Claritas: Foundations, Fall 2021

CLARITAS A JOURNAL OF CHRISTIAN THOUGHT

FOUNDATIONS

FEATURING The Therapist’s Couch and the Church Pew Mothers, Wives, and Sisters: Named Women of the Bible Cornell’s Invisible Religion

FALL 2021 | ISSUE 13

CLARITAS is the Latin word for “clarity,” “vividness,” or “renown.” For us, Claritas represents a life-giving truth that can only be found through God.

WHO ARE WE? The Cornell Claritas is a Christian thought journal that reviews ideas and cultural commentary. Launched in the spring semester of 2015, it is written and produced by students attending Cornell University. The Cornell Claritas is ecumenical, drawing writers and editors from all denominations around a common creedal vision. Its vision is to articulate and connect the truth of Christ to every person and every study, and it strives to begin conversations that involve faith, reason, and vocation.

Letter from the Editor During the summer after my senior year of high school, my parents encouraged me to find a job away from our family farm, so I took a job with a hardscaping company installing patios and outdoor displays. Since I was relatively unskilled, I spent most of my time measuring and digging the foundations of the patio projects.

The most important job I did was called tamping, where I used a machine to forcefully shake and strengthen the dirt below. Without tamping, a foundation can sink over time as the ground settles and shifts. I think that this simple task can apply to our spiritual lives; sometimes you need to shake the foundation in order for it to become stronger.

In recent years, many American Christians, some calling themselves “exvangelicals,” are looking at their faith through a critical lens, rummaging through the past sins of the church and finding many points of critique. The exvangelicals are intentionally shaking the foundations of church leadership, theological teachings, and ways of living through a movement broadly titled “deconstruction.” Deconstructing is the act of slowly breaking apart and analyzing ideas, beliefs, and interpretations—although some criticize it as a complete teardown of ideas.

Careful consideration and interpretation of belief is, in fact, absolutely imperative for deepening one’s faith.

But without proper guidance, deconstruction can lead to destruction, where the very foundations of one’s faith are not only shaken, but fall apart. The Anglican priest Tish Harrison Warren says it best: “What a sinful church needs is not deconstruction but deep construction. We have to forsake shallow critique to build a more faithful vision of the community of Jesus.” [1] In this issue, we strive to look at some foundational ideas in the culture around us, in the Bible, and in our own lives. Our writers and artists have constructed thoughtprovoking, beautiful articles and art pieces that explore this idea of foundations. My prayer is that you would be challenged, encouraged, and strengthened in your faith as you explore this issue. Above all, I pray that you would feel Jesus working in your heart as you carefully deconstruct, analyze, and reform your faith together with us.

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing.

In Christ, Seth Bollinger Editor-in-Chief [1] https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2021/november/exvangelical-warren-guide-to-deconstruction-church.html

Staff

Seth Bollinger Editor-in-Chief

Amy Crouch Production Manager

Jack Kubinec Blog Editor

Chloe Cropper Managing Editor

Estelle Hooper Design Manager

Jackie Kim Designer

Alexa Kanarowski

Cecilia Lu

Emily Kam

Christine Shi

Dara Gonzalez

Contributors

Special Thanks To Chesterton House Advisor Nicole Riley Cover Art Jeremy Huelin

Table of Contents The Redactor Scholars Estelle Hooper

I Rode a Dodo to a Desolate Place Emily Kam

The Therapist’s Couch and the Church Pew how Jesus brings hope in our suffering Christine Shi The Parable of the Hidden Treasure Alexa Kanarowski

The Lost Home of Genesis One Dr. John Walton on the foundations of creation Seth Bollinger Mothers, Wives, and Sisters: Named Women of the Bible Alexa Kanarowski

Upon This Rock I Firmly Stand Dara Gonzalez

In the Mountains and the Valleys how religion shapes parenting across generations Dara Gonzalez Gathering in the Half Life; Half Light Cecilia Lu

Cornell’s Invisible Religion belief and ritual on a secular campus Jack Kubinec Songs of Foundation hymn compilation

The Redactor Scholars Estelle Hooper | on textual revision and the development of the Old Testament 8.5” x 10.5” (closed) 17 “ x 21” (open), mixed media (sermon notes, Bible pages, thread, metalic paint) The documentary hypothesis is one of many theories proposed by Biblical scholars (namely Julius Wellhausen) to explain the composition of the Torah, or the first five books of the Bible. It is hypothesized that there were four independent sources from Jahwist ( J), Elohist (E), Deuteronomistic (D), and Priestly (P) scholars and was split up and rearranged by a group of redactor scholars to form the Torah.

I was interested in the emotional and physical editing process of the theorized redactor scholars, isolating the J, E, D, and P sources. I used a mould and deckle to form the base of the page, blending paper scraps, pages of the Bible, and my old sermon notes to symbolize past ideas. I then tore the hypothesized J, E, D, and P passages from a Bible and layered them in the paper.

Each page represents the aforementioned sources in order and was burned and stitched together to represent the revision process: the decisions to amend and replace.

Estelle Hooper is a junior from Los Angeles, CA studying Information Science.

She enjoys reading the summaries for various books, shows, and movies she does not intend on watching.

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I Rode on a Dodo to a Desolate Place Emily Kam

I stalked a mammoth half past eight I stitched a net from the skin of a skate I shaped tooths into axes and spades I sprouted spears in Lebanon glades So then I lanced ‘glossums by their snow lips I wrestled with saptrunks until pears dripped I hunted dragonflirts for their glass eyelids I smuggled Godzilla.

‘Cause why not?

Now I have slathered my bathrooms in gold I have now learned every language and tome I now have seared on the ancient sashed robe And I have seen all that this Place holds As queen of gold fish and sage of shells I chewed cherry pits until I swelled There is nothing new to tell Under the sun in my diamond cell Meaningless, meaningless! Came the cry My crown of lilacs will wither and die I seek the bloodthorn crest divine For nothing else is worth my time.

Emily Kam is a senior studying Information Science with a minor in Creative Writing. Raised in the Bay Area, CA she enjoys composing music and chewing too much mint gum.

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The Therapist’s Couch and the Church Pew Christine Shi | how Jesus brings hope in our suffering

“It’s been a hectic few days. My friends and I just found out that one of our friends has been lying to us this whole semester. She wasn’t enrolled as a student. She had us all fooled—she would work on all our assignments with us, but she never turned them in.”

“Wait, but she did them?”

“Yeah, she did literally everything except hit submit.”

The room fills with silent dismay.

“Yeah, she has a lot of self-destructive behaviors. She’s very depressed…

She needs therapy. We all need therapy.”

Therapy—a modern modern problems?

solution

for

Today, many are turning to therapy in order to seek answers or change. A 2017 meta‐analysis of studies examining public attitudes towards mental health treatment found that the public generally supports psychiatric help for the treatment of mental disorders with the proportion of respondents recommending professional help falling between 68 and 85%. [1]

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So, what really happens in that counseling room? You might picture an inviting couch in a softly lit room with the counselor leaning forward in their seat, nodding and “mhm-ing” intently, occasionally, and thoughtfully, jotting something down on their clipboard.

Or, you might be quite familiar with therapy, having received it through Cornell’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) or a counselor near you. But what is it that therapists are trying to do?

In a Psychology Today article, psychologist Dr. Suzanne Gelb writes, “Therapy is a valuable tool that can help you to solve problems, set and achieve goals, improve your communication skills, or teach you new ways to track your emotions and keep your stress levels in check. It can help you to build the life, career, and relationship that you want.” [2] In other words, the overarching goal of therapy is to help you learn more about yourself and to use that knowledge to move towards your ideal life.

How do therapists do this? Each therapist’s approach is different, even among those who practice the same type of therapy. However, you will often find these common elements in therapy:

1.

A therapist listens. A therapist will (I hope) offer you a non-judgmental space to share what you are feeling and what struggles you are facing, without imposing any judgments or demands on you.

