CHESTERTON HOUSE:
A CENTER FOR CHRISTIAN STUDIES
"daring to discuss the important and the amusing"
NEWSLETTER #41
Summer 2011
Several years ago a graduate student attending a Bible study at our home said, "I'm studying Soil and Crop Sciences, but I'm not at all clear whether or how my faith connects to my studies." I opened my Bible and began reading aloud: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and dirt." Although I took some liberties in the translation, the Genesis text is clear. As we at Chesterton House continually remind the students we work with, God cares about the earth in all its messy materiality.
Perhaps nobody appreciates this better than Cornell Professor of Crop and Soil Sciences Gary Fick. Dr. Fick has been a faithful member of the local church and campus Christian communities for 40 years--to the best of my recollection, he was the first Christian professor I ever met at Cornell. For fifteen years he has been my neighbor, and I can attest to his skill in growing everything from blueberries to broccoli. And in 2008 he published a wonderful book entitled Food, Farming, and Faith.
"It's all about food." So begins the first chapter of this book. And it's true. Food production and consumption are all about nature--our use and abuse of creation. Food production and consumption are also cultural--entailing ritual, festivity, and issues of economic status. "Food is a comprehensive theme," Fick writes. Indeed, whether your interest is in sabbath, sustainability, or social justice, "All aspects of life are interconnected with food."
But food is also about death. Not only is food security one of the most pressing social and humanitarian issues of the 21st century, but "life comes only . . . by taking life." This is most obviously true of the plant and animal life that we consume. It is also true of Christ, who gave his life that we might live. We consume His body and blood in anticipation of eternal life and the consummation of all things in Christ.
“In case you thought environmentalism and Christianity were at odds," Bill McKibben says in his endorsement, "here’s a book that makes clear, in great and rewarding detail, just how closely allied they actually are. This will be a useful primer for the blossoming green religious movement.” Indeed, this is Christian scholarship at its best--a work from someone who has rolled up his sleeves, literally and figuratively, in order to "plow deep." I asked Gary once how long he worked on the book. His answer: "All my life."
Dr. Gary Fick will be our next speaker. "The Church and Food," a lecture and panel discussion, will take place on September 16th. More information on this and other events and updates may be found below. Thank you for your interest and support for the Chesterton House ministry as we seek to explore the relevance of Christian faith to all aspects of God's good creation.
Karl E. Johnson
Director
UPCOMING EVENTS
Friday, Sept. 16, 2011, 7:30pm
Dr. Gary Fick, Cornell University
305 Stewart Ave.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011, 5:00pm
"Secularization, Religion, and the University's Critics"
Dr. C. John Sommerville, University of Florida
Alan T. and Linda M. Beimfohr Lecture
Kaufmann Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall
LECTURE NAMED FOR AL & LINDA BEIMFOHR
Chesterton House is very pleased to announce our first named lecture, the Alan T. and Linda M. Beimfohr Lecture, which will be given by University of Florida historian C. John Sommerville. The Beimfohr lecture, designed to bring a public intellectual to Cornell to address issues related to faith in a pluralistic society once each semester, is a gift of Carl '76 and Elaine Neuss of Laguna Niguel, CA, in honor of the Beihmfors' longtime commitment to Cornell. Alan Beimfohr, a 1966 graduate of Cornell's College of Engineering and co-founder of Knightsbridge Asset Management, is a former President of the Cornell Alumni Association of Southern California and serves on the Advisory Council to the Cornell Financial Engineering Manhattan MFE program.
The inaugural Beimfohr lecture, which will take place on Wednesday, October 12th, 5:00pm, will be given by C. John Sommerville. Sommerville is professor emeritus of English History at the University of Florida, a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, and senior fellow at Harvard's Center for the Study of World Religions. His books include The Decline of the Secular University (Oxford, 2006), How the News Makes us Dumb: The Death of Wisdom in an Information Society (InterVarsity, 1999), The News Revolution in England: Cultural Dynamics of Daily Information (Oxford, 1996), The Secularization of Early Modern England: from Religious Culture to Religious Faith (Oxford, 1992), The Discovery of Childhood in Puritan England (University of Georgia, 1992), and, most recently, Religious Ideas for Secular Universities (Eerdmans, 2009).
