November Alumni Issue

NOVEMBER 1960 ALUMNI ISSUE Freshman Relatives of Alumni (See PaR'e 7) Springfield's 75 Year Heritage by Dr. Fred G. Bratton, Professor of Religion There is a certain magic in milestones as in the first cry of a new-horn hahy, the emoti.on the whole person - was the philosophy under of a commencement day, the moment of meaning in the marriage of man and wife, or the lying the distinctive curriculum of physical poignancy of a farewell. In such a milestone as this - the 75th anniversary of the college, education, health education, and recreation we are justified in taking more than routine notice of our heritage_ Today we have the oppor and youth leadership. This traditional, not tunity to look hack mOIlH'ntarily as we mount the crest of the wave to see where we have heen too self-conscious hut very real philosophy of and also, while on this high vantage point, hefore going down into the trough .of the waves the college identified itself with that part of again, to take measurt~ of our task, and finally, glancing toward the horizon, to mohilize our western thought which sees man as self energies and plan the voyage ahead. determininp;, evolving, emergent, as creator as well as creature, as capable of choice. Where The danger .of using the word "heritage" or other two men was to increase greatly as time man has heen devaluated and c.ondemned as "tradition" is that it hinds our minds to the went on. hopelessly corrupt, born in sin, and incapable of progress, it is because those who hold to past, and we allow this spirit whidl we call In many ways these three geniuses per such a view confuse man with men. It is the Springfield tradition to lw frozen into a sonify the three distinctive characteristics of particular form, to hecome a static thing. our tradition: S(:hweitzer, the humanitarian, easy to see man as sinful now with the world in turmoil. Rut human beings are unfinished "Here is our It'gacy," we seem to say: "let us dedicated to the realm of human values, the and are always in a state of change. They acknowledge it and he thankful." cOllcern and respect for the person, the in must p;o up or down. In some instances man The college is a changing, growing organism dividual: Einstein, the scientist, representinp; sinks to utter degradation and in others he and we cannot paus(~ t.oo long in sentimental t1w lif(~ of the intellect, the pursuit of truth; rises to moral heights. This is true of in ('ontemplation of the past. We must give our I farnaek, tlw theologian, representinp; the dividuals, groups, and cultures. Western man attention rather to til(' task of keeping that f('alm of religion, prophet of liberal Pr.otestant may destroy himself in the next fifty years and tradition alive and vital and adapting it to thought. These three connected worlds - the Spengler may turn out to be rip;ht but there changing times. The spirit must he kept in heart, the head, and the hand; spirit, mind, is no law from the beginning of time which tact hut its form can and must he changed. and body, typify man's search for reality at says that this has to he. There is always Wisdom consists in knowing what is perma its hight'st, namely the emotional dimension potential c.onstructive creativity in man that nently valuable and what is only of transient of faith in the ultimate goodness of things, may yet save him. Whatever happens, in worth, what is worth keeping f r.om the past the intelle(~tual search for wisdom, and the other words, is not cosmically predetermined and what should he dropped. Certain things humanitarian, .outgoing life of serviC'e to but is the result of human volition. If this from our heritage should he outgrown; other,;; others; and they also represent the spirit of were not so, man would not he man. should he retained and strengthened. Springfield College at its hest. The point is that man was not created. He What we mean hy the Springfield heritage was not given a definitive nature at a par is a certain point of view which faculty and Concern For Humanity ticular time in history and made a finished students held in common throughout those creation_ He has heen in the process .of cre early years. There was a c.ommon mental and Let us look at these in reverse order. At ation for a million years and is stilI creating spiritual outlook, an overall goal, a dominant the heart of the Springfield spirit is a con himself and being created into a more com attitude toward life, set in motion by the ('crn for humanity, a sensitive interest in plete heing. All the resources of se1f must he men who founded and moulded the college JH'ople, a respect for the rights