2.

A therapist reinterprets. One technique counselors use is reflective summarizing, where they reflect what the counselee has just said back to him or her—it is purely reflective, with no information added or changed. At least, that’s the goal. In his book Speaking Truth in Love: Counsel in Community, David Powlison, the late executive director of the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation, writes, “Our every word communicates values, intentions, and worldview ...[and offers] some form of editing or reinterpretation of your story.” [3] The counselor must receive what the counselee is saying, interpret it through a certain lens, and return it to the counselee. And, the counselor’s reinterpretation is shaped by their own beliefs and experiences, as well as the counseling model and psychological theories that inform their counseling practice.

Each counselor offers their own presuppositions about the human condition, standards of health, and the nature and means of change: The human condition.

What is wrong with us? What is the main problem that is at the core of all of our other problems?

Why are we not able to function the way we want to, maintain good relationships, and be the people we want to be? Is it unmet needs during childhood? A lack of selflove? A negative self-view?

Standards of health.

Good therapy takes you in a direction; it leaves you better than when you started. This begs the question: how do we define the standard of health that therapy strives toward? Is it the highest amount of positive emotions? A sense of fulfillment in life? Full self-acceptance? The reduction of negative symptoms?

The nature and means of change.

What does change look like and how do you get there? A therapist might hope to see positive change over time by continuously processing and working through negative thoughts and feelings in sessions. Additionally, they might recommend medication or set goals with their client (e.g. exercise three times a week, make a nightly journal entry, or set up an online dating profile) in hopes of catalyzing change.

3.

After listening, a therapist offers that reinterpretation and a solution—a new way of seeing the problem and a way to change it.

To better illustrate this process of listening and reinterpretation, I will use an example from Speaking Truth in Love. Powlison tells the story of Sabrina, a thirty-one-year-old single woman who came to him for counseling. Sabrina first entered therapy hurt by unfaithful parents, crushed by exacting cultural values, and troubled with social anxiety, loneliness, and discouragement. Her therapist listened and reinterpreted.

This particular therapist’s lens of choice was codependency and dysfunctional family theory. He wooed Sabrina with a story of how her constant feelings of anxiety and depression, her craving for intimacy, and her failures to love were the result of a dysfunctional family who failed to meet her love needs as a child, leaving her “inner child” wounded and desperately striving to fill the empty tank of love. The solution her therapist offered consisted of finding a support group and learning to affirm herself; that is, to offer herself the loving parenting that she needed and longed for.

What was the result of Sabrina’s journey of self-discovery and healing in therapy?

Powlison paints a dismal picture: “After four years in psychotherapy, Sabrina seemed increasingly confused, selfabsorbed, friendless, and depressed.” [3] Despite the fact that she felt like she was learning more about herself and making progress, Sabrina was worse off than when she started. There are millions of people like her seeking help in therapy; do they generally fare better than Sabrina?

After a few years working as a mental health worker in a locked hospital ward, Powlison writes about his disillusionment with the mental health system: “It dawned on me that even our ‘successes’ were at best mild. Some people ‘coped’ a bit better after our help. But was it because psychological theory and therapy were true, good, and effective? Or was it because medication and a time-out from life took the edge off? ...because any organized theory about life works better than chaos and obvious delusion? . . . because human kindness works better than life in the jungle? At times I saw symptoms moderated, but I saw nothing that I could call deep, life-renewing change.

The word ‘cope’ pressed me down. It is a dismal word: life is hopeless (‘vanity of vanities’ Eccl. 1:2), but some people learn to cope better.” [4] For all their efforts to pinpoint and address people’s problems, do therapy and modern psychology achieve more than make the depressed and anxious less depressed and anxious, and soothe the most severe symptoms of mental

illness?

Is there more? Is there a better hope for the depressed, the anxious, and the lost? Powlison finds the answer in the God of the Bible, about whom he writes, “He understood my motives, circumstances, thinking, behavior, emotions, and relationships better than all the psychologies put together . . .

They could never really love adequately, and they could never really reorient the inner gyroscope. God is love, with power.” [5] God is love, with power.

Where human kindness reaches its limits, God’s love remains. At best, therapy and psychological theory can help people cope better, but God transforms people from the innermost heart outward.

AT BEST, THERAPY AND PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORY CAN HELP PEOPLE COPE BETTER, BUT GOD TRANSFORMS PEOPLE FROM THE INNERMOST HEART OUTWARD. But, how exactly can Christianity do better? Sabrina’s therapist, the very one whose help over four years failed to make her better, was a Christian!

He even “Christianized” his therapy by suggesting that she look to meet her need for love with the unconditional acceptance of Jesus. However, in doing this, he was not really speaking of the Jesus who could change her from the inside out, but of the Jesus who was a bellboy for her inner child’s love needs— just one potential source among many from which Sabrina could sap love.

This “Jesus” could not help Sabrina any more than the family theories her therapist offered her.

If you’ve struggled with depression or anxiety and have received (wanted or unwanted) advice from Christians, you might have heard things like, “You can’t be depressed if you are a real Christian” or “Don’t be anxious—just have faith in God and pray.” If these trite, religious phrases have ever been directed at you, I am sorry. I can imagine that you might have felt unheard, uncared for, and judged to be less “Christian” for a struggle outside of your control.

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Depression and anxiety are real, even in the Bible. David is described in the Bible as a “man after [God’s] own heart,” [7] but at the time he wrote Psalm 42, he was dealing with accusations from the outside and complex emotions on the inside that led him to ask, “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?” Trusting God does not mean not seeking help; therapy or medication could be the means by which God has planned to help you in your situation. Rather than relying on platitudes, I want to talk about God as an alternative to modern psychological theory and practice by looking at how the Bible explains people and situations more coherently and accurately— namely, how it answers these four questions: Who are we? What is wrong with us? How can this be made right?

What are the nature and means of change?

First, who are we? God created us; therefore, we are fundamentally dependent on and responsible to him.

The ideal standard of health and functioning for humans is to love God and love others.

Four years into her journey of selfdiscovery, Sabrina found herself drifting father from the life she wanted and sought Biblical counseling with Powlison. Powlison did not serve her the past Christian answers she had become jaded to but listened in order to care for her and to know her. He reinterpreted her problems in light of

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the Bible and shared his reinterpretation in a timely and appropriate way. For Powlison’s reinterpretation to help Sabrina, however, she had to reject any other ways of defining herself through psychological theories, and instead embrace her dependence on God for her identity.

Second, what is wrong with us? “Evil, done by us and happening to us, is the fundamental and pervasive problem in living.” [8] Instead of loving God and loving others, we love ourselves or other things above God and disobey God’s will for our lives—we sin. What happens to us can be a consequence of or provide temptation to sin, but our circumstances do not absolve us from responsibility for our sin. The product of sin is judgment and an eternal death without God. Sabrina began to see how dysfunctional family theory had named her patterns of anger, manipulation, and social anxiety (“codependent lifestyle”) and, therefore, painted them as a form of personal dysfunction rising from an unmet need for love and acceptance.

Maybe it was comforting that her upbringing could be used to justify these harmful patterns, thus moving the guilt from herself onto others who had not given her the love she needed. Thus, she could keep repressing the conflict between what do so that she wouldn’t have to face the hopeless thought that she was bad and powerless to change herself.

Eventually, in what I imagine was a painful process, Sabrina came to see how her anger, manipulative relational tendencies, and fear of people were patterns of sin that arose from her heart, which had been enslaved by a demand for love and affirmation. She imposed this demand on her relationships, manipulating those around her to satisfy her cavernous desire for love and punishing others with anger when they did not love her how she expected. She lived on affirmation from others, so she was uncontrollably anxious about what her friends, her coworkers, and her boss thought of her. She had wronged others and disregarded God. Can you imagine how freeing it was to stop searching for excuses to cover her sins and to see herself clearly as she really was?

