Wednesday 29 June 2011
"Art in Public" - Lambert Zuidervaart
Senior Member Lambert Zuidervaart's latest book, Art in Public: Politics, Economics, and a Democratic Culture (Cambridge University Press, 2011), has received a strong review in the Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. To read this review, visit http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=24011.
Doug Blomberg in Australia
This month, Senior Member Doug Blomberg will be speaking in Darwin, Australia at the International Transforming Education Scholarly Symposium sponsored by the International Association for the Promotion of Christian Higher Education (IAPCHE). Doug will present the opening keynote speech, titled "Where is the Wisdom We Have Lost in Knowledge?", and will partner with Professor Dinkarlal in the final plenary session to draw together the themes discussed in the symposium. Later in the week he will also be presenting a paper titled "20/20 Vision for 2020 Schooling: Remembering Rightly in a Violent World" at the International Transforming Education Conference. This conference is being organized by the National Institute for Christian Education.
Junior Member Jelle Huisman Welcomes His Son
Congratulations to Junior Member Jelle Huisman and his wife Janneke, on the birth of their son Laurens, on June 20th. Big sisters Marijke, Judith and Femke are delighted with their new baby brother! We thank God that all went well with mother and child and we pray for God's blessing on Laurens.
President’s Prayer Letter: July 2011
ICS has a long commitment to cooperative scholarship. We don't always live up to our conviction by any means but it remains and ever calls out to us. We have lived out of our commitment to communal scholarship in a number of ways. Our Research Centre for Philosophy, Religion and Social Ethics is a good case in point. On the teaching side, however, the jewel in the crown of communal scholarship is the annual ICS Interdisciplinary Seminar. In that seminar most of the Senior Members and a good percentage of the Junior Members of ICS's MA and PhD programs gather together to read texts together and argue from them to an understanding of some aspect or another of the world we inhabit. In 2011-2012 we will be reading a pretty fair representation of Plato's dialogues.
There are many ways of approaching those dialogues and the philosophy one encounters through them. One can read them to discover the person and thought of the ever attractive and ever enigmatic Socrates, Plato's teacher, famous in Athens, who wrote nothing in life, preferring instead to pester his fellow citizens in the marketplace asking them to cooperate with him in his ceaseless love of wisdom. In such a reading one is ever looking for tell tale signs of friction and so a difference between the dialogues' author Plato and the character of Socrates within the dialogues.
Alternatively, one can put Socrates aside altogether and read the dialogues of Plato with a view to Plato's systematic understanding of the world. In such an approach, one looks at the claims about the world made and never retracted, the lines of argument constructed to give those claims the heft of logical validity. One observes the systematic character of thought in the dialogues and so begins to look for the system implicit within them, individually or as a whole.
There are things one can learn from both approaches. My own approach however is different again. I think of the dialogues as attempting to perform literarily the event or situation in which Wisdom at times deigns to appear. The implicit expectation at play in the dialogues, in my reading, is that Wisdom appears in the spaces between speakers as they together explore the world and its ways. She doesn't always come, no matter how scintillating the conversation, no matter spectacularly the argumentative sparks fly, but when she does appear, it is in that space, in the sounds that fill it up, in the to-and-fro of persons speaking together in loving inquiry. It is not really any of the voices individually that is capable of speaking with the voice of Wisdom herself, not even the voice of Plato's beloved Socrates. No, it is the collective murmur that attracts her presence. She comes because she hears in the back and forth, in the crescendos and decrescendos of earnest speech, something that catches her ears and draws her in, something that makes her want to be there, to bless the murmur with her most precious gift, herself present and manifest, making us wise. The dialogues of Plato seek to model the kind of discursive situations Wisdom loves, those conditions most auspicious for her appearance. But they do not program Wisdom's presence, they do not engineer it, for she comes when she deigns to come, on her time and in her gift and pleasure. They teach, or are meant to teach their readers how to live in loving enquiry, how to make ourselves in our speaking together available for Wisdom should she choose to bless us. Not the individual voices but the play of voices, minds, hearts. Wisdom is to be loved and sought in community.
It seems to me that Christian monks and nuns preserved something of this "Platonic" ethos in their religious lives. Vacare deo—To be available for God—was, if you will, their most oft-repeated exhortation to each other and all of us too. Of course, they did their work not with arguments, likely stories, and rhetorical sleights of hand. Theirs was a work of prayer, but the point was, they too lived in "a little school of the Lord (Rule of St. Benedict, Cap. 1)." They too engaged in a discipline of love in hopes that in the space between persons, and attracted by the murmur of their blended voices raised in psalmody or muttered in chagrined confession, the Maker and Wisdom of the Universe might deign to appear and bless their fellowship, and in that blessing bless the whole world.
