Volume 5, Issue 1 | Fall 2016
Peripateo the Swarthmore College Journal of Christian Discourse
Settling Insecurity in Faith by Irene Tang
A Letter from the Editor Dear Reader, In days of old when I was just a wee high school senior, I overheard a conversation during Ride the Tide, when the admitted students’ day was known by that name. As many of us lay out on Parrish beach looking up at the stars, a fellow prospective student was explaining, in very measured and rational terms, his take on religion and God. A couple of things struck me about what he was saying.The first was that he was agnostic. Growing up with almost exclusively Christian or atheistic friends, I had always somewhat looked down on agnostics as people who just needed to make their mind up.Yet I was forced to rethink that rather unfair and ignorant designation when I realized that the speaker had clearly thought a lot more about his faith than I had ever done. He was verbally wrestling with the problem of how an all powerful and all loving God could allow suffering in the world, but rather than simply denying the existence of God, or dismissing the problem without much thought (as I myself had frequently done) he was trying to reconcile his deep feeling that there was some higher power with the moral difficulties that entailed. His ability to live within that tension while retaining his sanity compelled me to think more critically about my faith and really question some of the reasons I believed what I believed. The other thing that stood out to me as he was talking was that he did not seem to mind other people overhearing. To everyone who thinks that it was weird that I was eavesdropping while this fellow prospective student discussed his faith, I can say that he was making no effort to hide his voice; my guess is that he actually wanted people to overhear. That idea was extremely surprising to me at the time. I would never talk to people I did not know about such a personal matter as faith, never mind so publicly. The longer I have been at Swarthmore, the more I have realized the necessity to embrace what that prospective student did so (relatively) long ago. By exploring my faith deeper, I allowed myself to live with some tensions that I had been denying even existed, some that I live with to this day. It was uncomfortable, but I believe my faith has been made all the stronger by working through difficult issues. I would not have been able to do this alone, however. Only by opening up to others have I been able to benefit from their wisdom, and find solace in the fact that I am not alone in my struggle. As someone I know once said “I get by with a little help from my friends.” This need to investigate faith and the desire to do so with others is the reason Peripateo was created. Peripateo is a Greek word, meaning “to walk around” and we invite you, dear readers, to join us as we seek to just that, exploring topics of faith and religion. In this issue, Juhyae Kim responds to criticisms of the Theology of John Calvin as elitist and removed, Ricky Conti reflects on his transition to Swarthmore and the centrality that he learned to give prayer, and Sawyer Lake recounts his experience and understanding of his faith and beseeches Swatties to take matters of faith seriously.These pieces represent a small fraction of the ongoing discussion that we hope you will participate in. I, along with the staff of Peripateo, do believe that there are answers, and we hope that you do not have to live in the tension of uncertainty forever.Yet we also realize that the tension exists and is a very real part of many people’s lives, even those who express faith. We also hope that by walking around with us through these issues of faith and Finally, we hope that after your journey, you can take time to rest with us and reflect on where we have been and where we still have to go.
Nate Lamb Editor-In-Chief
i | Letter from the Editor
Photo by Timothy Greco
exploring them with others, we can begin a more open and honest conversation about faith and religion on campus.
IN THIS ISSUE A Non-Concealing Confession 7
Essays & Ar ticles
by Nate Lamb
by Tobias Philip
by Juhyae Kim
Bigger than Words: 4 Finding God in the Right Places by Emily Ferrari
Practicing Gratitude 13 by Joyce Ulrich Tompkins
God's Love and 14 My Swattie Supplication by Sawyer Lake
Editorial Staff
Irene Tang ’19 Juhyae Kim ’19
Calvinism: Elitism or Humility? 18
by Ricky Conti
the Swarthmore College Journal of Christian Discourse
Nate Lamb ’17 Michael Broughton ’19
Internalized Christian Authority 10
Prayer as a Priority 2
Peripateo
Sawyer Lake ’20
Reflections
Tobias Philip ’20 Emily Audet ’18 Elizabeth Erler ’20 Heitor Santos ’17
Editor-in-Chief Executive Editor Business Manager Design Manager Editor Design Editor Design Editor Design Design Design
Contributors
Ricky Conti ’19 Emily Ferrari ’19 Timothy Greco ’19 Juhyae Kim ’19 Sawyer Lake ’20 Nate Lamb ’17 Tobias Philip ’20 Irene Tang ’19 Joyce Ulrich Tompkins
Settling Insecurity in Faith 16 by Irene Tang
Who We Are
Peripateo seeks to reconcile faith and academia by
engaging religious issues through an intellectual lens. We believe that the message of Jesus Christ has pow-
erful implications for our daily lives and the world at large. We aim to fuse creativity and intellectualism in this journal to invite readers into a thought-
ful discourse: what role does God play in our lives? What are the ways that a Christian perspective both
complements and complicates an academic one?
Contact us at swarthmoreperipateo@gmail.com
Read our previous issues at https://issuu.com/swarthmoreperipateo
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Prayer as I come from a very Christian household. My fa-
ther is a staunch Protestant and my mother is a traditional Catholic. I have gone to private Christian schools my entire life, with the exception of Swarthmore. For as far back as I can remember, my faith has always been at the center of my life. I can remember singing Bible songs at my Presbyterian preschool and going to Mass every Friday with my classmates in elementary school. I remember in high school going to adoration and reconciliation every semester, and getting a lot of vacation days for religious holidays. Christ and education have always gone hand-in-hand for me since I began going to school. I’ve sat in as many religion classes as I have math and English classes. I have learned about Christ in so many different settings with so many different teachers. Most subjects in schools change from year to year. As you get older, math and science get more complicated, words and sentences get longer, and history becomes older. I noticed that only one thing ever remained constant in my education, and that was Christ. Coming to Swarthmore obviously changed this. For the first time ever, I was not taking a course in religion and was not required to go to Mass. Instead of being in an environment where Christ was at the focal point, I needed to learn how to attend a school where not everyone had the same faith as me and to reach out to Christ in order to stay connected with him. Christ was no longer at the center of my education. As we all know, it is really easy to get caught up in our academic responsibilities at Swarthmore, often times forgetting to dedicate time to other priorities in our lives. As I mentioned, in the past, Christ and education went hand-in-hand. It was very difficult to drift from prayer and faith because I was dedicating time to it daily. Going to a Christian school made engaging in my faith a lot easier compared to Swarthmore.