And yet, at the same time, she couldn’t possibly stand under the weight of her own demons or save herself from the judgment and death that her sin brought on her. This brings us to the third question: Third, how can this be made right? The solution to the problem of sin is beyond human resources. It lies in God who, by grace and in love, saves us from our sin and suffering through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ, who, although he knew no sin, became sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. [9] By taking the punishment for sin in our place, Jesus offers us freedom from sin and its result—judgment and eternal separation from God. He allows us to see God, ourselves, and others clearly, and to love God and love others fully. He offers us life with God, full of joy, and peace, and unity, forever.

While we did not deserve this gift, we can receive it in full y turning from our sin and accepting Jesus as our Savior.

These truths of the Gospel that I’ve just shared are all things that Sabrina had heard in church before, but now, they were being introduced in a new context, intimately related to her life.

Sabrina rediscovered Jesus—no longer seeing Him as existing to fulfill her need for affirmation, but loving and obeying him as her precious Savior who came to save her from her sin and God’s judgment, forgives her as she turns to him, and helps her to actually change.

Fourth and finally, what are the nature and means of change? Change looks like shaping our desires, thought processes, behaviors, feelings, and values to be increasingly like Jesus, in loving God and other people. This change is the aim of Biblical counseling, happens progressively over a lifetime through the work of God in our hearts, and is helped by people speaking truth in love to each other (counseling being a specific version of this).

Because God opened Sabrina’s heart to see beyond her own expectations and consider others’ needs, she began to experience small victories over her anger and manipulative tendencies.

He opened her eyes to clearly identify how her craving for human approval played out in her life, and helped her find identity in her status as a beloved daughter of God rather than in others’ others’ judgements. This gave her the strength and courage to love people in those situations rather than demanding their affirmation. By offering her a space each week to evaluate the desires and false beliefs that were producing sin in her life and to counter these with Biblical truth, biblical counseling was one of the means of grace that God used to help her in this journey.

This was a lifelong journey. Even amidst great improvements, Sabrina would still get upset when people didn’t meet her demands and worry about what others thought of her. But, if the best one can do with Jesus is constantly strive towards a goal that can’t be reached in a lifetime, how is this any better than the “coping,” apart from Jesus, offered by therapies and psychological theories?

The answer is that while one is just a lifelong journey with no end in sight, the other is a lifelong journey to a promised destination. Those who have trusted in Jesus and devoted themselves to following him have an eternal hope of being made perfect without sin. “When he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” [10]. The last book of the Bible tells of the future that awaits Jesus’ followers: “He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as

their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’” [11].

This is a beautiful promise and is the eternal reward that makes the lifelong pursuit of Christlikeness infinitely better than lifelong coping.

SABRINA’S SEARCH FOR ANSWERS WITHIN HERSELF AND IN THEORIES THAT CLAIMED TO KNOW HER WAS OVER. A BIBLICAL REINTERPRETATION OF HER LIFE HAD BROUGHT DEEP SATISFACTION IN HAVING HER PROBLEMS MADE SENSE OF, AND SHE FOUND THE GREATEST HOPE IN A SAVIOR WHO WOULD NOT EXPLAIN AWAY HER SIN BUT LOVE HER DESPITE IT AND LOVE HER ENOUGH TO NOT LET HER STAY IN IT. It would be ridiculous to see so many people seeking answers from secular psychological models if they did not capture parts of the truth. Cognitive theory reflects an important aspect of how we work: our beliefs shape our thoughts and actions. Psychoanalysis realizes that much of our motivations and thoughts are hidden to our conscious selves—“The heart is deceitful above all things.” [12] Dysfunctional family theory illustrates how parents’ sins affect their children.

But these theories, for all their layers of explanations, can only achieve part of the truth. Cognitive theory is limited if there is no solid foundation of the alternative beliefs with which you attempt to replace your current beliefs.

Psychoanalysis fails to acknowledge bad behaviors as sin, not just a result of unconscious thoughts and feelings.

Dysfunctional family theory enslaves people to an insatiable craving for love and affirmation. The more you meet and see into the inner lives of people like Sabrina, whose searching for answers have only led them deeper into despair and emptiness and anything but life-renewing change, the thinner these theories seem.

Modern psychological theories and the therapists that use them offer kindness, common-sense observations of people, and strive to replace unhealthy beliefs and behaviors with those that lead to happier, fuller lives.

MEANWHILE, THE WORD OF GOD SPEAKS OF A FAR DEEPER KINDNESS, MAKES BETTERSENSE OBSERVATIONS OF PEOPLE, AND PUTS FORTH A COHERENT SET OF BELIEFS THAT HAVE REAL POWER TO TRANSFORM HEARTS, BEING FIRMLY GROUNDED IN THE UNCHANGING NATURE OF GOD. The best thing about the biblical narrative is that it’s not just a narrative.

Not only does the Word of God offer a coherent, resonant explanation for the human condition, but “the Word became flesh” [13] in Jesus Christ, who gives us himself—the real and living and personal God—as a solution for our otherwise hopeless condition. Now, does that fill you with hope?

Christine Shi is a junior from Boston, Massachusetts studying psychology (wow, how relevant!) and economics. She loves connecting with people on a deeper level, whether over cooking or eating, games, running, or those precious conversations that come when they please and could just go on forever.

[1] Angermeyer, Matthias C., Sandra van der Auwera, Mauro G. Carta, and Georg Schomerus. “Public Attitudes towards Psychiatry and Psychiatric Treatment at the Beginning of the 21st Century: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Population Surveys.” World Psychiatry 16, no. 1 (2017): 50–61. https://doi. org/10.1002/wps.20383.

[2] Gelb, Suzanne. “What Really Happens in a Therapy Session.” Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers, December 5, 2015. https://www. psychologytoday.com/us/blog/all-grown/201512/ what-really-happens-in-therapy-session.

[3] Powlison, David. Speaking Truth in Love: Counsel in Community. Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2005, 160-161.

[4] Powlison, 89.

[5] Powlison, 89.

[6] Powlison, Speaking Truth in Love, 155-156.

[7] 1 Sam. 13:14 ESV [8] Powlison, Speaking Truth in Love, 171.

[9] 2 Cor. 5:21 [10] 1 John 3:2b [11] Rev. 21:3-4 [12] Jer. 17:9 [13] John 1:14

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Parable of the Hidden Treasure Alexa Kanarowski

“THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS LIKE TREASURE HIDDEN IN A FIELD. WHEN A MAN FOUND IT, HE HID IT AG

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AGAIN, AND THEN IN HIS JOY WENT AND SOLD ALL HE HAD AND BOUGHT THAT FIELD.” —MATTHEW 13:44

Alexa Kanarowski is a senior from Park City, Utah studying Fine Arts. Working in series, her lens based practice most often investigates ritual, memory, and ephemerality.

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The Lost Home of Genesis One Seth Bollinger | Dr. John Walton on the foundations of biblical creation Every day that I walked into my high school evolutionary biology class, I had one mission: don’t become brainwashed. Armed with Ken Ham’s Creationist videos and my NIV Study Bible, I felt that it was my duty to learn about evolution only so that I could combat it later. Not only did I believe that evolution conflicted with my view of the Bible, I believed it conflicted with Christianity as a whole. I was confident in my viewpoint that the earth was scientifically created the way it was literally written in Genesis 1—in seven, twenty-four hour days.

What I truly was unwilling to admit was just how weird the Creation story really is.

I TRULY WAS UNWILLING TO ADMIT JUST HOW WEIRD THE CREATION STORY REALLY IS. From the first few sentences in the Bible, we are confronted with a unique and confusing passage describing how God created the universe in seven days.