I would like to think, and recommend that we all think, of ICS's long commitment to communal scholarship as formed to strikingly analogous commitments. At our best, we too have the sense of our academic love of God as a discipline of speech, writing and thought in and through a life pattern of grateful inquiry that would be available for God's use at God's good pleasure. That availability is not carried by this or that Senior Member, even when the voice of one is especially beloved. Nor is it carried by the choired voice of the Senior Members as a group. Rather it is the speech, the writing and the careful thought of the whole community that bears our individual and communal intent to serve. And the places in the ICS in which this communal intent and bearing are most on display are the Centre, the IDS and I will add in those moments of public outreach in which we invite and carry on a real dialogue with broader communities of faith ever in gratitude and hope that such dialogue attract the presence of Wisdom, that is, one of the ageless faces of Our God and Lord. And isn't the transfiguration of the work of whole ICS community, including each of you who care enough to wish us well and pray, isn't the transfiguration of that work by the blessed appearance of Wisdom a wonder worth praying for this month? That will certainly be my prayer; I invite you to join me in that prayer. Let us murmur our availability together this month and who knows what might transpire?
For the President,
Bob Sweetman
Friday, July 1: At the beginning of this month we celebrate Canada Day here and Independence Day in the U.S. Let us pray for the many blessings we receive due to our good fortune in living in these countries. Also, while we are grateful for our lives here, we also pray for those people living in countries plagued by poverty and war.
Monday, July 4: We ask God to bless Junior Member Michael DeMoor as he defends his PhD thesis at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam today.
Tuesday, July 5: We ask God to bless Junior Member Peter Lok as he defends his PhD thesis at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam today.
Wednesday, July 6: Last month, Henry, brother of Senior Member Ron Kuipers, had a serious accident at work. He has required a lot of surgery, and the prognosis for a full recovery is good. Please pray for a full recovery for Henry and for strength for the rest of his family as they nurse him back to health.
Thursday, July 7: We offer prayers of praise for former ICS Director of Student Services Pam Trondson who has been ordained as an Anglican priest and has been appointed assistant curate at St. Paul's Anglican Church in Newmarket, Ontario.
Friday, July 8: On Sunday, Senior Member Doug Blomberg will be presenting the opening keynote speech at the International Transforming Education Conference Scholarly Symposium in Australia. We ask God to bless Doug and all who attend this event.
Monday, July 11: Summer is here and many people are planning vacations. Many members of the ICS community will be traveling in the summer months to spend time with family and friends. We continue to pray for safe and pleasant journeys and we pray for rest and renewal for the Senior Members and Administrative Staff who are enjoying vacations this month.
Tuesday, July 12: Today Senior Member Doug Blomberg participates in the final plenary session at the International Transforming Education Scholarly Symposium. We pray for God's blessing on Doug and all who attend.
Wednesday, July 13: We offer prayers of joy for Junior Member Jelle Huisman, his wife Janneke and their daughters Marijke, Judith and Femke, on the birth of their son, Laurens on June 20. We thank God for this wonderful new life!
Thursday, July 14: Senior Member Doug Blomberg is presenting a paper at the International Transforming Education Conference. We ask God to bless Doug and everyone who attends this conference.
Friday, July 15: We offer prayers of thanks for the many people who have presented ICS with gifts of prayer, money, and expressions of appreciation. We are blessed with your interest and support.
Monday, July 18: Junior Member Allyson Carr's sister Kristin was in a car accident and has sustained head injuries that are impacting the rest of her health, and mean she cannot work in the near future, at least until they are resolved. We continue to pray for a full and speedy recovery for Kristin.
Tuesday, July 19: We offer prayers of praise for the talent of Senior Member Emeritus Cal Seerveld who has produced a CD, The Gift of Genevan Psalmody for Today.
Wednesday, July 20: The summer months are often a time when Junior Members can give sustained attention to their Masters and PhD thesis projects. We pray for our Junior Members and ask for God's blessing and guidance on their research and writing.
Thursday, July 21: We offer prayers of praise for long-time ICS supporter John Hulst, who is being honoured with a Distinguished Alumni Award by the Calvin Theological Seminary.
Friday, July 22: We offer prayers of praise for the talent of Senior Member Shannon Hoff, whose article, "On Law, Transgression, and Forgiveness: Hegel and the Politics of Liberalism," is published in the Summer 2011 issue of Philosophical Forum.
Monday, July 25: We celebrate the addition of seven new Junior Members to the ICS community this fall, and we remember them in our prayers as they make the necessary preparations and transitions over the summer in order to begin their studies in September.
Tuesday, July 26: We offer prayers of praise for Junior Member Allyson Carr whose PhD defense last month was successful. Congratulations Allyson!
Wednesday, July 27: We offer prayers of praise for the talent of Senior Member Lambert Zuidervaart, whose book, Art in Public: Politics, Economics and a Democratic Culture, has received a strong review in the Notre Dame Philosophical Review.
Thursday, July 28: We ask God's help and guidance for all those who are doing advancement work for ICS. Please pray that support for the vision and mission of ICS continues to grow.
Friday, July 29: Senior Members often spend much of the summer developing course curriculum and giving attention to research projects. We are extremely grateful for the work of our Senior Members and ask for God's blessing on them.
There are many ways of approaching those dialogues and the philosophy one encounters through them. One can read them to discover the person and thought of the ever attractive and ever enigmatic Socrates, Plato's teacher, famous in Athens, who wrote nothing in life, preferring instead to pester his fellow citizens in the marketplace asking them to cooperate with him in his ceaseless love of wisdom. In such a reading one is ever looking for tell tale signs of friction and so a difference between the dialogues' author Plato and the character of Socrates within the dialogues.