2 | Prayer as a Priority
I learned quickly how much I took this for granted. With so many other responsibilities, faith all of a sudden became a chore. I kept having to remind myself to go to Mass, pray before meals, ask for forgiveness, and thank God for all of the good things in my life. When I was younger, I went to Mass every Friday and prayed before every meal. Being a Swarthmore student, I became convinced that going to Mass and praying often wasn’t worth the time, and that my time was better spent studying and doing work. I persuaded myself that Mass and prayer required sacrificing time dedicated to school, as opposed to the two going hand-in-hand. I realized that if I wanted to come close to being the Christian I was in the past, I would have to dedicate all of my free time to Christ without fail. Unfortunately, I started praying less and less before bed and meals, and started only going to Mass and Bible Study sporadically. Not going to a Christian school led me to deprioritize faith. At the beginning of my Swarthmore experience, prayer was essential. I was able to use prayer to stay in touch with my faith. Thus, as I found myself praying less, I also found myself losing touch with my faith. Over the summer, I went back home to my family in Southern California. It was a wake-up call to say the least. I saw how my family’s dedication to Christ had not wavered while I was away. I can’t express how thankful I am to have parents that continue to praise Christ. I knew that I was better at engaging with my faith in the past, and needed to find a way to move back towards becoming that same person. 1 Chronicles 16:11 reads, “Look to the Lord and his strength. Seek his face always.” In the past, prayer had moved mountains for me, and I had abandoned it. When I was a lot younger, my brother and I used to fight a great deal. We didn’t have a lot in common. I was physically active, playing lots of different sports, whereas my
a Priority by Ricky Conti
brother had an appreciation for video games. My parents would force him to come to all my sporting events, but instead of watching, he would play video games. It wasn’t until I grew up that I realized how much I lacked a relationship with my brother. Prayer completely turned this around. I asked God to help my brother and me find more things in common. He is three years younger than me, so we both went to high school together for one year. This blessing ended up being the turning point in our relationship, as we both were able to talk about news on campus, our favorite teachers, and advice for staying out of trouble. Reversing the pattern of losing touch with my faith required prayer and seeking God’s face again. I started prayer by having conversations with God. Each time I pray, I try to touch on four points; thanks, praise, forgiveness, and requests. I thank God for giving me the opportunity to come back home into an environment that provides time for prayer, as my family and I never go a meal without praying to God. I would praise him for his almighty power and strength. Jeremiah 29:12 says, “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.” I felt that my newfound time for prayer was no longer a burden, but rather a gift, and that God heard every word I said. I would ask for forgiveness for allowing myself to deprioritize faith. I would lastly request that God help guide me back to being the prayerful person I once was. Since my renewal over the summer, I have learned about the power of prayer. Through conversations with God, I was able to refocus my priorities and not only find time, but make time for prayer. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, “Pray continually.” These are wise words to follow, as I’ve seen what happens to people when they drift from Christ. I hope that Christ can continue to work in me through the Holy Spirit, and that I can continue to talk to him through prayer and meditation. r
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Bigger than Words
Finding God in the Right Places by Emily Ferrari
As a child, the world seemed
4 | Bigger than Words
certain and reliable. Things and experiences had names, and they made sense. Over time, I learned that certain things are very suited to being named. Objects which exist in our day-to-day lives, objects which are tangible and understood, have specific names. Other things, however, are harder to describe accurately. Emotions, especially complex or intense ones, evade our grasp. We sometimes think we understand them but we do so only fleetingly. As I grew older, I encountered heartache and loss, and I found myself at a loss for words. All my life I believed in the power of words, but I soon learned just how often they fall short of communicating the depths of experience. This is where I first began to struggle with Protestant Christian traditions and practices. I was raised in Lancaster County by Christian parents whose own parents strictly followed traditional Christian doctrine and were very involved in their religious community. I grew up knowing the ABC’s of salvation and the color symbolism. On my fourth birthday I received my first Bible, and I attended Vacation Bible School (VBS) every summer. Despite this dedication to the Christian religion, my family was not always welcome at the local churches. We thought intensely about
things and asked questions that made the church leaders uncomfortable. As a result, on more than one occasion, we were told not to come back and would spend a few weeks searching for a new “church home.” In my elementary school years, we had no church at all. But when I was in fourth grade, we heard about a new church that promised to be welcoming to everyone. This church didn’t kick us out, and we attended there until I graduated and came to Swarthmore. Being raised this way, I have always been comfortable and well-versed in the terminology of Protestant Christianity, but as I neared the end of my grade school era, I became frustrated with the formalities of church. I listened to secular music and heard messages of love and compassion. I watched movies and learned how to treat other people with respect and dignity. I explored the depths of my emotionality and experienced a vibrancy of living that I had never encountered before. And I believed wholeheartedly that these were valid spiritual experiences and that I was growing in my relationship with God. Some of my fellow churchgoers, however, disagreed. They believed that attending church and reading my Bible were the only ways in which I could be in the presence of God, and that
while secular music was entertaining and not necessarily evil (a belief which many other Lancaster County churches hold), I couldn’t really experience God that way. Music has always brought me to life in a way that I believe is spiritual. Playing my cello, singing, or just listening to songs full of raw emotion with pressing messages never fails to awaken my emotional and sensitive side, a side that I shut down far too often to “be productive.” When I attended church, worship made me forget all the responsibilities waiting for me at home. It was just me and God. But the sermons were packed with jargon that I understood but didn’t connect to. I felt flat and fake in my faith. One afternoon while driving in the car with my mom, I said out loud for the first time, “I feel like God is bigger than church makes him out to be. I want to know the real God, but when I talk about him with words it just feels… insufficient.” I wrestled for a time with what it meant to be a Christian. If it meant that I had to fake it my whole life, to say the words without the depth, I wasn’t sure I wanted it. At the same time, I was going through one of the biggest changes of my life. I was going to college. I was old enough to vote, old enough to live on my own, and I decided in addition to forming my political
views and planning for my future, I would also dedicate time to figuring out what I really believed about God. I had read a book entitled Sex God many years before by a Californian pastor named Rob Bell and had loved it. Coincidentally, Rob Bell started popping up here and there. One of my favorite comedians, Pete Holmes, became friends with him, and the two men started touring together talking about God and faith. My parents and I started listening to their podcasts as well as tuning in to a pastor from Northern Ireland named Pete Rollins. In their messages, these men touched on the theme I had run into, the fact that God is infinite and beyond human understanding. Words are incapable of describing God and settling for a mere shadow of him is frustrating. Rob Bell once talked about confining God to language and referenced the story of Moses and the Burning Bush. In the Old Testament, God speaks to Moses who is hiding from Pharaoh in Midian. God appears in the form of a bush which is on fire but does not burn up, and when Moses asks who he is, God replies, “I am that I am.” he goes on to list a few of the names by which Moses may know him, but he doesn’t begin with those epithets. He begins by simply saying he is what he is.
