Fall 2005 President’S Message
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FAITH l REASON l JUSTICE FALL 2005 www.eastern.edu PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE ............................................1 2005 Homecoming Queen Rebecca Kolb and King EASTERN AND THE ARTS John Chaffee Toward A Biblical View of the Arts....................2 The Beethoven Blessing......................................5 A New Division of Art Makers ..........................6 What Makes Music Spiritual? ............................8 HOMECOMING 2005 Turning Point is an Experience I’ll Never Forget..........................................11 ARTS ALUMNI..........................................................12 Men’s soccer coach and athletics development director CAMPUS COMMUNITY NEWS ..............................16 Mark Wagner cuts the ribbon Eastern’s First Close-up ....................................19 on the new turf athletic fields at St. Davids. ALUMNI NEWS........................................................20 ATHLETICS Erin Meredith ..................................................25 Fall Update ......................................................25 Cover: Students Christine Underwood (right), Julianna (Snyder) Mackie ’03 (left) and The Harold C. Howard Center ribbon-cutting in background J.D. Landis. ceremony with President David Black, Dr. Tony Campolo, SGA President Adam Brittin, Board Cover photo by D. J. Lee of Trustees Chair W. Donald Gough ’67, and Dr. Howard’s daughter, Carol Jackson. THE NEWS MAGAZINE OF EASTERN UNIVERSITY FALL 2005 EASTERN.EDU The News Magazine of Eastern University Fall 2005 Spirit is published by the Communications Office President’s Message Eastern University Ott Hall 1300 Eagle Road St. Davids, PA 19087 610-341-5930 — Executive Director Linda A. Olson (MEd) ‘96 This issue of Spirit shines the spotlight on the arts, which are thriving both here at Senior Graphic Designer the University and Seminary, and throughout the world where our alumni take their Staff Photographer Patti Singleton talents to tell stories that matter. The arts, in whatever creative direction they take, are Web Manager Graphic Designer an integral part of a Christian university education. We praise God as Isaiah Quincy Adam did, saying, "We are the clay, and you are the potter. We are all formed by your Production Coordinator Diana Hirtzel hand" (Isaiah 64:8-9). — Article suggestions At Eastern University we also regard each student as "God's masterpiece of art" should be sent to: Linda A. Olson (Eph. 2:10). Our mission is to help them grow not just academically, but also spiritually. 610-341-5930 e-mail: [email protected] Throughout their time with us, students are encouraged to express their love of God Alumni news should be sent to: and the redeeming message of Jesus Christ through song, dance, the written word, Susan Barnes ’99 Director of Alumni Relations 1-800-600-8057 theatre, artwork and instrumental music. There are a wide variety of performing e-mail: [email protected] groups to join for concerts both on and off campus, as well as the chance to make Mission Statement music or read poetry casually for friends at the Jammin' Java coffeehouse (or outside Spirit supports the mission of Eastern University to provide a Christian higher by the lakes if the spirit so moves you). education for those who will make a difference in the world through careers and personal service rooted in faith applied to academic disciplines. The news magazine I'd like to take this time to invite you to come and enjoy serves as a connection between the Eastern University campus community of students, our many student and faculty performances. Their faculty, staff and administration and its alumni, trustees, friends, donors, parents talent, training and enthusiasm will inspire you and neighbors. and uplift your spirits. And, as always, I thank © Copyright. Eastern University December 2005 All rights reserved you for your continuing support of our academic www.eastern.edu mission that integrates faith, reason and justice for all of our students. It is my sincere hope that our hard work will continue to earn your applause. Named to the Templeton Honor Roll Gratefully, for Character- Building Colleges David R. Black EASTERN.EDU FALL 2005 THE NEWS MAGAZINE OF EASTERN UNIVERSITY 1 TOWARD A BIBLICAL VIEW OF THE ARTS by Frank E. Gaebelein o take the Bible seriously, to submit Tourselves to its authority is not, as some seem to think, a hindrance to the For God is the Great Maker, practice and use of the arts. No, it’s a tremendous asset, because the single greatest influence on the arts has come the unique Creator. through Scripture; because in Scripture we have the great truths about man and God and the unending conflict and ten- And all other creative activity sion between good and evil that are at the well-springs of art; because Scripture gives the arts their greatest themes and derives from him. highest motivation. 