CHESTERTON HOUSE:
A CENTER FOR CHRISTIAN STUDIES
"daring to discuss the important and the amusing"
NEWSLETTER #43
Winter 2012
[The following reflections are offered by Dr. Ryan O'Dowd. A recent arrival in Ithaca, O'Dowd is an Old Testament scholar and now also a Chesterton House board member. Read more.]
What is education for? I posed this question to 20 new Cornell students during freshman orientation this year. We had just shared a lively discussion about E.L. Doctorow’s novel Homer and Langley and, sensing the energy was right, I asked them why they thought Cornell wanted them to think critically about literature before they began their studies. What is education for in the end? Silence. Students looked away and began to mumble and slump in their chairs. What had happened? After a few awkward minutes, a bright, articulate student offered this explanation: “Most of us came here for access to opportunity, to make money, or to get our ticket to an elite group of society. I don’t think we have anything to say, and those of us who do, aren’t going to embarrass ourselves by saying so.”
What is education for? That is the guiding question in Steven Garber’s highly celebrated book The Fabric of Faithfulness. Now the director of the Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation, and Culture, Garber taught for many years on Capitol Hill at the American Studies Program and then was the Scholar-in-Residence for the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. He has interacted with students, faculty, and staff on countless university campuses – Christian, public, private, and international. Garber’s assessment of the modern university is telling: “The shriveled visions of universities under the impact of modernity – particularly the effects of bureaucracy and technology – seem more concerned to produce people who are technically competent but who have little interest in the whys and wherefores of their competencies.” According to Neil Postman, the university has become “all but a meaningless hodgepodge of subjects.”
Yet as Garber recognizes, that is only part of the story. As fragmented as much secular education is today, the sheer concentration of expertise within its halls and laboratories makes it an increasingly prolific source of positive transformation, whether in the environment, history, politics, the arts, computer sciences, health, medicine, or countless other fields. Christians are called to participate in this work of the university while seeking to compensate for its weaknesses.
This challenge is somewhat new to me as most of my experience has been in Christian institutions where I have focused on teaching foundational issues in a hospitable context. I have been free to experiment with ways of communicating an appreciation for the creation in all of its God-given beauty, structure, power, and purpose. I have also openly explored various ways of asking what it means to be human in God’s world and, with this, promoted intellectual growth alongside increased maturity in the spiritual, psychological, communal, physical, and emotional areas. And I have worked to help students to develop a uniquely Christian framework for moral reasoning that will help them navigate the difficult challenges they meet in life.
Working at Cornell has forced me to think far more strategically about theological education, and Garber’s work has been an invaluable aid, particularly his three-fold approach to shaping students in secular contexts. These are: (1) help young Christians to develop a comprehensive Christian worldview that provides a way to relate biblical faith to the modern world, (2) connect students with Christian mentors who embody lives of faithfulness, and (3) get students embedded in Christian communities that can encourage and strengthen them on their journey.
To my mind, Chesterton House is model for this kind of Christian presence in the university. For over a decade Karl Johnson and the Chesterton House board have been thinking about the strategic, theological, and intellectual context needed to serve students in a secular academic setting. In the midst of general religious disinterest and atheism, Christian faculty and students here reflect together about a comprehensive approach to meaning, a Christian framework for moral direction, and an ultimate sense of purpose in education. Above all, my sense is that Chesterton House is a place where students are shaped not as repositories for ideas, but, as Augustine says, creatures made out of love and for love. Love, not ideas, is what motivates and enables these students to progress through their studies into their future vocations with a concern for wholeness, coherence and meaningful measures of truth, beauty, and excellence.