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Throughout the rest of the Bible, God is described in a variety of ways. God is allknowing and all-powerful. He is strong and mighty. He is a loving father. He is the beginning and the end of all things. He has many different names according to biblical context or church denomination. In the typical Protestant tradition, he is “God.” He is also named “Elohim,” “Adonai,” “Abba,” and “Lord.” The Holy Trinity identifies him as “God the Father” who is one with “God the Son” and “God the Holy Spirit.” Each name attempts to express who God is, but it only manages to capture a facet of his identity. Every variation of “God” has a unique connotation, conveys a distinct meaning. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Words are beautiful. I love writing, and I love words. I love understanding things, and I love trying to learn If something like grief cannot be more. It’s good to confully expressed with words, how template infinity and can something as immense as to try to imagine it. It’s good to forget the tiny God be expressed at all? details and monotony of life every now and then and to try to expand, to look at the big picture. The problem for me arises when I begin to believe that I actually do understand. When I assume that my understanding is sufficient, I forget to admit that it might not be. Even something as ordinary as an apple could mean something slightly different to someone else, and something as infinite as God definitely reaches beyond our understanding. Trying to describe God can help us strengthen our relationship with Him, but it is far too easy to settle into a certain mindset believing that our description is correct. If something like grief, which is central to human life on earth, cannot be fully expressed with words, how can something as immense as God be expressed at all? The Jewish faith believes that God is too sacred to be named, too infinite to be labeled or explained. They call him “Yahweh,” which consists of only vowels and is pronounced uncertainly. It’s actually barely spoken, but rather, breathed, “Yah” a breath in, and “Weh” a breath out. It doesn’t assign
6 | Bigger than Words
an identity. The human mouth and brain doesn’t pin him down to one description at one place in time. Instead, you breathe him in and breathe him out because Yahweh is within and around all at once. Rob Bell talks about this often and in the context of synchronized breathing. A meditation method, synchronized breathing is meant to connect a group of people who breathe in and out simultaneously. Rob Bell points out that this is what happens during worship at a church service. When a congregation sings together, they breathe in and out in synchrony, keeping in time with the music. This communal synchrony is undoubtedly what I loved about worship. I felt connected to the people around me. I was breathing with them and experiencing God with them in a way that felt transcendent of listening to a sermon. While saying all of this, I want to make it clear that I don’t think the traditions I grew up with are always fake. Words are so powerful and tradition can bring people together in community, which I believe is crucial for spirituality, but I have seen far too many people turned away from church because they did not feel connected to God in that environment. And that breaks my heart, to think that someone decided God is not for them just because they didn’t understand the Christian lingo or were told they weren’t devout enough. I find God in music rather than in sermons and Bible verses, and I believe people can grow closer to Him through alternate mediums as well. For some people, it might be during a morning Bible devotional, but for others maybe it’s in going on a hike with their family. Maybe they feel closest to God while observing and learning about nature; others might catch a glimpse of God in a beautiful painting at a museum. Everyone is unique, and perhaps the things that awaken someone’s heart can tell them more about God than their human pastor can with small words. Tiny words limit God, but I believe we can experience him as he is simply by opening up and letting life happen to us with a breath in and a breath out. r
A NON-CONCEALING CONFESSION by Nate Lamb
“So, it really wasn’t good and
I feel kind of bad, but it wasn’t totally a lie.” I found myself uttering these words as I explained to my friend the story I had told my professor about skipping class earlier that day. I had written in an email that I was feeling very unwell. It was partially true in that I was indeed feeling unwell, but not sick in the way that I implied. Rather, I had stayed up too late procrastinating the night before and had not done enough to study for a midterm after the class I had skipped. Instead of telling my professor this, however, I implied that I was too sick to come to class. Immediately, I knew I had done something wrong and resolved to confess to my friend in order to relieve my guilt. Rather than fully acknowledging and owning up to my sin, I tried to qualify it and thus relieve myself of some of the blame. “Well, it wasn’t good, but it definitely was
not as bad as a straight up lie.” I have since come to realize that when I made this qualifying type of confession, it negatively affected my ability to overcome my own sin and to grasp the goodness of God, and resulted from an incomplete understanding, or refusal to understand, the true nature of God’s gift to the world through Jesus. In case you are wondering why I felt so bad about such a seemingly small thing, I would like to take a moment to discuss the nature of sin and why Christians talk about it so much. The Bible refers to sin as any action we take (or even think about) that is a break from what God wants from us, and represents disobedience to him as the Lord of the world. If we consider that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” then living up to what God wants is an impossible mark.1 It feels completely unfair for God to expect that from us, but
we should keep a couple of things in mind. First, God, as creator of the universe and humanity, knows what is best for us and thus commands us to live in ways that are consistent with our flourishing, even when that does not seem to make sense to us. In Psalm 19, the writer understands this and realizes that the law, or commands of God, are perfect, even “refreshing to the soul.”2 Therefore, sin represents us telling God that we actually know more than he does or that we somehow have figured out how to live life better than the person who actually gave us life in the first place and designed every aspect of it. I think this perspective helps me to see more clearly why the Bible talks about sin, even small things, in such a negative way and as a direct insult to God. Even the smallest or seemingly inconsequential lie that I committed was a break from the command God has given us not to
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lie,3 and accordingly, represents sin. That being said, God’s perfection still seems impossible to live up to, and sin an inevitability. However, God recognizes our shortcomings and in an act of mercy to us, sent his son Jesus to die for us to take on the punishment of our sin. Now, in order to be forgiven and perfect in God’s eyes, and accordingly to receive eternal life, all one has to do is believe in Jesus and declare that he is Lord.4 I sometimes feel that the impact of this tremendous gift and act of grace is overlooked by Christians, myself included. If God has Repentance is not a task sent his son to take on the burden of our sins and pay or something that must be the punishment we deserve done to earn God’s gift of so that we now may be recforgiveness, but a response onciled with God, that is the best news in the world. The to the goodness of God. result should be that we strive to follow God’s commands more and live the perfect life he has called us to, not out of obligation or a sense of duty, but out of thankfulness and a recognition that the words and laws of a God who truly does love us beyond what we can comprehend are worth following. We will never be without sin in this world, but through Jesus, we can be redeemed in God’s sight for our transgressions. This leaves Christians in a constant state of tension between being forgiven and still committing sins. The Bible, however, emphasizes repentance, the process of continually turning away and working to move past one’s sin as essential to becoming forgiven.5 At first glance, this seems to be a contradiction to what I said above. After all, isn’t accepting Jesus the only thing we need to do to be forgiven? However, repentance is not described as a task or something that must be done to earn God’s gift–which, remember, is freely given–but a response to the goodness of God.6 Repentance is the natural reaction to being offered such a gift of forgiveness. I knew repentance was es-