Alternatively, one can put Socrates aside altogether and read the dialogues of Plato with a view to Plato's systematic understanding of the world. In such an approach, one looks at the claims about the world made and never retracted, the lines of argument constructed to give those claims the heft of logical validity. One observes the systematic character of thought in the dialogues and so begins to look for the system implicit within them, individually or as a whole.
There are things one can learn from both approaches. My own approach however is different again. I think of the dialogues as attempting to perform literarily the event or situation in which Wisdom at times deigns to appear. The implicit expectation at play in the dialogues, in my reading, is that Wisdom appears in the spaces between speakers as they together explore the world and its ways. She doesn't always come, no matter how scintillating the conversation, no matter spectacularly the argumentative sparks fly, but when she does appear, it is in that space, in the sounds that fill it up, in the to-and-fro of persons speaking together in loving inquiry. It is not really any of the voices individually that is capable of speaking with the voice of Wisdom herself, not even the voice of Plato's beloved Socrates. No, it is the collective murmur that attracts her presence. She comes because she hears in the back and forth, in the crescendos and decrescendos of earnest speech, something that catches her ears and draws her in, something that makes her want to be there, to bless the murmur with her most precious gift, herself present and manifest, making us wise. The dialogues of Plato seek to model the kind of discursive situations Wisdom loves, those conditions most auspicious for her appearance. But they do not program Wisdom's presence, they do not engineer it, for she comes when she deigns to come, on her time and in her gift and pleasure. They teach, or are meant to teach their readers how to live in loving enquiry, how to make ourselves in our speaking together available for Wisdom should she choose to bless us. Not the individual voices but the play of voices, minds, hearts. Wisdom is to be loved and sought in community.
It seems to me that Christian monks and nuns preserved something of this "Platonic" ethos in their religious lives. Vacare deo—To be available for God—was, if you will, their most oft-repeated exhortation to each other and all of us too. Of course, they did their work not with arguments, likely stories, and rhetorical sleights of hand. Theirs was a work of prayer, but the point was, they too lived in "a little school of the Lord (Rule of St. Benedict, Cap. 1)." They too engaged in a discipline of love in hopes that in the space between persons, and attracted by the murmur of their blended voices raised in psalmody or muttered in chagrined confession, the Maker and Wisdom of the Universe might deign to appear and bless their fellowship, and in that blessing bless the whole world.
I would like to think, and recommend that we all think, of ICS's long commitment to communal scholarship as formed to strikingly analogous commitments. At our best, we too have the sense of our academic love of God as a discipline of speech, writing and thought in and through a life pattern of grateful inquiry that would be available for God's use at God's good pleasure. That availability is not carried by this or that Senior Member, even when the voice of one is especially beloved. Nor is it carried by the choired voice of the Senior Members as a group. Rather it is the speech, the writing and the careful thought of the whole community that bears our individual and communal intent to serve. And the places in the ICS in which this communal intent and bearing are most on display are the Centre, the IDS and I will add in those moments of public outreach in which we invite and carry on a real dialogue with broader communities of faith ever in gratitude and hope that such dialogue attract the presence of Wisdom, that is, one of the ageless faces of Our God and Lord. And isn't the transfiguration of the work of whole ICS community, including each of you who care enough to wish us well and pray, isn't the transfiguration of that work by the blessed appearance of Wisdom a wonder worth praying for this month? That will certainly be my prayer; I invite you to join me in that prayer. Let us murmur our availability together this month and who knows what might transpire?
For the President,
Bob Sweetman
Friday, July 1: At the beginning of this month we celebrate Canada Day here and Independence Day in the U.S. Let us pray for the many blessings we receive due to our good fortune in living in these countries. Also, while we are grateful for our lives here, we also pray for those people living in countries plagued by poverty and war.
Monday, July 4: We ask God to bless Junior Member Michael DeMoor as he defends his PhD thesis at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam today.
Tuesday, July 5: We ask God to bless Junior Member Peter Lok as he defends his PhD thesis at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam today.
Wednesday, July 6: Last month, Henry, brother of Senior Member Ron Kuipers, had a serious accident at work. He has required a lot of surgery, and the prognosis for a full recovery is good. Please pray for a full recovery for Henry and for strength for the rest of his family as they nurse him back to health.
Thursday, July 7: We offer prayers of praise for former ICS Director of Student Services Pam Trondson who has been ordained as an Anglican priest and has been appointed assistant curate at St. Paul's Anglican Church in Newmarket, Ontario.
Friday, July 8: On Sunday, Senior Member Doug Blomberg will be presenting the opening keynote speech at the International Transforming Education Conference Scholarly Symposium in Australia. We ask God to bless Doug and all who attend this event.
Monday, July 11: Summer is here and many people are planning vacations. Many members of the ICS community will be traveling in the summer months to spend time with family and friends. We continue to pray for safe and pleasant journeys and we pray for rest and renewal for the Senior Members and Administrative Staff who are enjoying vacations this month.
Tuesday, July 12: Today Senior Member Doug Blomberg participates in the final plenary session at the International Transforming Education Scholarly Symposium. We pray for God's blessing on Doug and all who attend.
Wednesday, July 13: We offer prayers of joy for Junior Member Jelle Huisman, his wife Janneke and their daughters Marijke, Judith and Femke, on the birth of their son, Laurens on June 20. We thank God for this wonderful new life!