As I write, Karl is preparing us to welcome 30 students into the men’s and women’s living communities where we create a context for community and mentoring. On February 3-4 we will join Bethel Grove Bible Church and New Life Presbyterian Church in hosting none other than Steven Garber as our speaker for the annual Institute of Biblical Studies. And then from February 17-19 we are planning to take a group of students to the Jubilee Conference in Pittsburgh, PA where we will hear dozens of speakers that range from seminary presidents and CEOs to artists, musicians, and pastors. That’s not even a month of activity at Chesterton House! On behalf of the board and the Cornell community, we are grateful to all who make Chesterton House possible – the staff and volunteers, and also the large number of you who pray and provide financial support for this work all year round.
-Dr. Ryan O'Dowd
BEIMFOHR LECTURE
As mentioned in our December email, a video of the inaugural Beimfohr lecture with John Sommerville is now available on the Cornell Cast website. We also now pleased to announce that the Spring 2012 Beimfohr Lecture will be delivered by Felicia Wu Song. A sociologist at LSU and author of Virtual Communities: Bowling Alone, Online Together, Song researches the effects of social media on relationships, civic engagement, and the American tradition of reinventing the self. Her lecture at Cornell will be entitled "Facebook, Friendship, and the Search for Real Community." Please save the date and plan to join us. Details on time and location may be found below.
FRIDAY CONVERSATIONS
Although our newsletters highlight public lectures, we of course provide many other programs as well. A popular discussion series among undergraduates the last few years has been Friday Conversations. Perched precariously between the workweek and the weekend, Friday Conversations aspire to the ideal that Calvin Seerveld calls "tensed leisure"--a time that is at once useful and enjoyable, serious and lighthearted, requiring effort and yet somehow simultaneously refreshing. We have some great conversations lined up this semester on Forgiveness, Technology, Strategic Planning, Occupy Wall Street, and not least of all, how to study religion in the secular university while remaining faithful to Christ. You can see more about what we have planned on our Friday Conversations page. Speaking of web resources, don't forget to visit our Articles and Reviews for quick links to thoughtful pieces on everything from recent developments on religion and public life issues to the phenomenon of Tim Tebow.
FINANCIAL UPDATE
Thanks to all who responded to our annual report or otherwise contributed financially recently. During the months of December and early January, Chesterton House received over 100 gifts totaling over $50,000. This positions us well as we prepare to serve students with a variety of lectures and other events this coming semester, and we are very grateful to all who support the ministry with prayer and financial gifts alike. Stay tuned for more information on some special multi-year projects that we will be announcing and raising funds for in the very near future.
KARL JOHNSON TO SPEAK IN ROCHESTER
Chesterton House Director Karl Johnson will give a talk entitled "Faith in the Halls of Learning" in Rochester, NY on Saturday, Feb. 11th. The talk will take place at 7:00pm at Grace Church, 1344 University Ave., Suite 215, Rochester, NY. For more info, see the church website. All are welcome.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Friday-Sunday, February 3-5, 2012
"Can We Know the World and Still Love the World?"
Dr. Steven Garber, Washington Institute
Institute of Biblical Studies
Call Auditorium & Bethel Grove Bible Church
Friday, March 30, 2012, 7:00pm
"The Finite and the Infinite: Two Leading Scientists discuss Nature, Knowledge, and Faith"
Dr. Roald Hoffmann, Cornell, and Dr. Ian Hutchinson, MIT
Moderated by Dr. Andrew Chignell, Cornell
Veritas Forum
Location: TBA
Saturday, March 31, 2012, 7:00pm
Title: TBA
Dr. Ian Hutchinson, MIT
Graduate Christian Fellowship Roundtable
Weill Hall, 226
Tuesday, April 10, 2012, 5:00pm
"Facebook, Friendship, and the Search for Real Community"
Dr. Felicia Wu Song, Louisiana State University (LSU)
Alan T. and Linda M. Beimfohr Lecture
Lewis Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall
"Every definition of the of the purpose of education implies some concealed, or rather implicit, philosophy or theology.
In choosing one definition rather than another, we are attracted to the one because it fits in better with our answer to the question "What is Man for?"
T.S. Eliot
http://www.chestertonhouse.org