8 | A Non-Concealing Confession
sential, and I understood that confession of sins both to God in prayer and to others was also commanded in the Bible. However, I did not understand the fundamental relationship between the two until very recently, thanks to an experience I had with a couple of friends wiser than myself. The Biblical mandate for the confession of sins is very clear. In the Lord’s prayer, Jesus models how we should pray, and includes the phrase “forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” 1 John 1:9 tells us that “if we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Similarly, John the Baptist, preparing the way for Jesus, proclaimed “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”7 Furthermore, the Bible tells us that we should be confessing sins to each other and that doing so will actually bring healing.8 That is one of the reasons a good friend of mine invited me and another friend to start an accountability group together, where we could come together and confess to one another our sins. Knowing that the confession of sins was Biblical and encouraged by my church, I gladly accepted.Yet, I approached confession without an understanding of why it was important, and, accordingly, my attitude towards my accountability group was one of obligation, not sincere transparency. Right away, I struggled to be honest with my accountability partners. It was really hard to say all the bad things I had done. I found this rather strange. After all, I confessed my sins to God on a regular basis, and I was hardly afraid of the judgment of those in my group, who I would trust with my life. Rather, by saying my sins out loud, they felt more real and more painful to me. I was laboring under the conception that I was an okay person who did bad things sometimes and had to confess those so that I could be a good person again. By merely saying my sins in my head, I was able to
avoid feeling their sting and able to convince myself that I could somehow fix myself. Confession had become a checklist for me, with none of the weight of Biblical confession or the healing that James talks about. Right away, I grasped why confession out loud and to others was so important, but rather than embracing true and full confession, I once again reverted to minimizing the role of my sin, by only half acknowledging where I had gone wrong. Proverbs 28:13 says, “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.” In only partially confessing my sin I was still concealing it, thus not forsaking it and obtaining the mercy that God is more than willing to give out. Furthermore, I quickly found out that I was not actually able to change myself. I had thought of my lying as a small thing that I could easily manage, and in doing so, I not only failed to manage it, but also lost of sight of the goodness of what God has promised. To be able to fully accept the amazing gift of forgiveness through Jesus that God has given us, I need to recognize that I am totally dependent on God for forgiveness, and that any action I take will be enough to bridge the divide between me and him that my sins have opened up. This is very hard and painful to do, but it is completely necessary for obtaining the new life that God has promised us. Only Jesus offers true forgiveness and the ability to overcome sin for good. What need had I to conceal my sin? God offers forgiveness freely to all who come to him and truly repent. To do so I had to leave my pride behind. When I was finally able to recognize my total helplessness on my own, I experienced a feeling unlike any I had ever known. I vividly remember breaking down into tears upon comprehending exactly what it meant to be forgiven undeservedly. My shame melted away as I realized the truth: by turning away from the wrong I had done and asking God
humbly for forgiveness, I was free and no longer under the burden of condemnation– not only from God, but from myself as well. My experience with my accountability group made me more open to honestly confessing my sins not only to them, but also to God. I only realized I was not doing it authentically when I met authentic repentance. This repentance must come from confession of sins and asking for forgiveness from God through prayer, but I also have come to believe that confession to others is at least a helpful, if not absolutely necessary part of this process. Throughout the Bible, I only realized I was not Christians are called to live in community with one an- doing it authentically other and build each other when I met authentic up, and I believe a large repentance. part of that comes through small groups who hear each others’ sins and can encourage and challenge each other to take those sins seriously and embrace repentance. For those of you who do not know Jesus, I want to offer my story of the overwhelming peace and freedom he gave to me and countless others over the years through forgiveness and the hope of life to come. For other Christians who are struggling with living in sin or feeling like they cannot fully repent from what they know to be wrong, I encourage you to strongly consider finding a friend or two with whom you can be completely honest. Trust me, it’s hard, but it will be worth it. r Endnotes 1. Romans 3:23 2. Psalm 19:7 3. Leviticus 19:11; Colossians 3:9 4. Romans 10:9 5. Isaiah 30:15; Acts 3:19 6. Romans 2:4 7. Mark 1:4 8. Acts 19:18; James 5:16
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“And the things which thou has heard of me by many witnesses, the same commend to faithful men, who shall be fit to teach others also.”1 Christianity is a received doctrine, passed from Christ to the apostles, and from the apostles to the rest of the church, in whose continued line of descent we stand. We have taken our Christian truths largely on authority, whether we recognize it or not. For orthodox Christians, God was truly made man and this historical fact is taken on the authority of those who wrote the scriptures, who in turn have taken it on other authority. Saint Paul writes, “For I delivered unto you first of all, which I also received: how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures.”2 In the Latin Vulgate, this verse begins “tradidi quod accepi,” I have passed down what I have received. From the verb “tradidi” derives “tradition,” a passing down, which is key to how we, in the 21st century, continue to accept the 2,000-yearold doctrine of Jesus Christ. The tradition Saint Paul references is the tradition we should hope to maintain today, and that tradition must be upheld by the authority on which we first received Christian
10 | Internalized Christian Authority
revelation. Saint Augustine treats authority in City of God when he explains on what basis we may accept spiritual truths, “as in the case of visible objects which we have not seen, we trust those who have... so in the case of things which are perceived by the mind and spirit...it behooves us to trust those who have seen them set in that incorporeal light, or abidingly contemplate them.”3 The renowned 19th century essayist and Catholic convert John Henry Cardinal Newman explains this reasoning more clearly, analogizing that the English accept Great Britain as an island because they have been taught such from early childhood and have seen it depicted as so, but even though, “Those who have circumnavigated the island have a right to be certain: have we ever ourselves even fallen in with anyone who has...what is the proof we are not all of us believing it on the credit of each other?”4 We could conceivably seek to support all our beliefs with personal experience but, as Newman puts it, “Life is for action. If we insist on proofs for every thing, we shall never come to action: to act you must assume and that assumption is faith.”5 Following this argument, most of us have