2 THE NEWS MAGAZINE OF EASTERN UNIVERSITY FALL 2005 EASTERN.EDU It’s true that the church (and I’m using There in its own right, and also as it are not their own conscious deliberate the term broadly) has been ambivalent relates to its context in Genesis 2 and 3, is creation but an expression of God’s toward the arts. But history shows that the basic passage in the Bible relating to a thought. Only man consciously seeks there have been times when the church theology of the arts. It gives us the funda- over and over, and in some manner suc- and Christians have been influential mental insight into who we are as human ceeds, in making art in varying forms and supporters and encouragers of the arts. beings. As Eric Sauer said, “These words ways. Think of some of the prehistoric It’s not the church, however, that we’re declare our human vocation to rule and artifacts such as the Folsom points or thinking of now but the Bible. And here call us to a progressive growth in culture.” arrowheads, perfect in their functional we find no ambivalence to the arts in Embedded in them is the fact that culture, beauty. Or consider some of the cave themselves. Instead we find deep implica- of which the arts are such an integral part, paintings of the old stone age. Why, tions regarding them, for the Bible speaks is both God’s gift to us and our duty -- before man ever had the alphabet, he to us about who we are and about our yes, our duty. made art! aesthetic responsibility under God. But looking again at Genesis 1:26-29, But turn back to the repeated state- Moreover, we must never overlook the we see that the cultural mandate doesn’t ment in Genesis 1 that God saw that his fact, so often forgotten by Christians, that stand alone but goes back to who we are creative work was good and finally that God’s inspired Word is itself a supremely and how God made us. Positively the it was very good. Surely here the word great piece of art. greatest thing ever said of humanity is good has broad connotations of beauty. “What is man that you are mindful of that God made us in his image. Some contemporary artists and him…?” The answer to this question from So the image of God in us has its critics are inclined to downgrade the the 8th Psalm takes us back to the opening “creative” or “making” aspect. Obviously place of beauty in art. The cult of the pages of the Bible. this image, which is one of the most pro- ugly has its disciples. But Scripture links Then [i.e., after God’s creation of the found subjects in theology, is much more beauty to God and approves the beauti- heavens and the earth and the whole than that. For God is the Great Maker, ful. Moreover, by very definition aesthet- ics is the philosophy of beauty. The arts procession of life culminating in the higher the unique Creator. And all other creative activity derives from him. When we use can’t possibly be divorced from beauty. animals] God said, “Let us make man in the words create or creative of art or any The problem is that there are those, some our image, in our likeness, and let them other human endeavor, we must realize Christians among them, whose idea of rule over the fish of the sea and the birds that we are using them in an accommodat- beauty is just too small. It is not big of the air, over the livestock, over all the ed sense. Actually God is the only true enough to include the free use of disso- earth, and over all the creatures that move Creator. nance and atonality in music, or to go along the ground.” So we may agree with Keith Miller beyond what is merely pretty or decora- So God created man in his own image, when he says, “In a real sense I believe tive in painting, traditional in architecture, in the image of God he created him; male God is presented in the Christian revela- or blandly nice in poetry and literature. and female he created them. tion as more of a living and creative artist Beauty wears various faces. And when it than as a philosopher theologian.” It is in is authentic, it must, as Hans Rookmaker God blessed them and said to them, this authentic creative aspect of God, then, says, always be related to meaning and “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill that the arts find their deepest sanction. sense. And so, of course, the earth and subdue it. Rule over the Our capacity to make and enjoy art, to it must be related to truth. fish of the sea and the birds of the air and look at it and find it “good,”is a condition Like the Bible itself, beauty can be over every living creature that moves on of our very humanity.