Genesis 1, the foundational Creation narrative of the Hebrew Bible, begins

with very strange phrases: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

[1] Reasonably, a lifelong Christian and a non-believer could both approach this passage and wonder, what in the world does this mean? What does it mean for “darkness to be over the face of the deep” when God hadn’t separated light and darkness yet? What were these “waters” that God was hovering over?

Keep in mind that these are only the first two verses of the Creation account; as one reads deeper into the storyline, many other questions arise—questions that could shake the foundations of one’s understanding of the Bible.

It wasn’t until my first year of college, when I was taking another introductory biology class, that my own biblical foundations began to crumble. Since high school, I had been introduced to several Christians who saw the Creation story much differently than I did, and didn’t see a conflict between evolution and the Bible. The evidence for evolution presented in BIO 110 was not as silly as I had previously presumed. I was grasping to understand how these new ideas fit within my own biblical worldview— How could I still believe in the Bible as the authoritative word of God and

acknowledge scientific origins of the universe from the “secular” world?

HOW COULD I STILL BELIEVE IN THE BIBLE AS THE AUTHORITATIVE WORD OF GOD AND ACKNOWLEDGE SCIENTIFIC ORIGINS OF THE UNIVERSE FROM THE “SECULAR” WORLD? In my pursuit of answers, I had a chance to speak with Dr. John Walton, an Old Testament scholar and professor at Wheaton College and the author of numerous books, including The Lost World of Genesis One. Dr. Walton’s mission is to make people excited about the Old Testament, which he believes most Christians ignore or disregard as unimportant. In this mission, he also strives to maintain theological orthodoxy while deconstructing various views of biblical interpretation. His uniquely inviting yet historically and theologically dense books have inspired many to dive into the world of the ancient Israelites, including me.

At the forefront of our conversation, I wanted to uncover what I, as a twentyfirst century Westerner living in the United States, tend to get wrong when I approach biblical interpretation; after all, I knew I had to be missing something.

Dr. Walton offered two assumptions which we incorrectly bring to the Bible when we try to interpret it. The first is that we approach the biblical texts with our own modern worldviews and questions. “We often don’t realize that we’ve got to go that cultural distance,” Dr. Walton said, referring to our lack

of understanding of ancient cultures.

Dr. Walton often likes to mention that the Bible is absolutely written for us, but it wasn’t written to us: it was the Word of God given to ancient Israelites, who lived thousands of years ago in a culture far different than ours.

DR. WALTON OFTEN LIKES TO MENTION THAT THE BIBLE IS ABSOLUTELY WRITTEN FOR US, BUT IT WASN’T WRITTEN TO US. The second assumption we bring to biblical interpretation deals with individualism. Dr. Walton mentioned that we often want to read the Bible for some kind of personal payoff, almost like a self-help book. This is a me-centric way of reading the Bible, where we ask ourselves how certain verses and stories apply to our lives at this very moment.

Dr. Walton suggests an alternative to this method: instead, we should consider reading the Bible as a text to help us understand God’s plans and purposes, and then live our lives according to those ideas.

Dr. Walton offered this anecdote to help understand the me-centric view of biblical interpretation: “Some of us think we’re driving along in our luxury sedan and we see Jesus hitchhiking by the road. We decide to invite him into our car so that he can take us to our best life now, but we’re in the driver’s seat and he’s just the navigator who helps us avoid bumps and potholes.” Instead, we should be willing to abandon our car all together when we encounter Jesus.

“We get on His train and we’re on the tracks of the kingdom, and He’s the conductor,” Dr. Walton concluded. This viewpoint causes us to take ourselves out of the picture completely.

The me-centric view of biblical interpretation is also found in our own modern scientific assumptions that we impose on ancient Israelites. We commonly don’t stop to think about our own cosmology, which includes scientific theories about the origins of

the universe and our knowledge of astronomy, gravity, physics, and many other scientific fields. Many of us don’t realize how materialistic our worldview is, where we differentiate between natural and supernatural objects and occurrences. The ideas we inherently believe are all a product of our culture and have been built up by hundreds of years of scientific advancement.

The ancient Israelites did not think this way—their viewpoint of the universe differed enormously from our own. It was an ancient cosmology, which would not have known anything about the scientific universe that we understand today. Dr. Walton advises us to interpret the Creation narrative through this lens—the lens which the original readers would have brought to the text.

Rather than being concerned with the material, Dr. Walton concludes that ancient cosmology was focused on functionality or order. In this viewpoint, ancient Israelites wouldn’t have believed that something existed because of physical properties, but because it served a function or purpose in an ordered system.

Dr. Walton offered an allegory to help understand this difference. He compared the material worldview of creation to building a house: the foundation, siding, roofing, electricity, plumbing, and more are all important steps in the creative process of housebuilding. But eventually, somebody needs to be able to flip the switch and allow the house to function as a home. To be a home, the house must be ordered. How is the furniture arranged? What should be hung on the walls? Which room will serve which purpose? The functional idea of the Creation narrative is about a home story, where God orders the cosmos for humanity and for His dwelling.

Each day of creation, therefore, can be thought of as establishing function in an ordered world. On the first day, God separates light, which he calls ‘day,’ from darkness, which he calls ‘night.’ In our modern context, we understand that light could refer to the sun or stars, but for ancient Israel, there was no scientific understanding of what these heavenly bodies were. Instead, day and night were functional, serving as methods to measure time. The separation of light and darkness, therefore, is an ordering of the cosmos that creates the concept of time. [2] On the second day, God separates the waters below from the waters above, signifying the creation of weather. [3] Day three is when God separates the waters from the dry land, an act that functionally would have represented the creation of food. [4] Each day is an act of God ordering His cosmic home, rather than creating a house.

Throughout my own deconstruction of my previous views of the Creation story, this transition from a house story to a home story was very challenging. I often wanted to have a feeling of certainty that the earth was created exactly like Genesis says, and yet this viewpoint leaves open a door for any number of

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scientific theories, including evolutionary theory, to describe creation. Did this mean that the Bible was ambiguous and didn’t give clear answers? How does this viewpoint relate to the creation of humanity?

In the biblical story, God gives humanity two specific commands: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.” [5] On a basic level, Dr. Walton said, these commands are functions that humans are called to carry out, relating to the functional viewpoint of creation. However, these actions must be understood as subordinate to the fact that humans were made in the image of God. “God has created us in his image to work alongside Him to continue bringing order,” Dr. Walton reiterated.

This is a foundational idea of creation: that God has ordered the world for good, and that humanity’s original calling is to join him in redemptive work.

This is signified by perhaps the most important day of creation: the seventh day, where God rests. The sabbath day, part of the Jewish custom and weekly ritual, was modeled after the seventh day where God ceased his work. [6] But we often don’t understand what this rest really meant in the Creation narrative. “God’s resting is not

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disengagement,” Dr. Walton stressed, “it is an engagement. He’s now sitting on his throne to take control.” The seventh day of creation is, in fact, a cosmic inauguration, where the act of creation is finished and God’s ruling presence is established across all of time.

The earth becomes His temple, where God’s spirit dwells with His people.

Unfortunately humanity quickly loses access to God’s presence, represented in the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. The grand storyline of the Bible, then, focuses on God re-establishing his presence among humanity, ultimately resulting in the incarnation of Jesus. The “Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” and Jesus establishes the presence of God on the earth as Emmanuel. [7] The theme of God’s presence continues all the way until Revelation 21, where there is no more darkness or suffering, and God’s presence is fully among His people once again. “This is the theme of the Bible,” Dr. Walton concluded, “And if we miss it in Genesis 1, we miss something very important.”

In my journey of understanding Genesis 1, this is a mind blowing revelation.

The Creation narrative is not trying to be confined to a scientific account of the universe; it is a foundational story about God’s desire for relationship and presence with his creation. What seems ambiguous to me, a twenty-one year old college student living in 2021, was significantly important and clear to God’s chosen people. God created the universe to c o m m u n e with all of h u m a n i t y, and in this, He

communes with me.