Photo by Timothy Greco
Internalized Christian
Authority by Tobias Philip
not directly experienced miracles or the events of the scriptures, and yet it makes perfect sense thatwe take it on the authority of others. And yet, Christianity is not taken simply on popular belief, but on the authority of our very civilization. Since the Christian religion has also been so integral to our culture, any endeavor to replace it warrants great caution. As Edmund Burke remarked in his Reflections on the Revolution in France, “we know, and what is better, we feel inwardly, that religion is the basis of civil society, and the source of all good and of all comfort.”6 We have inferred that Christianity is the perfection of human nature, that, “man is by his constitution a religious animal...we should uncover our nakedness, by throwing off that Christian religion which has hitherto been our boast and comfort, and one great source of civilization amongst us.”7 Christianity has incubated the Western identity, checked the violence of passion, and provided a rich moral and spiritual vocabulary for intellectual development through the ages. Furthermore, to progress as a civilization, we build on what came before us; “The conclusions of one generation are the truths of the
next.”8 Should we reject all the former discoveries of past generations, then every 70 years or so we would go about reformulating the laws of physics and, quite literally, reinventing the wheel. When Christianity departs from culture, who is to tell what goes with it? Accordingly, if Christianity is so essential to our civilization in everything from morality and ethics to aesthetics, where would we be if we abandoned it on the basis of empirical doubt? The authoritative voice of a shared heritage cries out vehemently in defense of its mother, the Church. And yet, even if the voices of generations past were to sound, they would surely be drowned by the dissonance of anti-dogmatism. How can we discern what authority is credible in a world in which pluralistic contention increasingly prevails? After all, the truth of Christianity is no longer as plain as is that of the insularity of Great Britain. Even if the communications of empiricism rely just as heavily on authority as Christianity, irreligiosity is ever waxing. Once entire populations were brought up in the truth of Christianity by parent and professor alike, and Christianity’s doctrines were to most beyond doubt. Cardinal
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Newman thus summarizes, “Till these last centuries the Visible Church was, at least to her children, the light of the world, as conspicuous as the sun in the heavens; and the Creed was written on her forehead.”9 So what use do we have for the authority of an inconspicuous visible church? It is far easier to accept faith on unanimous rather than selective authority, but secular society challenges Christians to choose what is authoritative. Given the waning of the visible church in Western Culture, faith seems ever more suited for individuality. It is no coincidence that Evangelical Christianity’s emphasis on accepting Christ as one’s personal savior finds so great a following after objective Christian authority fades. Soren Kierkegaard, perhaps the greatest modern proponent for the place of individuality in religion, spent much of his life critiquing the predominant impersonal to by Sunessrelationship Jones religion. He asserts that, when religion “is treated objectively the subject cannot relate in passion to the decision, least of all have a passionate interest that is 10 There is no approThis same faith, which infinite.” priate manner to treat reliforged our civilization in gion, a matter of one’s eternal the unity of Christendom happiness, but with infinite and passionate interest. How, through centuries past, then, can external authority continues to offer such a relate to the inward truth of Kierkegaard went joyful hope of the resur- religion? so far as to say “every direct rection against the mor- communication regarding is a misbid reign of nihilism. truth as inwardness understanding.”11 If religious truth cannot be spoken, how can it be taken on authority? Indeed, even if the church were as vibrant now as in the Middle Ages, what use would we have for any apostolic tradition or authority if truth must be individually accepted and not passed down? But there is another reason for the importance of authority in belief. Authority can warrant an emotional investment such that the passion of religion requires. Cardinal Newman provides a very human example of a child receiving a truth from his mother: “Her [a mother’s] veracity and authority is to him [the child] no abstract truth or item of general knowledge, but is bound up with that image and love of her person which is part of himself, and makes a direct claim on him for his summary assent to her general feelings.”12 Kierkegaard was right to call the inwardness of Christianity incommunicable, but a truth can be passed down without being directly communicated. A mother can raise her child Christian, and that child can passionately assimilate such an upbringing to his individuality. Presumably, the medieval peasant, for whom the church was inextricably tied to homeland, culture, art, family, and everything held dear, for that peasant church authority was not accepted without a personal investment of faith. We must not discount the faith of generations before us just because there was no religious alternative, since authority does not preclude the subjective interest of faith, but rather can stir the depths of pathos.
12 | Internalized Christian Authority
I was raised Christian. My morality, philosophy, aesthetic taste, and entire worldview is intrinsically tied to the religion imparted to me from childhood. I believe because I have assimilated these teachings to my person, but also because I love the authorities that passed down to me the Christian creed. I have an intensely emotional investment in the Christ’s Church, in that faith to which the saints held on more dearly than their very lives, their blood becoming the seed for the church.13 A faith in the infinite God having been made man encapsulates and exalts to divine drama the depths of angst, sorrow, and inexpressible longing for self-transcendent love and redemption. Christianity is so perfectly complementary to my human existence, such that, when the nearly enthymematic leap of faith is finally made, it appears more natural than even the most fundamental of inferences. This same faith, which forged our civilization in the unity of Christendom through centuries past, continues to offer such a joyful hope of the resurrection against the morbid reign of nihilism. Kierkegaard famously wrote, “Only the truth that builds up is truth for you.”14 The Christian Truth not only builds up, but it is that upon which our world has been built.
r
Endnotes 1. 2 Timothy 2:2. 2. 1 Corinthians 15:3 3. Augustine. City of God, Book XI, Chapter 3, Translated by Marcus Dods, From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 2, Edited by Philip Schaff, (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1887), Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight, <http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120111.htm>, Accessed Nov 17, 2016. 4. John Henry Cardinal Newman, An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent, (Assumption Press, 2013), 194. 5. Ibid., 64. 6. Edmund Burke, & L.G. Mitchell, Reflections on the Revolution in France, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 87. 7. Ibid., 88. 8. Newman, Grammar of Assent, 151. 9. Ibid., 247. 10. Soren Kierkegaard, Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments, Translated and Edited by Alastair Hannay, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 28. 11. Ibid., 208. 12. Newman, Grammar of Assent, 13. 13.Tertullian, Apology, Translated by S. Thelwall. From Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885), Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight, <http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0301.htm>, Accessed Nov 17, 2016. 14. Soren Kierkegaard, Kierkegaard’s Writings, IV, Part II: Either/ Or. Part II, Translated by Howard and Edna Hong. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988.