Thursday, July 14: Senior Member Doug Blomberg is presenting a paper at the International Transforming Education Conference. We ask God to bless Doug and everyone who attends this conference.
Friday, July 15: We offer prayers of thanks for the many people who have presented ICS with gifts of prayer, money, and expressions of appreciation. We are blessed with your interest and support.
Monday, July 18: Junior Member Allyson Carr's sister Kristin was in a car accident and has sustained head injuries that are impacting the rest of her health, and mean she cannot work in the near future, at least until they are resolved. We continue to pray for a full and speedy recovery for Kristin.
Tuesday, July 19: We offer prayers of praise for the talent of Senior Member Emeritus Cal Seerveld who has produced a CD, The Gift of Genevan Psalmody for Today.
Wednesday, July 20: The summer months are often a time when Junior Members can give sustained attention to their Masters and PhD thesis projects. We pray for our Junior Members and ask for God's blessing and guidance on their research and writing.
Thursday, July 21: We offer prayers of praise for long-time ICS supporter John Hulst, who is being honoured with a Distinguished Alumni Award by the Calvin Theological Seminary.
Friday, July 22: We offer prayers of praise for the talent of Senior Member Shannon Hoff, whose article, "On Law, Transgression, and Forgiveness: Hegel and the Politics of Liberalism," is published in the Summer 2011 issue of Philosophical Forum.
Monday, July 25: We celebrate the addition of seven new Junior Members to the ICS community this fall, and we remember them in our prayers as they make the necessary preparations and transitions over the summer in order to begin their studies in September.
Tuesday, July 26: We offer prayers of praise for Junior Member Allyson Carr whose PhD defense last month was successful. Congratulations Allyson!
Wednesday, July 27: We offer prayers of praise for the talent of Senior Member Lambert Zuidervaart, whose book, Art in Public: Politics, Economics and a Democratic Culture, has received a strong review in the Notre Dame Philosophical Review.
Thursday, July 28: We ask God's help and guidance for all those who are doing advancement work for ICS. Please pray that support for the vision and mission of ICS continues to grow.
Friday, July 29: Senior Members often spend much of the summer developing course curriculum and giving attention to research projects. We are extremely grateful for the work of our Senior Members and ask for God's blessing on them.
Friday 17 June 2011
Phone-a-thon 2011
We are wrapping up our annual Phone-a-thon. A BIG THANK YOU to our ICS Board members, FICS Board members, faculty members and student volunteers who are making the calls and to all our supporters for taking the time to speak with them.
Many of you have shared your ICS stories with our callers—stories that encourage us as we look to a positive future, including the opening of the Research Centre. Our students also enjoyed sharing their ICS stories—stories that have given you a first-hand glimpse of how your gift is helping ICS through its programs to bring renewal and hope to our world.
If for some reason we missed connecting with you by phone, you still have time to send in your gift. Your gift is vital to our work. You can donate online at http://www.icscanada.edu/ics/giving/, call us at 414-979-2331 ext 223 (Vidya Williams) or ext 221 (Kathy Lynch) to make a credit card donation or mail your cheque to Institute for Christian Studies, 100-229 College St., Toronto ON M5T 1R4.
THANK YOU for your partnership!
Many of you have shared your ICS stories with our callers—stories that encourage us as we look to a positive future, including the opening of the Research Centre. Our students also enjoyed sharing their ICS stories—stories that have given you a first-hand glimpse of how your gift is helping ICS through its programs to bring renewal and hope to our world.
If for some reason we missed connecting with you by phone, you still have time to send in your gift. Your gift is vital to our work. You can donate online at http://www.icscanada.edu/ics/giving/, call us at 414-979-2331 ext 223 (Vidya Williams) or ext 221 (Kathy Lynch) to make a credit card donation or mail your cheque to Institute for Christian Studies, 100-229 College St., Toronto ON M5T 1R4.
THANK YOU for your partnership!
Distinguished Alumni Award for John Hulst
John Hulst, long-time ICS supporter and FICS board member, is being honoured by the Calvin Theological Seminary with a Distinguished Alumni Award. This award is given annually to recipients who have brought unusual credit to their alma mater by their distinction in Christian ministry. John Hulst has had an immensely fruitful ministry as author, speaker, and servant of the church. He has published scores of articles, reviews, and essays and has addressed innumerable church and educational bodies across North America and in international settings.
Congratulations from the ICS community!
Congratulations from the ICS community!
Additions to Perspective Archives
We have been working on scanning our archives of Perspective starting with Volume 1 Issue 1 from 1967. Find them on our website at http://www.icscanada.edu/perspective along with more recent issues. The old pictures alone are worth the visit!
Wednesday 1 June 2011
Senate Report: 2011
The Senate, ICS's academic governing board, met on May 19 to review the work of our faculty, junior members, and research centre during the past academic year. After discussing materials prepared by ICS's Professional Status Committee and conducting interviews, the Senate approved Senior Members Nik Ansell (Theology) and Ron Kuipers (Philosophy of Religion) for continuing appointment (i.e., tenure). Nik and Ron also received approval for sabbaticals next year, and Ron was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor. Senior Member Rebekah Smick (Philosophy of the Arts and Culture) was re-appointed for a further three-year term. In addition, Doug Blomberg was appointed Academic Dean for two years, and Lambert Zuidervaart was appointed to a second one-year term as Director of the Centre for Philosophy, Religion and Social Ethics. We thank these faculty members for their excellent work and congratulate them on their significant achievements.
