Chaplain’s Reflection:

Athens, Elkins and Jerusalem

Robert McCutcheon, Chaplain and Professor of English

It strikes me as a student of the Bible that the Bible is surprisingly ambivalent toward study. A significant part of the Old Testament consists of “wisdom literature”; in theme and variation, the psalms and the proverbs praise learning and revile folly. Just as consistently, the New Testament challenges received wisdom. Although they call him “rabbi,” or teacher, Jesus seldom gives his disciples straightforward instruction, preferring to deal in paradox and parable so that, perhaps, they learn to rely on faith rather than intellect. In 1 Corinthians 1, Paul seems to rejoice that God has “made foolish the wisdom of the world.” Suspicion of learning extends into the early church. Like many of the so-called “mystery religions” that appeared around the opening of the common era, Christianity held that the believer ou mathein ti dein alla pathein ti—must not understand something but experience something. (You can see the play on the Greek words mathein / pathein in transliteration.) The African church father Tertullian gave this qualm its classic expression: Quid ergo Athenis et Hierosolymis? quid academiae et ecclesiae? What do Athens and Jerusalem—school and church—have to do with one another?

Our culture mirrors this tension within Christianity. What is the source, what is the value of truth? Twenty-first century America presents on the one hand all the world’s traditional religions and on the other the rival gospels of secularism and success. That is, pluralistic as a matter of demographic fact, society also advances doctrines of pluralism and relativism, the ideas that all religions are equally true—or equally illusory. In response, much of society and its schools sequesters religion, relegating it to the sphere of purely private opinion or confining it to one academic department among many. 

Against such a background of skepticism, ancient and modern, what could it mean today for an institution of learning to be church-related?

The Reformed tradition in which Davis & Elkins as a Presbyterian college is rooted flourished in a climate of Christian humanism, the view that learning and faith are not just compatible but inseparable. Its basis is scriptural: the vision of Psalm 8 that God has given humanity a unique place in creation and the portrait of a Jesus who valued human expression over legalities. With the assurance that God is the source of all truth, Reformation educators gleefully merged classical and Biblical learning for their students. John Calvin saw his Genevan Academy, founded in 1558, as a complement to the church. Human nature, like the church, was reformata, semper reformanda—reformed and always to be reformed. Art, culture, science are part of God’s good creation. The covenant agreement between Davis & Elkins College and the Presbytery of West Virginia affirms this harmony.

The Davis & Elkins College community reflects and embraces the variety of American society. The faculty handbook describes it as “Christian-based and comprising other religions.” Several faiths are represented among our faculty and student body; and there is room for rejection or suspension of faith, the agnosticism of the seeker. Accordingly, Davis & Elkins College embraces academic freedom. Alongside it though and even more important is the Christian liberty Paul set out in his letters, the freedom from legalism conferred by God’s grace. At Davis & Elkins College, students can, if they wish, question their beliefs from within, as the college supports them with spiritual resources such as regular worship services, a campus ministry and religion classes. In other words, at D&E faith is neither compulsory nor extraneous. Rather, students may grow in their spirit as they strengthen their intellect. At its best, Davis & Elkins nurtures faith in learning and learning in faith.

Dr. Robert McCutcheon

Chaplain

"Visible Prayer"

-Pastor's Column 4/9/11

 The Inter-Mountain