Practicing Gratitude by Joyce Ulrich Tompkins
“Every day is a god, each day is a god, and holi-
ness holds forth in time.” These words are from Annie Dillard’s slim jewel of a book, Holy the Firm. This image of the day itself as a god reminds me of the spiritual practice I return to most faithfully. It is the practice of gratitude. Gratitude: I practice it faithfully because I am not very good at it. The very idea of practice implies that we need to improve. “Practice makes perfect,” my mother used to say, as I toiled away at cursive handwriting or drooped dejectedly onto the piano stool. The very word reminded me that there was something else I’d rather be doing. Climbing a tree, reading a book, conversing with the cat, daydreaming. These were the things I was already very good at. I didn’t need to practice. In the spiritual life it seems the same. Gratitude is the heart of prayer. What to do if it is not my natural bent? I am prone to worry. I feel too much compassion for the suffering of others. I rail at God about injustice. The thoughts that assail me are a long list of things that need repair. Anyone who knows me even a little knows this about me. I am a blur of activity. I have my finger in too many pies. I feel responsible for the whole world. When I practice gratitude, these proclivities do not disappear., but they are filtered through a different lens. The overarching theme of the created world is good. Love itself is the warp and woof of life, even on the weariest days. There are tiny sparks everywhere that kindle wonder. Blessings surround me. If I can start out that way in the morning, I can circle back to that place of gratitude like a touchstone as the day wears on. At Holy Cross Monastery, the Great Silence lasts all night until the morning office at 7. The first word out of the monk’s mouth is the invitatory: “Lord, open our lips/ and our mouth shall proclaim your praise.” I watch Brother Randy make the sign of the cross over his own mouth as he chants these words. God is opening his mouth each morning with prayer. The day is born and bathed in God. I try to emulate this practice when I return home. I drag myself from sleep and say “thank you. ” Before my eyelids open. Before emails or Facebook messages or breaking news on my iPhone. Before coffee or the demands of the day. I don’t always remember. I am far from perfect. But I’m practicing, every day. r
Swarthmore Peripateo | 13
God’s Love and My Swattie Supplication
by Sawyer Lake
In our society we come into
contact with more and more people everyday. We are able to travel the world in a matter of hours. We are so easily connected to our friends, family, the Internet, etc. The everyday intake of information and molding of relationships makes it especially difficult for us to reflect on our values and beliefs on a day-to-day basis. However, in the midst of the rush, I believe each human being’s heart longs for something, a constant. Cities change over time. Friends and family pass away. You, yourself, inevitably change. We all long for something that will remain the same, something we know will always be there for us regardless of the time or the circumstance. In my life, that constant has always been God. My words constrain my ability to illustrate the joy in my heart, but I hope you will consider what I’m about to share with you. I do not wish to explain every aspect of Christianity or my experience with faith in full. The core message and the meaning of the Christian faith is what is so important for me to share with you because, to me, it is the only thing that matters during our time on Earth. In our society, I believe the core message of Christianity is overlooked and often forgotten. We have grown numb to the significance of Jesus’ name and the idea of God. Almost everyday I hear “Jesus Christ!” and “Oh my
God” on our campus, but they are often used without much thought. I wish to share the delight that I find in God, and the crucial gift Jesus offers to all those who long for an eternal promise, a promise that transcends any earthly message or relationship. In the Gospel of Matthew, one of the four books in the Bible that record the life of Jesus, God in the form of a human, Jesus proclaims, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that
My words constrain my ability to illustrate the joy in my heart, but I hope you will consider what I’m about to share with you. leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”1 These words are strong, but Jesus lays it out for us. There are so many other paths we could take in our life, and Jesus tells us that he is the way to eternal life, nothing and no one other than Jesus. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”2 His words motivate and provide a
14 | God’s Love and My Swattie Supplication
promising hope to those who wish to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus is this hope. He is God in the flesh. His words are comforting and he tells us this truth will forever reign. “Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.’ ”3 In the book of Mark, Jesus tells his followers, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength... Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”4 This message commands us to live and to be filled with the greatest love and joy. We are simply called to live in love, and God is love.5 Knowing the Creator of everything loves you, me, and everyone is almost unfathomable. It is baffling to think about. This immense amount of love I’m talking about was ultimately shown to us when Jesus Christ came down to Earth to sacrifice his life by being nailed to a cross so that we could all have eternal life with him in heaven. His sacrifice was necessary because of our sin (imperfections that separate us from our perfect God). Jesus lived a sinless life on Earth that made him the perfect sacrifice for him to bear all of humanity’s
sin, so all who believe in him are no longer held accountable for their sin. This sacrifice was perfect because it is the greatest act of love that exists, sacrificing everything to the point of death so that others may live. Jesus was entirely undeserving of his death because he was perfect; he had absolutely no sin. As a result, if we have faith in Jesus and if we truly believe that he is the way to life, we can be made perfect in God’s eyes because of what Jesus did for us. He showed us perfect love. This message can get very watered down for Christians who have grown up in the church since they were young, like myself, because they have heard it repeatedly their entire lives. It is important to remember the severity of the sacrifice and to listen to the teachings of Jesus, recorded in the Bible by a great number of people who knew Jesus and others who had heard, in great detail, the miraculous things he did. With this understanding, we are called to love and serve God with all of our heart and to love every single person as much as we can with the time we have now. We must put our faith in Jesus Christ. This is how we are made right with God.6 We have the honor and ability to serve others and give ourselves to him through faith. This is what many never come to understand about the Christian faith. To please God who has given us absolutely everything, this message must be held close to our hearts. Jesus’ teachings lay the pathway to a peace that we so desperately need. Regardless of the belief, it is natural and healthy to reassess and alter that belief. With the natural passing of time, we will have our experiences and sources of influence sculpt us and refine our thoughts. As a Christian, I am constantly challenged by other beliefs and it allows me to grow in my faith, through greater understanding of myself and consistent trust in God. With my faith, sometimes I feel there is no way God, the Creator of the universe, could possibly love me. I have no shame in feeling this way at points in my life, since it has challenged me and forced me to persevere. Of course it is okay to question your beliefs; it is necessary in order to have a better understanding of what you believe and why you believe it. For me, I find this especially true for any faith, belief or virtue. God has already made the decision to
love you. His consistency is reliable and has led me to surrender myself to him. My surrender is submission to his will and to his perfect love. Without him, I am nothing. I have turned my back on him, and I know I have done things that haven’t glorified him. However, his ability to love me through it all is amazing. This love was shown to humanity in a fleshly form when he sent his only son, Jesus, as a ransom for us and our wrong-doings. His beauty and majesty have been revealed to us through the glimpse that is our universe, but eternal life cannot be compared to our temporary, earthly life. We have a decision to make. This decision is ultimately the greatest you could ever make. Unlike other decisions, those involving a set of Unlike other decisions, beliefs are omnipresent. those involving a set of The ability to alter and beliefs are omnipresent. strengthen our beliefs at all times emphasizes the great opportunity we have now and the importance of our beliefs. God loves you. He created you. It is never too late to run to him. No matter how many times we mess up. No matter the number of times we turn our back on him. No earthly wrongdoing can inhibit God's ability to love us more than we'll ever deserve. I feel called to share these beliefs with you. I am not alone in sharing the gospel. There are many Christians all over the world who are out sharing this message, serving and bringing glory to God. Living in God’s love and reading the Bible bring so much joy to my life and they inspire me to love others more fully. If you give it a chance, open up a Bible and see how you feel when you read it. See if you hear God speaking to your heart. At worst, you may lose 30 minutes of your day. At best, you will reap an eternity of happiness, living in love and joy forever. r Endnotes 1. Matthew 7:13-14 2. John 14:6 3. Mark 8:34-35 4. Mark 12:30-31 5. 1 John 4:16 6. Romans 3:22
Swarthmore Peripateo | 15
Settling Insecurity in Faith
Insecurity is a demon. It’s a
lime-green, wickedly impish creature who wears the devil’s horns. It gnaws and it nags, it torments and terrorizes anyone who tolerates it. Insecurity stared into me with a manipulative grin as I considered taking a leap of faith in declaring Christianity. I met insecurity before I met Jesus. Nearly every Sunday morning since I was four years old, I had heard mighty murmurs of a savior and redeemer—but I had little concern for him at the time. I didn’t allow Jesus to introduce himself to me until I was fourteen or maybe fifteen. A person’s teenage years are arguably the most critical years in their faith development. Those are the years when a kid either accepts their faith as their own or steps far away from it, sometimes temporarily but possibly indefinitely. For me, those were the years when I stepped away from my faith in Christ when I allowed insecurity to take over. It began with insecurity about my theological proficiency that made me uncomfortable around my friends at youth group; but in the end, by God’s grace it was
Insecurity stared into me with a manipulative grin as I considered taking a leap of faith in declaring Christianity.