ICS's Senate has fourteen members: six "internal senators" from our administration, faculty, and junior members, and eight "external senators" from other schools. Each external senator serves for a five-year term and can serve two consecutive terms. Two of our senators reached the end of their terms on May 19: Professor Barbara Carvill (Emerita, Calvin College) and Professor Nicholas Wolterstorff (Emeritus, Yale University). They have served us faithfully and well for a combined total of more than 20 years. Professor Carvill has also served as ICS's chancellor in recent years. We offer our heartfelt thanks to Barb and Nick.
On May 19 the Senate appointed Dr. Jennifer Harris to be ICS's next chancellor. The chancellor represents ICS in public academic settings, most notably in the awarding of master's and doctoral degrees. A member of ICS's Senate for the past five years, Dr. Harris is Associate Professor in the Christianity and Culture Program at the University of St. Michael's College and the Director of Graduate Studies in the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto. We extend our hearty congratulations to Jennifer and thank her for taking up the chancellor's position.
ICS's Senate has fourteen members: six "internal senators" from our administration, faculty, and junior members, and eight "external senators" from other schools. Each external senator serves for a five-year term and can serve two consecutive terms. Two of our senators reached the end of their terms on May 19: Professor Barbara Carvill (Emerita, Calvin College) and Professor Nicholas Wolterstorff (Emeritus, Yale University). They have served us faithfully and well for a combined total of more than 20 years. Professor Carvill has also served as ICS's chancellor in recent years. We offer our heartfelt thanks to Barb and Nick.
On May 19 the Senate appointed Dr. Jennifer Harris to be ICS's next chancellor. The chancellor represents ICS in public academic settings, most notably in the awarding of master's and doctoral degrees. A member of ICS's Senate for the past five years, Dr. Harris is Associate Professor in the Christianity and Culture Program at the University of St. Michael's College and the Director of Graduate Studies in the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto. We extend our hearty congratulations to Jennifer and thank her for taking up the chancellor's position.
Board of Trustees Report: 2011
As usual, on the day after the Senate meeting, the ICS Board held its annual meeting. The day started with a lively plenary session, discussing the best ways for ICS to further its public outreach, especially given our enhanced focus on research. Representatives of all stakeholders participated – Board, Senate, FICS, Faculty, Staff and Students. The session was organized to respond to a white paper prepared by Doug Blomberg, A Proposal for Expanding Public Outreach. The discussion focussed on integrating public outreach with what is happening at the Research Centre and with what is happening on the teaching and mentoring front. Lambert Zuidervaart gave a very practical example of a conference on social justice and human rights planned for spring, 2012 that brings together academics and practitioners in a meaningful way to discuss an important, timely and relevant issue. The discussion also addressed new electronic ways in which we can reach our audiences quickly and economically.
The business meeting of the Board endorsed the directions of such public outreach and ratified the actions of Senate as well as receiving reports on much good work done by ICS Staff and dealing with the budget and fundraising initiatives.
Several Board members are finishing second terms on the ICS Board: Co Vanderlaan of Edmonton, Kevin van der Leek of the Vancouver area and Bill Van Groningen of the Chicago area have each served six years on the Board. Many thanks for your ongoing faithful, active interest and support for the mission of ICS!
The business meeting of the Board endorsed the directions of such public outreach and ratified the actions of Senate as well as receiving reports on much good work done by ICS Staff and dealing with the budget and fundraising initiatives.
Several Board members are finishing second terms on the ICS Board: Co Vanderlaan of Edmonton, Kevin van der Leek of the Vancouver area and Bill Van Groningen of the Chicago area have each served six years on the Board. Many thanks for your ongoing faithful, active interest and support for the mission of ICS!
"The Gift of Genevan Psalmody for Today" — Cal Seerveld
Cal Seerveld has produced a CD (79 minutes) which contains a lecture/recital on The Gift of Genevan Psalmody forToday, Sprung from its Historical Context. Members of the Mennonite Pax Christi Chorale, directed by the well known Stephanie Martin, illustrate Seerveld's remarks which move from Gregorian chant through Savonarola's Laude to Martin Luther's songs on to Jean Calvin's Genevan psalmody, which put Biblical psalms in the mouths of ordinary people. For details visit http://www.seerveld.com/tuppence.html.
"Letters to a Young Calvinist" —James K. A. Smith
ICS Alumnus James K.A. Smith has published a book Letters to a Young Calvinist: An Invitation to the Reformed Tradition (Brazos Press November 2010). This creative and accessible book invites young Calvinists into a faithful conversation that reaches from Paul and Augustine through Calvin and Edwards to Kuyper and Wolterstorff. Together these letters sketch a comprehensive vision of Calvinism that is generous, winsome, and imaginative. For more information, visit http://www.brazospress.com/.
