebrae that were damaged by a combination of the cancer and the radiation treatment, and the second to relieve pressure from additional growths on other vertebrae. Please join those of us who know and love Christian, Barb, and their children in praying for the effectiveness of these surgeries at decreasing his pain and increasing his mobility. New Life Presbyterian Church has set up a benevolence account to help the Anibles with their various expenses (PO Box 6878, Ithaca, NY, 14851). Anyone interested in receiving occasional updates on Christian's health may send a short note to me by responding to this email.