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.
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