16 | Settling Insecurity in Faith
by Irene Tang
insecurity about my sense of friendship that brought me crawling back to the heart of worship. During my freshmen year of high school, my youth group pastor preached a series of messages on the topic of living by God’s will according to Scripture. The more of his messages I listened to and the more time I spent with my friends at church, the more I became self-conscious of my cluelessness when it came to theology. With (what I thought were) incredibly detailed text studies amusingly thrown in, I was lost in ability to understand the sermons. I was also surprised to hear my friends share in our small groups about the amount of time they devoted to prayer and devotionals in the mornings and evenings, which is something that was never practiced in my house. I started to feel like I was trying to break into a culture that I had little knowledge about, and so I decided that not showing up at church or youth group until I was all caught up would solve the problem. But, as expected, pushing myself away from church—the most powerful resource in seeking God—did not resolve my insecurities. My presence in church continued to fluctuate until I entered Swarthmore. Being in unfamiliar college territory, I was largely discouraged by the need to acclimate to a new set of faces every few days. I was searching for stability in these new friend-
ships, and I found this in the evangelical Christian group on campus. I was drawn into a Christian lifestyle that was more robust than one I had ever experienced. Over the course of the next few months, I came to terms with my inadequacy and began to seek the relationship with God that I had once pushed away out of insecurity. I learned that Christianity is not a systemized process. It does not suffice to categorize faith into levels of achievement, to see it as a master list of accomplishments to be checked off one at a time. Rather, faith matures with time, extemporaneously through guidance and teachings. When I looked at faith as a series of lesson plans that I needed to parse through, I led myself toward frustration and unknowingly distanced myself from God. What I did not understand as a highschooler is that time is less of a factor in salvation than the process it takes to get there. Yes, half a lifetime spent without God is unfortunate—but it is nothing compared to being able to spend eternity in his kingdom. Everyone takes a unique journey in coming to Jesus. Comparing myself to other people’s backgrounds was a poor choice that undermined the plans God set out for me. What a shame it would be to let earthly matters such as insecurity rob such a glory. My biggest roadblock was thinking that I wasn’t yet good enough to pursue a relationship with God. This unbelief of my
identity in Christ is exactly what separated me from him. As believers we are saved “not because of righteous things we had done, but because of [God’s] mercy” (Titus 3:5). Now that I realize that I am always playing on God’s court, I have confidence through my shortcomings because I know that God’s plans will most certainly play out. Everyone takes a unique I find it silly that I had journey in coming to Jesus... once thought I What a shame it would be could solve my problems by to let earthly matters such as running away, insecurity rob such a glory. as if one day I could wake up with a degree in theological studies without doing any work. What I should have done in the first place was to accept the environment that God gave me and work on growing closer to him from where I stood. Roadblocks are inevitable; but nothing should ever stand between a believer and their salvation. In fact, nothing ever could overpower a relationship with God, because God “wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). We want to make it our goal to grow closer to God, not push him away with every hesitancy we encounter. r
Swarthmore Peripateo | 17
Calvinism: Elitism or Humility? by Juhyae Kim
I have encountered many Christians who are saves and we can’t change that.” Unfortunately, some Christians do
skeptical of Calvinism and see it as an arrogant approach to salvation. Having been raised in a family and a church that holds strongly to Calvinism, I recognize that I am biased in favor of it. I also understand that there are many aspects of Calvinist doctrines that people have issues with and that I certainly don’t have defenses for. Even if I did, there would be plenty of strong, valid counterarguments for them. One such idea is the doctrine of Predestination. The controversial nature of this topic makes it something that many Christians are hesitant to talk about, and quite honestly, I often hesitate to breach the topic as well. That being said, I would like to address one common charge against the Doctrine of Predestination that I have often seen used in arguments. I do not wish to go into an argument for whether Predestination or Free-Will, both of which I will briefly describe below, is better, right, or wrong. Rather, I want to challenge the idea that Predestination is an elitist view of salvation that makes Christians unwilling to share the Gospel. Of course, not everyone makes this claim about the doctrine, and many still disagree with it for other reasons, but I hear it often enough to find it worth exploring. In its most minimal description, Predestination, also known as the Doctrine of Election, is the belief that God has already decided which humans will have the faith in him that allows them to be saved—ultimately making salvation God’s choice. The other approach, Free-Will, is the belief that humans choose whether or not to have faith in God—ultimately making salvation their choice. To be clear, the doctrine of Free-Will is not to be confused with the idea that humans have autonomy over their daily decisions. Both doctrines are about how one comes to faith, and Predestination does not say that humans are like robots, with their every choice being controlled by God. These are very simplified descriptions, and I explain them for the purpose of defining the terms I will be using. The argument against Predestination that I hear often is that the Christians who believe that God elects a group of people to have faith in him are arrogant. The two things that often follow are that 1) it makes these “chosen Christians” proud of being among the people that God selected to save, and that 2) it renders them unmotivated to spread the Gospel since “God will save who he
18 | Calvinism: Elitism or Humility?