But still, within this new framework, we must beg the question: can this Biblical account of creation and modern scientific understandings of the universe, such as evolution or the Big Bang, coexist? Dr. Walton’s short answer: “Yes.” “Science is interested in mechanisms by its very nature,” Dr. Walton elaborated, “Whereas the Bible is interested in agency; who is the agent of creation and what were his purposes?” Dr. Walton says that scientific theories like evolution, the dominant scientific view of creation, can align with the biblical Creation narrative since it concerns the process of creation, not the purpose.

“It’s a house story instead of a home story,” he explained, referring to his previous anecdote.

There are many ways throughout history where Christians have tried to reconcile the biblical Creation story with science. There are figures such as Ken Ham and groups like the Young Earth Creationists, who try to use modern scientific methods to explain that the earth was literally created in a seven day period and is only around six-thousand years old. This was the viewpoint I grew up in, and while it is easy for scientists to laugh at this viewpoint, it is easy to understand how applying a material view to the creation narrative makes sense based on the way we think about the world today.

Dr. Walton’s book, The Lost World of Genesis One, offers a much deeper analysis of how different scientific viewpoints coincide with the biblical Creation narrative. He explains some of his problems with Young Earth Creationism, as well as dissecting theological complications with the theory of evolution. While reconciling science and faith isn’t Dr. Walton’s main focus, I recommend reading through his commentary on the subject in order to better understand this contentious area. It is a very nuanced area, and requires much humility, grace, and open-mindedness across all scientific disciplines.

Throughout my conversation with Dr. Walton, I was struck by how often I have misplaced my foundational ideas of creation in a scientific and materialistic viewpoint. Growing up, I constantly placed the foundations of my faith in a Young Creationist viewpoint, and I was willing to defend these views vigilantly.

I’ve seen skeptics of faith place their foundations in evolutionary biology, where naturalism is their guiding principle. The Creation narrative beckons us to build our foundation on something different: relationship.

THE CREATION NARRATIVE BECKONS US TO BUILD OUR FOUNDATION ON SOMETHING DIFFERENT: RELATIONSHIP. By understanding Genesis 1 through the eyes of ancient Israel, we are invited into a story of love, order, and redemption.

The story of creation not only shows us the purposeful origins of the cosmos, it draws each of us out of our sinful pasts into a brand new beginning.

Seth Bollinger is a senior from Lancaster, Pennsylvania studying AEM and Marketing.

He enjoys listening to podcasts, watching Wes Anderson movies, and constantly aspiring to read more theology books while falling asleep in the process.

[1] Genesis 1:1-2, ESV (emphasis added) [2] John H. Walton. The Lost World of Genesis One (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2009), 53.

[3] John H. Walton. The Lost World of Genesis One (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2009), 57.

[4]John H. Walton. The Lost World of Genesis One (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2009), 59.

[5]Genesis 1:28, ESV [6]Exodus 20:8-11, ESV [7] John 1:14, ESV

WANT TO HEAR THE FULL-LENGTH CONVERSATION? LISTEN HERE!

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Alexa Kanarowski

Mothers, Wives, and Sisters: Named Women of the Bible

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Alexa Kanarowski is a senior from Park City, Utah studying Fine Arts. Working in series, her lens based practice most often investigates ritual, memory, and ephemerality.

Thank you to everyone who sat for a portrait and agreed to be in this project.The 10 women included here are just a small selection of all 155 portraits. The full series of portraits will be available in the spring as a photo book.

Many of these women are relevant because of their involvement in a male family member’s life, that fact still resonates today. We, as contemporary women, are still so often understood as and expected to exist for what we can do for men. This project is both a celebration of the Biblical women and a critique of their limited portrayal. From obscure people only mentioned once to villainous characters, they are all Biblical women. They are our spiritual heritage, and we should know their names.

However, by attaching a face to a name, I was able to feel deeper kinship to the women of the Bible. I believe this resulted from the power of names, which is why I included a name with each portrait. Seeing a name and a face together is so persuasive, and help us feel connected to each Biblical woman’s difficulties, spirituality, and what they endured.

Undertaking this project was, and is, complicated; while I wanted to be critical of how few women play an important and active role in the Bible, it was impossible to fully do so while creating these portraits. With a few notable exceptions, such as Eve, Mary, and Rachel, most of the roles these women play are small and can be reduced to the mother, wife, or sister of an important male character.

This project was conducted to illustrate these statistics. For each of the 155 named women, I photographed a contemporary subject to act as a placeholder for the Biblical woman she represents.

Compared to about 1,770 named men, the Bible mentions around 155 named women. Of all women in the Bible, only 93 have dialogue, and 49 of those women have names. The woman who speaks the most words, the Samaritan woman in John 4, is also unnamed. Collectively, all the women in the Bible speak about 14,000 words, or approximately 1% of the Bible’s text.

Upon This Rock I Firmly Stand Dara Gonzalez Foundation Groundwork of a building Structure of support Lord, You alone are my foundation Who am I, if not Your child?

Even when the pillars of my life have fallen, You were there Even with the loss of my father, You remind me that I am not fatherless Man can build his house upon the sand But I have built mine on Your rock This heart is a never-ending construction zone Lies torn down and truths rebuilt I give it all to You With Your perfect timing, You make an edifice out of a disaster, You pave streets with patience and love, Concrete dried by Your Son Bricks carefully laid to raise a shelter I am secure in my position Wind and storm may rage, but I am covered by You When I kneel before You In desperation In weakness In prayer And in gratitude As I walk this path of life, I no longer worry about faltering The ground beneath my feet remains stable as You protect me For You have plans to prosper, To give hope And a future

In the Mountains and the Valleys Dara Gonzalez | how religion shapes parenting across generations Do you ever find yourself feeling at odds with those around you? It might be due to beliefs, personality, interests, or even something as simple as your taste in clothing. In a society centered on individuality, it seems we are always competing to stand out and show off how interesting we are. It’s not often that I attribute my unique traits to God, and to my faith and foundation in Him. Instead, I think it’s much easier to look back on the ways different generations of my family have shaped me, especially in the sphere of religion.

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” [1].

My mom often paraphrases this verse, which reminds me how God has set us believers apart from the rest of the world. As Christians we are told to be holy, to follow Jesus’ example, and to not be tempted by the material world.

My parents reinforced this value in their parenting, reducing the influence of the outside world from a young age.

AS CHRISTIANS WE ARE TOLD TO BE HOLY, TO FOLLOW JESUS’ EXAMPLE, AND TO NOT BE TEMPTED BY THE MATERIAL WORLD. MY PARENTS REINFORCED THIS VALUE IN THEIR PARENTING, REDUCING THE INFLUENCE OF THE OUTSIDE WORLD FROM A YOUNG AGE. I was born and raised in the small town of Laredo, Texas, which is right on the US-Mexico border and is populated by a Mexican majority. From a young age, I remember just how out of place I felt socializing with my peers. Of course, we all shared Mexican heritage, but the core pieces that formed our beings were already so different. The biggest distinction I noted was that a vast majority were Catholic—and all other characteristics stemmed from this belief system. While they were allowed to freely use web browsers and watch television without supervision, I was limited to certain channels (PBS Kids, Qubo, and TBN) and had to sit with an adult to play games online.

“I know the media we consume has

a lot of influence in our lives, which I always taught you. I wanted to keep that pureness in your heart,” my mom recounts over a video call. “Your father and I had the responsibility to raise you and your siblings in a godly way and keep your conscience and thoughts ageappropriate rather than let you grow up too fast. I didn’t like the way kids on Disney were shown to be smarter and more powerful than their parents.”