PERSONNEL CHANGES
At the end of July we said goodbye to Justin McGeary--after three years with Chesterton House, Justin is headed out to complete his M.Div. at Westminster West in southern California where we wish him well. In August we said hello to a whole new staff team, beginning with Barb Westin, our Director of Undergraduate Ministry. Barb, who has served with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship for several years, will oversee our new women's residential initiative. James Pothen, a 2010 graduate of Cornell's Engineering College, has joined Chesterton House as Coordinator of Undergraduate Programs. And Gary Villa, a member of the New Life Presbyterian pastoral staff, will serve part-time as Spiritual Director of Chesterton House. We couldn't be more pleased with this excellent team. Read more about Barb, James, Gary.
On the board, term limits came due for two of our founding board members, Dr. Bob Fay and Rev. Steve Froehlich. Bob and Steve have been two of the pillars of Chesterton House from the beginning. We thank them for their service and look forward to continuing to involve them and engage them in various ways (Steve is leading a film discussion later this week, so we're not letting him get too far away). Thanks also to Professor Kathleen Vogel, who has also rotated off the board after several years of service, and who is now working for Cornell in Washington, D.C. At the same time, we have welcomed Steve Calk as our newest board member. Steve is a lecturer in finance at Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management where he is also faculty advisor to the Johnson Christian Fellowship. Welcome Steve!
FINANCIAL UPDATE
Our budget for the fiscal year ending June 30th included $160,000 in gifts from individuals and churches. With just six weeks left in the fiscal year, we still needed $50,000 to reach this figure. The final numbers are in, and the total is . . . $159,544. That is less than 1% shy of our goal, and with a little savings on the expense side, we finished the year solidly in the black. Best of all, we raised $25,000 in new gifts, thereby maximizing the matching grant and kicking off the new year on a firm foundation. Thanks to all who helped us reach these marks! We are also encouraged to be receiving more monthly contributions online, so thanks to all who have joined us in that capacity as well. As always, details on how to give may be found at http://www.chestertonhouse.org/donate.
ONLINE AUDIO
Our online audio resources now include Peter Harris's "Why Tree Frogs Need Believers: Christian concern for the Environment." Harris is the founder of A Rocha, a Christian environmental conservation organization. His visit was delightful and his talk terrific. Just after his visit to Cornell, Harris left to lead a workshop with Eugene Peterson. Andy Crouch '90 caught up with Peterson and Harris, and his interview with them, "The Joyful Environmentalists," is now online. We should also mention that Chesterton House board member and Cornell Professor Emeritus Richard Baer discussed diversity on WHCU's Cornell-sponsored "All Things Equal" radio show. Click here and scroll down to April 12, 2011.
COMING SOON: PLANNING SURVEY
The Chesterton House board is embarking on a Strategic Planning process during which time we will be mapping out the ministry's goals and objectives for the next three years. Toward that end, we will be soliciting input from all of the ministry's constituents and stakeholders--students, alumni, parents, friends, and supporters. Please watch for a survey coming to an inbox near you, and please consider taking a few minutes to provide us with some helpful input, observations, and suggestions.
FURTHER READING
The literature on food in general and Christianity and food more specifically has mushroomed in recent years. Articles of interest include Chesterton House board member Ryan O'Dowd's "Thought for Food" (on the politics and spirituality of food), Cornell faculty member Chris Barrett's "Overseas Development Assistance" (on food security), and Cornell graduate Mary Eberstadt's "Is Food the New Sex?" (on, well, one section is entitled "Broccoli, Pornography, and Kant"). In addition to Fick's Food, Farming, and Faith, other titles of interest include Eat Well, Good Eating, Sharing Food, The Spirit of Food, Year of Plenty, and Grace at the Table. Wendell Berry recently produced Bringing it to the Table; his classic discussion of culture and agriculture is The Unsettling of America. Another classic is Capon's The Supper of the Lamb. These titles and more are reviewed by our friend Byron Borger at Hearts & Minds Books here and here. Finally, we'll mention that the New York Times had an interesting feature on Christian-libertarian-environmentalist-capitalist-lunatic-Farmer Joel Salatin.
"If we do not insist on the fundamental nature of community for the expression of the Christian life we will not only fail to understand each other, we will fail to understand God.”
Peter Harris