live with this attitude. But I believe that both those who argue that Calvinism is elitist and those who live with that elitist attitude may be missing the point. To address the first point, the idea that an “elect” few are selected by God to be saved can make anyone, Christian or not, uncomfortable. But regardless, it should not lead to elitism. It should lead to the opposite: humility. Why? Because one did not deserve to be saved at all, but was saved anyway. If God really does predetermine who is going to heaven, it has absolutely nothing to do with the individual traits of the people, and they have no reason to think highly of themselves. It is because God is merciful that he decided to save people at all. There is no room for human arrogance and pride here—only room for acknowledging God’s sovereignty and thanking him for his mercy. Calvin acknowledges this in Book 3 of his Institutes for the Christian Religion: “The cause which [God] assigns for their deliverance is, ‘Because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them,’ (Deut. 4:37); or more explicitly in another chapter, ‘The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people: for ye were the fewest of all people: but because the Lord loved you, (Deut. 7:7, 8).”1 Both subscribers of Predestination and Free-Will can agree that no one deserves to live in heaven with God, but they are able to because God made it possible for them. Nothing that humans do makes them eligible to be saved—that would be works-based salvation, not salvation by God’s grace alone. Romans 3:20-24 also explains this succinctly: “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (emphasis added). The divide between the two approaches of Predestination and Free-Will happens when people discuss where this “faith in Jesus
Christ” comes from. Again, I will not be going into that discussion. The point is that Calvin’s defense for Predestination was never rooted in arrogance, but rather in humility and submission to what Scripture says. To address the second point of Calvinism causing people to be unmotivated to evangelize: if a person has not contributed in any way to their salvation, the appropriate response would be thankfulness and a desire to obey the commands of the God who gave them the opportunity to be saved. This obedience includes following Jesus’ command to spread his Word in all nations.2 Paul also gives motivation to evangelize in his letter to the Romans: “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’”3 He also refers to Christians as “Christ’s ambassadors,” who urge people to be reconciled with God, which is done through belief in the Gospel.4 No Christian, Calvinist or not, should sit back and expect God to suddenly convert a person who has never known the Bible or interacted with other Christians. From a Calvinistic perspective, God may have determined who will have faith and will not, but he still expects his children to help other people be exposed to Christianity and grow in their faith. Calvin himself clearly encouraged evangelism, and this becomes apparent upon examining his commentaries on Scripture.5 He claims, “It is enough for us to bear this only in mind, that the gospel does not fall like rain from the clouds, but is brought by the hands of men wherever it is sent from above.”6 He also says that though the Gospel is preached only by Christ’s command and authority, “[Christ] makes use of our exertions, and employs us as his instruments, for cultivating his field, so that He alone acts by us and in us.”7 If no one knows who God may have selected, Christians should put all the more effort into interacting with anyone who may not yet know God. Being a Calvinist does not change this duty. Each Christian was led to know God through some form of interaction with another human being on this earth, and all throughout the New Testament, the apostles and early Chris-
tians actively evangelized and discipled new followers. God invited those who believe in him to join him in his mission to expand his kingdom to the ends of the earth.8 So by no means should the belief in Predestination render Christians apathetic towards contributing to evangelism or missions. If anything, the gratefulness towards God’s decision to save them should spur them to share their beliefs more. Regardless of people’s personal convictions about Calvinism, all can agree that salvation by God’s grace alone and the need to spread the Gospel are Biblical truths. To me, the Doctrine of Election isn’t an elitist approach, but an approach full of humility where people surrender to the supremacy of God.9 Of course, this is not to say that people who don’t believe it are refusing to surrender to God. Nor am I saying that all people who identify as Calvinists live this out—the fact that so many people see Calvinism as elitist likely means that Calvinists around them express it that way. I simply mean to say that Calvin’s doctrines do not originally stem from an attitude of superiority, and a Biblical application of it would not be arrogance or complacency. There are, of course, other reasons to take issue with his beliefs, but claiming that they are arrogant is not one of them. r Endonotes 1. John Calvin. The Institutes of the Christian Religion. 3.21.5 2. Matthew 28:18-20 3. Romans 10:14-15 4. 1 Corinthians 5:20-21 5. Joel R. Beeke (2004). Calvin’s Evangelism. Mid-America Journal of Theology 15, 67-86 6. John Calvin. Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul to the Romans, trans. from the original Latin by the Rev. John Owen (Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1849) 7. John Calvin. Commentary on the Harmony of the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Vol. II, trans. from the original Latin, and collated with the author’s French version, by the Rev. William Pringle (Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1845) 8. Acts 1:7-8 9. Verses all throughout Scripture speak of God’s supremacy. A few to start are 1 Chronicles 29:10-12, I Isaiah 46, Psalm 135, Romans 9, 1 Timothy 6:13-15
Swarthmore Peripateo | 19
PERIPATEO CONTRIBUTORS AND STAFF Emily Audet ’18 Emily is an Arabic and History double major from Massachusetts. Michael is wrong: double fudge brownie is the best ice cream flavor ever.
Michael Broughton ’19 Michael is a sophomore from Detroit, Michigan with academic interests in Linguistics and Arabic. He firmly believes that chocolate chip ice cream is the best ice cream.
Ricky Conti ’19
Elizabeth Erler ’20
Ricky is a member of the baseball team here at Swar thmore. He, too, is a Catholic who hails from Southern California.
Elizabeth is a Massachusetts native. Her favorite place on campus is the Amphitheater, where she spends her hours counting the leaves after running long distances.
Emily Ferrari ’19 Emily is from Lancaster, Pennsylvania and is majoring in Biology and Psychology. She is not Amish, but she rides in a white 12-passenger van. Her preferred climate resembles a cave: dark, wet, and cold.
Juhyae Kim ’19 Juhyae is from St. Louis, MO and is majoring in Linguistics and Education. She misses her dog and spends too much time watching puppy videos online.
Sawyer Lake ’20
Nate Lamb ’17
Texan. Loves Frank Sinatra.
Nate is a minimalist.
Tobias Philip ’20
Heitor Santos ’17
He’s sometimes Socratic On rare days Sophistic Mostly unproblematic If a tad too Thomistic
Seje menas.
Irene Tang ’19 Irene is a sophomore from sunny California. She enjoys wandering around Sharples and dreams about living in the great outdoors. Irene likes to wear capes.
20 | Peripateo Staff and Contributors
Joyce Ulrich Tompkins Joyce is an Episcopal priest, mother, and campus chaplain at Swar thmore. Her chief claim to fame is having once memorized the names of all the Patristic heresies as well as the vegetable preferences of her children in alphabetical order.
Selah.
Pause. Breathe. Think of that.
Photo by Timothy Greco
סֶלָה
סֶלָה