Above all, they wanted me to mirror the childlike faith Jesus praised. The gospel of Matthew recounts a time when a group of disciples asked Jesus who is considered the greatest in heaven. Jesus responded that children are the example to follow, and we must assume their position to enter heaven. [1] My parents took note of these verses, emphasizing the importance of innocence, purity, and humility that children naturally exude. Though I’ve come to understand my parents’ intentions as I’ve matured, it didn’t easily dispel the disconnect I felt with others. Even the close friends who also identified as Christian were not as heavily monitored as I was, and it caused frustration.

THOUGH I’VE COME TO UNDERSTAND MY PARENTS’ INTENTIONS AS I’VE MATURED, IT DIDN’T EASILY DISPEL THE DISCONNECT I FELT WITH OTHERS. EVEN THE CLOSE FRIENDS WHO ALSO IDENTIFIED AS CHRISTIAN WERE NOT AS HEAVILY MONITORED AS I WAS, AND IT CAUSED FRUSTRATION. I come from a lineage of pastors on my maternal grandfather’s side, all of whom have been raised in conservative environments. However, it’s clear how this theme has been more strict the further back in time we choose to view religion. My grandfather Nehemias and his siblings come from a generation that believed dancing was demonic, and it was prohibited even in celebrations such as weddings. I vividly remember how he would even go so far to always avoid secular music, only singing and memorizing hymns and songs of praise and worship. “I was restricted from vices and dancing because of religion, but even when I had chances to participate I chose not to. This choice was more than a religious teaching, it was of my own

conviction,” he responds in Spanish.

My grandmother Sandra agrees as she chimes in, “Being raised Catholic for the first few years of my life, there was always peer pressure to do worldly things like drink and go out to dance. I always refused, saying I didn’t need it because I had Jesus. And it was true, when I gave my life to Christ at twelve years old, I physically felt God guide all my actions.”

These practices and beliefs may be seen as extreme for our generation, which sees dancing as a form of expression. Is this ideal of conservatism simply a loss of freedom?

While raising their children, my grandparents never needed to enforce religion. My grandfather’s work as a pastor meant the family spent most of their free time within the church anyways. My grandmother served in the children’s ministry and gained firsthand knowledge on how to incorporate God into her parenting. While my grandfather busied himself with ministry to the public, my grandmother dedicated her ministry to her children.

She would take the lessons given at church, simplify them, and apply them to real life. She has always been a woman of faith; she believed God would act on his own divine timing. My grandmother knows the importance of a personal relationship with God, and she gave her children room to make mistakes as they learned how to listen for his voice.

My mother cultivated her love for God as she grew in church, knowing her faith was the truth at a young age.

“I had convictions and later realized how important it was to pursue God with an open heart. For everything, I turned to the Bible and prayed for God’s wisdom and guidance.” She lived through various periods of hardship in her life, and became all that much more unwavering in her faith. She quickly adopted my grandmother’s attitude, and the family’s constant engagement helped enrich and unite them in faith.

Though she felt frustrated about my grandparent’s definition of vices and sins, she always took a moment to pray and reflect on what her desires truly were. “I used to get upset with my mom, and ask her why I couldn’t go out to dance with my friends. She would stay

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silent and just give me a look that said to do what I wanted. She gave me space to learn and grow, and it was precisely that which made me realize the significance of trust.”

My father was also raised in a religious household, but it was a stark contrast to my mother’s. My dad’s family is Catholic, but his parents’ teachings were not always connected to their faith.

He used to tell me about how he was restricted from doing certain things out of his parents’ fear. “Don’t do that, you’ll get hurt,” or other derivations of this phrase were daily occurrences. He paid little mind to this notion as he entered his rebellious phase. “We valued education, and did not really enforce religion onto your dad or your aunts. As long as they grew up to earn their college degrees, we were content,” says my grandfather Hugo in Spanish over a phone call.

My dad would tell me stories of how he would spend weekends partying, drinking, smoking, vandalizing, and planning pranks at school. His nature was so aggressive, he wouldn’t hesitate to get into fights, and he told me of a few instances where his mom had to prevent him from beating my aunt into a wall.

Though the family would regularly attend Mass, my dad left the message given to him each week in the pews and continued his reckless path.

He was this same man when he met my mom one fateful day, but softened slightly by the love he held for her. Their romance was far from perfect, as he didn’t immediately fix his habits, but he was determined to change for the better. My mom was patient with him, and would encourage him to accompany her to youth groups at church, summer camps, church services, and many other activities. “I knew when he agreed to accompany me to different events and receive God, that it was a sign for me to continue my relationship with him,” my mom remembers fondly. “Although I admit I wanted him to be able to change and have all the knowledge I had about God since I was little, I knew I had to let God do work on his heart. He had all the motivation to change, but it would take time for him to learn to live by faith.” This development came much to the dismay of my paternal grandparents. They felt shocked and confused, as they hadn’t expected my dad to pursue a woman who wasn’t born and raised Catholic.

“He made a complete turnaround from the state he was in after he met your

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mom. We didn’t understand why he chose to date outside his religion,” my grandmother Mari tells me. “Even so, we had to respect his decision, because we wanted to raise our kids with the idea that they were independent and had the power of free will in their own lives,” adds my grandfather Hugo. There were periods where they went without talking to him, commented on the differences in beliefs they now had, and felt wary of my mom’s family as they all went to ask for her hand and parents’ blessing.

Understandably, they inherited attitudes of fear from those before them, as well as society’s foundation of rigid tradition.

Catholicism in Mexico is now seen as common, but its existence only began after the presence of Spanish conquistadors.

Their evangelism was initially not well-received, as the native populations already had a wellestablished culture in polytheism.

Though Catholicism was present, it was the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe that truly brought Mexicans and Indigenous populations to the monotheistic faith. This development, coupled with the teachings following the mantra of “Be saved or be damned to hell!” instilled a terror of God opposite to that which Reformed Christian theology strives for. In modern day Mexico, a person leaving Catholicism to convert is seen as a betrayal and a failure of parents to their children. The fear-mongering tactics of my grandparents’ Catholicism was a far cry from the message of love and salvation that I was given.

IN MODERN DAY MEXICO, A PERSON LEAVING CATHOLICISM TO CONVERT IS SEEN AS A BETRAYAL AND A FAILURE OF PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN. THE FEAR-MONGERING TACTICS OF MY GRANDPARENTS’ CATHOLICISM WAS A FAR CRY FROM THE MESSAGE OF LOVE AND SALVATION THAT I WAS GIVEN. My father decided to let God into his heart late one night, after partying and feeling the urge to call my mom. He told me that was when he finally felt a sense of inner peace. He used to remind me of how nothing but God and his love could fill the holes in our hearts, as he came to understand that night my mom prayed for his salvation. The sun rose as they both knelt in prayer, my father’s decision mirroring the development of

God’s new mercies every morning, as described by Lamentations 3:22-23. My dad’s foundation had changed from an all-consuming fear to a confident faith in Christ.

Given the history of their families, it’s understandable that my parents wanted to find a balance between their own experiences. Being the firstborn of my family, my parents were also aware of the fact that they needed to be careful with me, as they were learning what to do for my future siblings. They began this process of building my foundation on God even before I was born, praying for guidance to decide my name which would serve as a declaration over my life. They ultimately decided on Dara, meaning pearl of wisdom, as they wanted me to become someone who led by example. They sheltered me from secular media and celebrations out of caution, but also to foster my focus and love for God. When there were nights I was upset as a toddler, whether out of fear of the dark or some worry I had for the following day, my parents and I would huddle together in prayer or read from the Bible. At the end of each prayer, we would recite a passage in Spanish, which read, “In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety.” [2] They told me I could pray to God for everything, and that He was my friend who’d always listen, just like my teachers taught me in Sunday School.