and the free released and brought to hear on this creative in the first forty or fifty years. dom of the individual. This spirit of friendli transformation of heinp:, - psychological, One September day in 19N I had the un ness, democratic attitude, and frankness physical, sociological, cultural, and spiritual. forgettable experience of meeting in one existing among students and faculty has l\Ian has yet to find his fullness of life. Col afternoon within the space of two hours three always Iwen the first thing to impress the new lecth'ely this transformation can he achieved of the greatest personalities of our century: c.omer on the campus and undoubtedly has only hy a feeling of interdependence and Einstein, Schweitzer, and Harnack. I was in be('n ont' of the factors in the determination mutual trust: individually by the integration the process of matriculating at the University of some facuIty members to stay here. This of the person around life's highest values, hy of Berlin and it so happened that all three sinct'rity and openness, this mutual trust in recognizing the incompleteness and defects of of these men were in the same huilding at dealings between administration and staff was one's own life, and finally by committing one's the same time. The reputation of Adolf Har a qualitati\'(~ distinction that made tht' coBege nack as the most distinguis\wd tlH'ologian of what it was. self to that vocation that will develop life to its highest capacity. This is what Hockinp: tlw last one hundred years was weB estah Coupled with this respect for the needs of meant hy the meaning of God in human ex lished at that time hut the stature of the every person was the more important belief in tlw poll'ntiality of the individual, the belief perience_ Jasper, in his The Way 0/ Wisdom. calls it the Comprehensive, a change in the EditOl"s note: This articlc hy Dr. Frcd in personality as capahle of growth toward G. Bl'Iltton was fil'st ~ivcn ns an IIddl'CSS consciousness of our heing. Tillich also lit thc nnnual Faculty Institute in SClltem maturity, the possibility of the individual hCI·. It was also ~ivcn hy Dr. Bratton nt Hchieving his hest and most complete self. speaks of the "new being," and Buber of the thl' Alumni dinnel' at. Filii Homccoming on Oct. 29. It is wcll worth thc rending'. This emphasis on the primacy of the person- "I-Thou" experience. 2 It is this commitment to the creative interests of man is no less true bccause it has responsibility; he is there only to hand out principle that has underlain and animated the heen hetrayed. facts. It is at this point that O\ll' heritul!e at vocational life of Springfield College. Stu Evil times elicit two reaetions: one either Springfield College is indeed rich lWl'uuse it dents who enrolled, on the whole, were older reverts to the doctrine of depravity or, on the was blessed with lllen who he]ie"ed in the and more experienced and were committed to other hand, strengthens his faith in the plus factor and were 1I0ne-the-less intellec the same ends, a commitment which served to potential goodness of life. Which view is tually respectahle. They were truth-seekers unite them in a common spiritual outlook. calculated to help society in its present crisis? hut also had a certain prophetic stature. That end was to give one's self to the moral Those who hold that something can he done or In this search for trulh the Springfield Col struggle of mankind toward the improvement those who hold that nothing can be done? If lege professor operated on Ihe principle Ihat of human life. Those who moulded the in this liberal tradition of Schleiermacher, he could pursue that search and announce his tellectual climate of the college ranged them Troeltsch, Ritschl, and Harnack, of Bacon findings without let or hindrance from any selves on the side of this tradition, a tradition and Locke, 1\1 ill and Darwin, Condorcet and source. And it was a safe assumption, for which came from the Greeks, the Renaissance, Paine, James and Channing, Browning and academic freedom "'as more than a theory; the Enlightenment, and the J elTersonian Coleridge is to he abandoned in favor of the it was a 1i\'in~ reality. In that assumption period. The idea of the dignity, worth, and cult of unreason and the school of dispair, Springfield College was fulfilIin~ the ideal of potentiality of the individual person is the we may well ask: To what end education? a university - the privilege and the resIJonsi one point at which essential Christianity and If the philosophy of amelioration is rejected bi1ity of teaching truth.

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