President’s Prayer Letter: June 2011
I have per force spent a long time pondering the role of "authorities" in the medieval academy and its scholarly work. The interrelationship between authority and reason was a primary concern at least from the time of Augustine of Hippo, some fifteen hundred years ago. Of course, issues around authority and reason are shared by all the traditions of Greek and Latin Christianity from then till now. Authorities cast light by which we are enabled to see what we see. They also cast shadows that make it very hard to see other things. They beckon us to live up to them and they challenge us to live them down. Whatever the case, authority and authorities cannot be done without. After all, we Johnny-and-Jenny-come-latelys are neither the Masters of the Universe bringing all that is to be from before its very beginning. Nor do we even stand at the beginning of the traditions that have formed us. "Well, duh!" you might say, but different Christian traditions differ on how to deal with that obvious fact.
In some traditions, authorities are resented. They are experienced as constraints holding people back from truly coming to terms with the conundrums of a new age and an ever-changing world. They stand for the tyranny of the past shutting down the possibilities of the future. One must be emancipated from authorities that would limit us so if a tradition is to survive and thrive in the new worlds we are asked to think about and serve in faith.
Other traditions acknowledge that authorities play a more positive and constructive role. Among these, some use authorities first and foremost as discussion starters. Within these traditions, one need not end up in the same place as the tradition's authorities when bringing Christian insight to the contemporary context. On the other hand, even those authorities one comes to move beyond remain the right place to start if one is to bring one's tradition forward into the new world. It is as if such traditions insist: "Begin there, always begin there, to think long and well about issue 'a', 'b' or 'c'."
Still other traditions use authorities as discussion stoppers. For them authorities stand at the end and mark out the limits of healthy thought. Within the framework created by the claims and methods, by the very orientation to life captured in the language of one's authorities, one thinks well, at least in principle. Outside of that framework, one thinks poorly and will come to conceptual harm; one must suspect any failure to respect the limits marked out by authorities. To the degree that one leaves their limiting horizon behind, one is left without guidance in a quickly changing and confusing world.
The attitudes marked out by the first and third of these ways with authority mark out the extremes of a continuum. The second way falls somewhere between them. That makes traditions of the second way a bit of a conundrum for traditions of the first and third way. For traditions of the first way, traditions of the second lack in courage and integrity. Why bother to agonize over authorities and their utterances when they are just plain wrong. Set them aside and get on with the business of discovering the demands of faith in this, our new world. For traditions of the third way, traditions of the second way seem too courageous, in a word, naïvely rash. Their willingness to move beyond the limits of authoritative utterance in order to acknowledge and address the new in their changing world seems to ignore authoritative limits. And does one really acknowledge the authority of authorities if one does not live within the limits they set?
ICS has lived and worked within the Reformational tradition as a tradition of the second way. It has paid a price for this; it has been squeezed by traditions of the first and third ways who acknowledge a difference between themselves and the Reformational tradition at least as it lives at ICS. Faced with that difference they see ICS as really when push comes to shove a tradition of the first way out to rob the faithful of the landmarks and limits that mark out the sphere of Christian faithfulness, or alternatively a tradition of the third way whose fastidious attention to the graveyard of the past would rob the very same faithful of the freedom to meet the new head on with a renewed understanding of the shape of Christian faithfulness. Being a mediating tradition within a continuum marked and defined by its extremes can be a thankless business. But the Reformational tradition has taken such risks from its very beginning. One only has to think of its earliest political instincts, positioning itself between and as other than both the political conservatives who wished to counter every effect of the French Revolution by restoring and petrifying the political arrangements of the anciens régime and the revolutionaries who wished to engineer ever more radical breaks with any and all pre-revolutionary political experience and tradition. Not revolution, nor counter-revolution but reform—such has been the enduring wisdom of the Kuyperian political tradition in its many forms.
In the middle position, it is easy to be misunderstood; moreover, it is hard to avoid allowing one extreme or another to dictate the agenda rather than to continue to think and speak from one's own principled sense of things. But to succeed is to remain ever and again in touch with the roots of one's tradition, even when permitted to move at need beyond its inherited letter in the search for that Spirit that allows one to acknowledge and address what is new in our ever-changing but still ever God's world. And who could ever want more for ICS and indeed us all? Surely that is worth a prayer this month. Please join us, if you will.
For the President,
Bob Sweetman
Wednesday, June 1: Last month Anna Terpstra, the mother of Nick Terpstra, Chair of the ICS Senate, passed away. We pray for peace and strength for the family, especially through these difficult days as they honour the memory of their mother, grandmother, friend and all that she meant to her family and community.
Thursday, June 2: Jim Olthuis returns from the 2011 International Koers Conference in South Africa today. We pray for safe travel.
Friday, June 3: The annual Senate and Board meetings were held last month. We are grateful for all the work these people do for ICS, and for the talents and experience they bring to the table.
Monday, June 6: Administrative Assistant Kathy Lynch's brother-in-law, Frank Angus, is having surgery tomorrow. Please join us in prayer for the best possible outcomes, for strength and hope for Frank and his family.
Tuesday, June 7: The Finance and Fundraising Committee meets today. We pray for God's wisdom to guide this meeting.
Wednesday, June 8: The grades for spring semester courses are due this week. We give thanks for completed work and offer prayers for energy for our Senior Members as they enter what is often a busy time of grading.