THEY SHELTERED ME FROM SECULAR MEDIA AND CELEBRATIONS OUT OF CAUTION, BUT ALSO TO FOSTER MY FOCUS AND LOVE FOR GOD. I naturally cultivated the habit of prayer from these instances, though it served to be an awkward explanation to those around me. After I mastered English, I now prayed in both languages everywhere, even at school. For things such as small cuts, on my hands or my friend’s, I’d say a quick prayer for healing out loud and be met with confused glances. My Catholic friends were taught that prayer was a clear-cut recitation of words; they did not have a personal connection with God the way I did. Though there was a thin wall between me and my peers, there was a brick wall between them and God. This was never seen as something shameful, just confusing. When I proudly declared things such as how

God had answered my prayers for siblings, I heard a brief congratulations, and the conversations between my friends would turn away from the matter. There was an uncomfortable sense that I didn’t belong, but I chose to ignore it. After all, there was nothing that brought me more joy than singing and dancing along to praise and worship at church.

Even though my friends did not always understand me and my focus on God, I was more than content to live my life the way I was.

When my family relocated to the largest city in Texas, I tried to cope with the culture shock by founding my life on conformity. I mimicked the speech patterns and behavior of my new friends, who were much more culturally diverse than those I had previously known.

I finally delved into the deep end of popular culture, seeking validation from anyone who could provide it. I did not want to feel the scrutinous gaze of misunderstanding anymore. I believed if I could fit in, all my social problems would resolve themselves. This change did not go unnoticed by my parents, who held many family interventions to steer me back to God. I was losing my religion, which I had once held so dear, and losing sight of who I truly was.

Our TV was on one weekend during this time, set to the city’s Christian channel. It was conveniently playing an episode from the God Rocks! series I had only recently renounced my interest from. Though I don’t recall what I was distracting myself with, I do remember the lyrics and visuals of the song which spoke to my heart. I heard, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” [3] Though these words alone were enough of a sign from God telling me to change my attitude, it was the imagery which really

struck a chord. The fictional cartoon band was being squished into uniform boxes with seals of “World Conform” approval. This dramatic telling of scripture caused me to reflect on what I chose to base myself on. I surely didn’t want to be squished into a box just to fit in with the rest of the world. If I could remain my true self with God, to keep the special blessings I was told I received with him in my heart, I’d gladly choose that over conformity any day.

Reminiscing over my childhood, do I feel anger or regret for the way I was raised? My mother wishes she had realized earlier how she and my father could only shelter us so much, as we tainted our innocent minds when we learned profanities and sexual vocabulary among our peers at school. Yet I am truly thankful my parents made difficult choices to allow me to grow the way God intended.

My foundation in God has allowed me to become the person I am today.

Through keeping my actions based on faith I can find the hope of Scripture: that I can get through the valleys and see my life take its trajectory back towards mountains. [4] The beliefs and fundamental values of my family have changed over time, but there is always one constant. God will always hold a place in our hearts, and be the firm rock we stand on for eternity. He works through me to inspire others and lead them back to Him.

Dara Gonzalez is a freshman from Laredo, Texas studying English. She enjoys reading more than writing, cultivating playlists for fictional characters, watching animated shows to appease her inner child, making silly photoshop edits at 3 am, and learning Kpop choreography.

[1] 1 Peter 2:9 [2] Psalms 4:8 [3] Matthew 18 [4] 1 Kings 20:28

Gathering in the Half Life; Half Light Cecilia Lu | on diasporic intimacy, partially returning home, and living life through video chat

Cecilia Lu is a senior from the suburbs of Upstate NY studying Fine Arts. Her work explores diaspora and its mediation through technology, healing, and death-care.

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Cornell’s Invisible Religion Jack Kubinec | belief and ritual on a secular campus In the fall of 2018, Anne* settled into her dorm at Cornell University after transferring from one of the most conservative colleges in America.

Anne had just spent her freshman year at a southern evangelical school that I will refer to as Conservative Christian University (CCU); it is ranked among the top ten most conservative universities in America on Niche.com [1] When Anne first told me she went to CCU, I remember being taken aback. Even in the conservative evangelical community where I grew up, CCU was regarded as being out there. They weren’t just conservative, they were fundamentalist.

Students’ clothing is strictly policed— requiring business casual with pants no further than two inches above the ankle—and the administration infamously had a ban on interracial dating that lasted into the twenty-first century. [2] Anne was a Black woman; why would she choose to go to CCU? I wrote to Anne seeking insight into the switch from CCU to Cornell—from an intensely religious university to one founded by an anti-religious polemicist.

Anne was excited to grow in her faith at CCU, but she didn’t make any assumptions that it would be a utopian university: “I went to [CCU] because they love Jesus there. And spaces full of people who love Jesus are still broken,” she told me. As she settled into a routine and grew acclimated to campus during her freshman year, Anne found herself feeling disappointed at the racial homogeneity in CCU’s faculty. And yet, this lack of diversity didn’t stop Anne from falling in love with her professors at CCU, who she says “treated [her] with dignity, respect, and counted [her]

perspective as valuable.” Her professors had “a faith refined like gold and a compassion and empathy that was pure and robust,” Anne told me.

FUNDAMENTALIST SOUTHERN EVANGELICAL COLLEGE IN ITS ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE IS SURPRISING, IF NOT ALARMING.

What I found most striking about Anne’s perspective, though, was her belief that “there is more freedom of thought at CCU than at Cornell.” CCU prohibits

As Anne shared her story, I was struck not by the differences between the universities but by their similarities.

DESPITE ITS SECULAR ORIGINS, THE CORNELL COMMUNITY EXISTS WITHIN A RELIGIOUS SORT OF FRAMEWORK. Despite its secular origins, the Cornell community exists within a religious sort of framework—a set of unifying beliefs which I will, for lack of creativity, refer to as Cornellism. Cornellism has its own myths and rituals, canon and language, orthodoxy and heretics. Yet many students seem entirely unaware of the quasi-religious pressures that Cornellism places upon them. Are students actually happiest as unconscious participants in Cornellism? As much as Cornellism’s creeds may provide some good, I believe it ultimately is missing something.

students from going to movie theaters and listening to contemporary popular music. [3] How could CCU possibly have freedom of thought?

Anne acknowledged that both CCU and Cornell can tend to ostracize students who fail to conform to a narrow set of ideals, but in Anne’s eyes, “at Cornell the shaming [for misbehavers] would be faster, harsher, and perhaps extend beyond your social circles to your academic and vocational opportunities.” While Anne’s claim is impossible to prove or disprove, the idea that a secular institution is comparable to a fundamentalist southern evangelical college in its administration of justice is surprising, if not alarming.

To be sure, Cornellism is not a religion in the way that, say, Christianity is a religion. The great sociologist Emile Durkheim wrote that “sacred things” are the essential component of all religions. [4] In Durkheim’s framework, a worldview like Cornellism which lacks connection to the divine cannot be religion; Cornellism is a heuristic that only goes so far in explaining reality.

However, Durkheim points to unity

THE IDEA THAT A SECULAR INSTITUTION IS COMPARABLE TO A

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surrounding beliefs and practices as another key component of religion, and Cornellism certainly checks that box.

What characterizes Cornellism?

Cornell professors and students are, by and large, deeply motivated by seeking justice for the oppressed in society. This desire for justice is producing students who care deeply about anti-racism, decolonization, climate justice, and other means for building a more equitable world. However, the rituals and norms—the quasi-religious practices—regarding what justice means and how justice must be achieved have homogenized to the point of a religious unity in beliefs and practices. Since Cornellism remains invisible to many of its adherents, the way sins are punished deserves closer examination.

A girl we’ll call Emma** is a TikTok influencer who was well-known by Cornell students before she ever set foot on campus. Her one-minute-or-less college advice videos earned her over half a million followers on TikTok and a Daily Sun profile while she was still in high school. In the fall of 2020, as Anne was finishing up her last semester at Cornell, Emma was just arriving at Cornell, excited to make the most of her college experience even if a pandemic was putting a damper on things.

