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.
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