Thursday, June 9: As we wind up our annual Phone-a-thon, we offer prayers of thanks for the diligent work of the volunteers, and the wonderful support of the ICS community. We offer prayers of thanks for the many people who have presented ICS with gifts of prayer, money, and expressions of appreciation. We are truly blessed with your interest and support.
Friday, June 10: We give thanks for ICS friends such as Gerald Vanderzande, PhD honoris causa, and Michael Maher who continue to seek ways to support and promote the vision and mission of ICS. We pray for God's grace as Gerald continues to struggle with health issues.
Monday, June 13: The Executive will meet later this week. We pray for God's wisdom to guide this meeting.
Tuesday, June 14: We offer prayers for the success of Aquinas Studium held at Regis College in Toronto from June 13-18. Bob Sweetman is one of the fifteen participants.
Wednesday, June 15: We ask God to bless Junior Member Allyson Carr as she defends her PhD thesis today. We pray for energy and insight for Allyson as she prepares for this defense.
Thursday, June 16: We offer prayers of thanks for the hard work and dedication of our senators Barbara Carvill and Nicholas Wolterstorff whose terms of office have ended with the May Senate meeting.
Friday, June 17: We celebrate Father's Day on Sunday! We ask for God's blessing on all fathers, that they may spend a wonderful day with their loved ones.
Monday, June 20: We offer prayers of thanks for all the work of our Board of Trustees members Kevin van der Leek, Bill Van Groningen and Co Vanderlaan who attended their last annual Board meeting in their terms of office. Their terms will end officially with the AGM in November.
Tuesday, June 21: Summer has arrived and many people are planning trips. Many members of the ICS community will be traveling in the summer months to spend time with family and friends. We pray for safe and pleasant journeys.
Wednesday, June 22: The Justice Conference Organizing Committee meets today. We pray for energy and enthusiasm for those who are involved in planning this important event.
Thursday, June 23: The summer months are often a time when Junior Members give sustained attention to their Masters and Ph.D. thesis projects. We pray for our Junior Members and ask for God's blessing on their research and writing.
Friday, June 24: We offer prayers of praise for the talent of ICS Alumnus James Smith whose book Letters to a Young Calvinist: An Invitation to the Reformed Tradition has recently been published.
Monday, June 27: We ask God's help and guidance for all those who are doing advancement work for ICS. Please pray that support for the vision and mission of ICS continues to grow.
Tuesday, June 28: Junior Member Allyson Carr's sister Kristin was recently in a car accident and has sustained some head injuries that are impacting the rest of her health, and mean she cannot work for the near future, at least until they are resolved. We pray for a full and speedy recovery for Kristin.
Wednesday, June 29: Senior Members often spend much of the summer developing course curriculum and giving attention to research projects. We are extremely grateful for the work of our Senior Members and ask for God's blessing on them.
Thursday, June 30: We celebrate the addition of seven new Junior Members to the ICS community this fall. We will remember them in our prayers as they make the necessary preparations and transitions this summer in order to begin their program studies in September.
In some traditions, authorities are resented. They are experienced as constraints holding people back from truly coming to terms with the conundrums of a new age and an ever-changing world. They stand for the tyranny of the past shutting down the possibilities of the future. One must be emancipated from authorities that would limit us so if a tradition is to survive and thrive in the new worlds we are asked to think about and serve in faith.
Other traditions acknowledge that authorities play a more positive and constructive role. Among these, some use authorities first and foremost as discussion starters. Within these traditions, one need not end up in the same place as the tradition's authorities when bringing Christian insight to the contemporary context. On the other hand, even those authorities one comes to move beyond remain the right place to start if one is to bring one's tradition forward into the new world. It is as if such traditions insist: "Begin there, always begin there, to think long and well about issue 'a', 'b' or 'c'."
Still other traditions use authorities as discussion stoppers. For them authorities stand at the end and mark out the limits of healthy thought. Within the framework created by the claims and methods, by the very orientation to life captured in the language of one's authorities, one thinks well, at least in principle. Outside of that framework, one thinks poorly and will come to conceptual harm; one must suspect any failure to respect the limits marked out by authorities. To the degree that one leaves their limiting horizon behind, one is left without guidance in a quickly changing and confusing world.
The attitudes marked out by the first and third of these ways with authority mark out the extremes of a continuum. The second way falls somewhere between them. That makes traditions of the second way a bit of a conundrum for traditions of the first and third way. For traditions of the first way, traditions of the second lack in courage and integrity. Why bother to agonize over authorities and their utterances when they are just plain wrong. Set them aside and get on with the business of discovering the demands of faith in this, our new world. For traditions of the third way, traditions of the second way seem too courageous, in a word, naïvely rash. Their willingness to move beyond the limits of authoritative utterance in order to acknowledge and address the new in their changing world seems to ignore authoritative limits. And does one really acknowledge the authority of authorities if one does not live within the limits they set?