During orientation week, Emma posted videos on Snapchat of herself attending a maskless indoor party. One of Emma’s classmates uploaded a screen

recording of the video to TikTok, and the video was widely shared throughout the student body. I remember a friend showing me the video when it first leaked; the two of us wondered how Cornell would respond to Emma flouting our school’s COVID-19 guidelines.

In Emma’s case, it wasn’t the Cornell administration but the Cornell student body that meted out justice. An online petition calling for Emma’s Cornell acceptance to be rescinded went viral, garnering over 4,500 signatures. [5] Soon, the Washington Post picked up the story. A Google search for Emma’s name still brings up pages of links exposing her sin.

The petition that circulated in the wake of Emma’s maskless partying used the language of Cornellism. If Cornellians were to be sent home due to an outbreak, “Some students [did not] have the luxury of going home to a quiet and healthy environment to focus on academics,” the petition read.

To be seen as legitimate, the petition had to frame Emma’s wrongdoing as perpetuating injustice against the oppressed—in this case, students whose home circumstances prevented them from learning. The petition writers admirably call for empathy towards their peers. But, they offer no way forward for Emma herself—no opportunity for her to remain in the community and atone for her actions.

For these writers, the only way to deal with a sinner like Emma was to cast her completely out of the community. Cornellism has no doctrine of repentance; as Emma learned firsthand, it has no means of grace.

I remember watching Emma’s public shaming happen and feeling like the saga presented a fundamentally broken picture of community. Did the end justify

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the means? An 18-year-old girl was in an unfamiliar social environment and made a mistake. Why were upperclassmen in the Cornell community so quick to condemn her but so unwilling to show empathy and give Emma guidance for how she could learn from her mistake?

Why was it that older students never thought to pick up the phone and call Emma to talk about her mistakes and what she could do to make things right?

The Cornellist drive for retribution provides little opportunity for repentance and forgiveness. Do we really want to live with all of our wrongdoing permanent and unatonable? The Christian faith offers a different way—a vision of healing through repentance.

DO WE REALLY WANT TO LIVE WITH ALL OF OUR WRONGDOING PERMANENT AND UNATONABLE? The biblical Psalm 51 shows an example of repentance that has deeply influenced my own spiritual growth. The poem was written by David, the king of Israel, after he sent the innocent Uriah to his death so David could have sex with Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba. After being caught in his wrongdoing and rebuked

by God through the prophet Nathan, David acknowledges the depth of his sin: “I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.” [6] How should he respond? He concludes that God

prefers “a broken spirit” over “a burnt offering.” [7] In other words, it was better for David to realize the depths of his own depravity than to right his wrongs through empty religious practice.

Repentance sounds nice in theory, but if I’m honest, I don’t live up to David’s example of self-emptying repentance very well. When I say that I’m sorry, it’s often for trivial things or done in a way that boosts my own ego. Rarely do I even notice my “broken bones,” let alone ask God to repair them. [8] In writing this essay, I spent a long time wracking my brain before finally giving up trying to find an example of Davidic repentance in my life. Where I see

repentance (or the lack thereof) most clearly, though, is in the social fabric of Christian communities where I have been a member.

After we had a fight on a family vacation in North Carolina last year, my older brother looked me in the eyes and said, “Jack, what I said to you was wrong, and I want to tell you I’m sorry.”

This moment of repentance ignited a period of healing as different members of my family repented to one another over long-unspoken wrongs. When Christian communities flourish, a culture of repentance emerges in which members continuously affirm their mutual brokenness and spend time

meditating on their own sins instead of focusing only on the wrongdoings of others. A culture of repentance muddies the binary between good people and bad people as individuals within a community take turns either repenting to others or having others repent to them.

A CULTURE OF REPENTANCE MUDDIES THE BINARY BETWEEN GOOD PEOPLE AND BAD PEOPLE AS INDIVIDUALS WITHIN A COMMUNITY TAKE TURNS EITHER REPENTING TO OTHERS OR HAVING OTHERS REPENT TO THEM. When this culture of repentance doesn’t emerge in a Christian community, disaster results. Pastor Mark Driscoll’s spectacular fall from grace at the megachurch Mars Hill was caused in large part by his inability to recognize his own wrongs paired with an unwillingness to look past perceived wrongs in his enemies. [9] Unified beliefs and practices that are not tied to some practice of repentance leaves community members bitter and exhausted from pursuing right behavior—without the hope of receiving grace for their shortcomings.

What would it look like for Cornellism to take on a culture of repentance? I think it would require an acknowledgement of our own limitations, both intellectually and morally. A culture of repentance would encourage nuance and would likely lead to better scholarship in an age of p-hacking and confirmation bias.

Jack Kubinec is a junior from Louisville, KY studying sociology. He’s pretty much resigned to his coffee addiction but would appreciate your thoughts and prayers nonetheless.

[1] “2022 Most Conservative Colleges in America,” Niche, https://www.niche.com/ colleges/search/most-conservative-colleges/ [2] “2021-2022 Student Handbook,” Bob Jones University, 36, https://www.bju.edu/life-faith/ student-handbook.pdf [3] “Rules of Conduct, Bob Jones University,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_ Jones_University#Rules_of_conduct [4] “The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life,” Wikepedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ The_Elementary_Forms_of_the_Religious_Life [5] “​​ De-Densify Cornell’s Ithaca Campus By Rescinding *Emma ‘24 Acceptance,” Change. org, [6] Psalm 51:3, ESV [7] Psalm 51:17, ESV [8] Psalm 51:8, ESV [9] “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill,” Christianity Today, https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/ podcasts/rise-and-fall-of-mars-hill/ *Anne asked for her name and the name of her former college to be kept confidential **Name changed for confidentiality

But a better question, perhaps, is whether Cornell can be reimagined without Cornellism. How can we push back against religiously unified beliefs and practices at a university that espouses free inquiry? Are there ways to maintain a high aversion to injustice while rejecting the urge to respond hatefully to its perpetrators? What would a culture of repentance look like in our dorms, in our extracurriculars, or in our classes? Perhaps we can imagine a university where brokenness looks less like a problem to be solved by the competent and more like a burden we all share.

Foundations | 27

Songs of Foundation The Christian musical tradition dwells beautifully on the nature of God and his church as a foundation. The following selection of verses from hymns meditate on finding firm ground in an ever-changing world.

A MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR GOD A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing; our helper he, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing.

For still our ancient foe does seek to work us woe; his craft and power are great, and armed with cruel hate, on earth is not his equal. ...

That Word above all earthly powers no thanks to them abideth; the Spirit and the gifts are ours through him who with us sideth.

Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also; the body they may kill: God's truth abideth still; his kingdom is forever.

MY HOPE IS BUILT ON NOTHING LESS My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I standAll other ground is sinking sand, All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness seems to hide His face I rest on His unchanging grace.

In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil.

—1834 / 2012

—1528

ALL MY HOPE ON GO

All my hope on God is founded; all safe through change and chance he God unknown, he alone calls my heart to be his own.

Human pride and earthly glory, sw though with care and toil we build But God’s power, hour by hour, is my temple and my tower.

—translated 1899

28 | Claritas

THE CHURCH’S ONE FOUNDATION The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord; she is his new creation by water and the word: from heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride; with his own blood he bought her, and for her life he died. ...

Though with a scornful wonder men see her sore oppressed, by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed, yet saints their watch are keeping, their cry goes up, “How long?”

And soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of song.

Amid toil and tribulation, and tumult of her war, she waits the consummation of peace for evermore; till with the vision glorious her longing eyes are blest, and the great Church victorious shall be the Church at rest.

HOW FIRM A FOUNDATION How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word!

What more can he say than to you he hath said, you who to Jesus for refuge have fled?

Fear not, I am with thee; oh, be not dismayed!

For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid; I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

—1787

—1866

OD IS FOUNDED.

l my trust he will renew; e guides me, only good and only true:

word and crown betray God’s trust; them, tower and temple fall to dust.

Foundations | 29

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