ICS has lived and worked within the Reformational tradition as a tradition of the second way. It has paid a price for this; it has been squeezed by traditions of the first and third ways who acknowledge a difference between themselves and the Reformational tradition at least as it lives at ICS. Faced with that difference they see ICS as really when push comes to shove a tradition of the first way out to rob the faithful of the landmarks and limits that mark out the sphere of Christian faithfulness, or alternatively a tradition of the third way whose fastidious attention to the graveyard of the past would rob the very same faithful of the freedom to meet the new head on with a renewed understanding of the shape of Christian faithfulness. Being a mediating tradition within a continuum marked and defined by its extremes can be a thankless business. But the Reformational tradition has taken such risks from its very beginning. One only has to think of its earliest political instincts, positioning itself between and as other than both the political conservatives who wished to counter every effect of the French Revolution by restoring and petrifying the political arrangements of the anciens régime and the revolutionaries who wished to engineer ever more radical breaks with any and all pre-revolutionary political experience and tradition. Not revolution, nor counter-revolution but reform—such has been the enduring wisdom of the Kuyperian political tradition in its many forms.
In the middle position, it is easy to be misunderstood; moreover, it is hard to avoid allowing one extreme or another to dictate the agenda rather than to continue to think and speak from one's own principled sense of things. But to succeed is to remain ever and again in touch with the roots of one's tradition, even when permitted to move at need beyond its inherited letter in the search for that Spirit that allows one to acknowledge and address what is new in our ever-changing but still ever God's world. And who could ever want more for ICS and indeed us all? Surely that is worth a prayer this month. Please join us, if you will.
For the President,
Bob Sweetman
Wednesday, June 1: Last month Anna Terpstra, the mother of Nick Terpstra, Chair of the ICS Senate, passed away. We pray for peace and strength for the family, especially through these difficult days as they honour the memory of their mother, grandmother, friend and all that she meant to her family and community.
Thursday, June 2: Jim Olthuis returns from the 2011 International Koers Conference in South Africa today. We pray for safe travel.
Friday, June 3: The annual Senate and Board meetings were held last month. We are grateful for all the work these people do for ICS, and for the talents and experience they bring to the table.
Monday, June 6: Administrative Assistant Kathy Lynch's brother-in-law, Frank Angus, is having surgery tomorrow. Please join us in prayer for the best possible outcomes, for strength and hope for Frank and his family.
Tuesday, June 7: The Finance and Fundraising Committee meets today. We pray for God's wisdom to guide this meeting.
Wednesday, June 8: The grades for spring semester courses are due this week. We give thanks for completed work and offer prayers for energy for our Senior Members as they enter what is often a busy time of grading.
Thursday, June 9: As we wind up our annual Phone-a-thon, we offer prayers of thanks for the diligent work of the volunteers, and the wonderful support of the ICS community. We offer prayers of thanks for the many people who have presented ICS with gifts of prayer, money, and expressions of appreciation. We are truly blessed with your interest and support.
Friday, June 10: We give thanks for ICS friends such as Gerald Vanderzande, PhD honoris causa, and Michael Maher who continue to seek ways to support and promote the vision and mission of ICS. We pray for God's grace as Gerald continues to struggle with health issues.
Monday, June 13: The Executive will meet later this week. We pray for God's wisdom to guide this meeting.
Tuesday, June 14: We offer prayers for the success of Aquinas Studium held at Regis College in Toronto from June 13-18. Bob Sweetman is one of the fifteen participants.
Wednesday, June 15: We ask God to bless Junior Member Allyson Carr as she defends her PhD thesis today. We pray for energy and insight for Allyson as she prepares for this defense.
Thursday, June 16: We offer prayers of thanks for the hard work and dedication of our senators Barbara Carvill and Nicholas Wolterstorff whose terms of office have ended with the May Senate meeting.
Friday, June 17: We celebrate Father's Day on Sunday! We ask for God's blessing on all fathers, that they may spend a wonderful day with their loved ones.
Monday, June 20: We offer prayers of thanks for all the work of our Board of Trustees members Kevin van der Leek, Bill Van Groningen and Co Vanderlaan who attended their last annual Board meeting in their terms of office. Their terms will end officially with the AGM in November.
Tuesday, June 21: Summer has arrived and many people are planning trips. Many members of the ICS community will be traveling in the summer months to spend time with family and friends. We pray for safe and pleasant journeys.
Wednesday, June 22: The Justice Conference Organizing Committee meets today. We pray for energy and enthusiasm for those who are involved in planning this important event.
Thursday, June 23: The summer months are often a time when Junior Members give sustained attention to their Masters and Ph.D. thesis projects. We pray for our Junior Members and ask for God's blessing on their research and writing.
Friday, June 24: We offer prayers of praise for the talent of ICS Alumnus James Smith whose book Letters to a Young Calvinist: An Invitation to the Reformed Tradition has recently been published.
Monday, June 27: We ask God's help and guidance for all those who are doing advancement work for ICS. Please pray that support for the vision and mission of ICS continues to grow.
Tuesday, June 28: Junior Member Allyson Carr's sister Kristin was recently in a car accident and has sustained some head injuries that are impacting the rest of her health, and mean she cannot work for the near future, at least until they are resolved. We pray for a full and speedy recovery for Kristin.
Wednesday, June 29: Senior Members often spend much of the summer developing course curriculum and giving attention to research projects. We are extremely grateful for the work of our Senior Members and ask for God's blessing on them.
Thursday, June 30: We celebrate the addition of seven new Junior Members to the ICS community this fall. We will remember them in our prayers as they make the necessary preparations and transitions this summer in order to begin their program studies in September.
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