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THE S T U DY C E NT E R
PAG E 1 S T H E ST U DY C E N T E R N E W S L E T T E R FA L L 2017
THIS ISSUE: TRADING SPACES
by Bill Wilder, page 3
THE IMPORTANCE OF “AND”
by Fitz Green, page 5
FALL 2017 EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS
page 6
GROWING A COMMUNITY, BUILDING A HOME
by Rachel Gaffin, page 8
NOTES FROM OUR LIBRARIAN
by Trish Owen, page 11
STUDY CENTER STAFF BILL WILDER
Executive Director bill@studycenter.net
RICK CAMPANELLI
Director of Graduate Ministries rick@studycenter.net
LANE COWIN
Director of Undergraduate Ministries for Women lane@studycenter.net
RACHEL GAFFIN
On the cover: Third year Chung Do Kim introduces himself to first year Walter Sharon prior to the Move-In Day Lunch 2017 student program in the Study Center library. (Photo by Brittany Fan.) Opposite Page, Left: The Study Center attic transformed into Jay’s office and lounge area for undergraduate men. Middle: Undergraduate ministries intern Kiki Konopnicki meets with Director of Undergraduate Ministries for Women Lane Cowin to prepare for the fall semester. Top Right: Director of Educational Ministries Fitz Green keeps his window curtains open to enjoy the treetop views from his new office. Bottom Right: Administrative and Communications Assistant Rachel Gaffin checks in with Bill Wilder in his freshly-painted office. (Photos by Lauchlan Davis.)
The Study Center newsletter is published for our friends and supporters. University Christian Ministries, Inc. (dba Center for Christian Study) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation EIN 51-0192618.
Administrative + Communications Assistant rachel@studycenter.net
FITZ GREEN
Director of Educational Ministries fitz@studycenter.net
JAY MCCABE
Director of Undergraduate Ministries for Men jay@studycenter.net
TRISH OWEN
Librarian trish@studycenter.net
NIKKI PERRIER
Development Manager nikki@studycenter.net
DEBBIE RODRIGUEZ
Homecomings Tailgate SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2017 Family and friends, gather for a round of the Good Ole Song at the Newsome family lot–East Lot #182. Details, map, and registration form available online: STUDYCENTER.NET/STUDY-CENTER-HOMECOMINGS-TAILGATE
Director of Finance debbie@studycenter.net
LISA ROHRER
Programs + Communications Manager lisa@studycenter.net
CARLY VANNESS
Hospitality + Facilities Coordinator carly@studycenter.net
AMY ZELL
Director of Counseling Resources amy@studycenter.net
WHO WE ARE We are a non-profit education and outreach ministry serving the University of Virginia and Charlottesville since 1976. We seek to serve Jesus Christ by fostering the serious consideration in the university environment of a biblical worldview, and by encouraging and facilitating wise discussion of the Truth in light of the challenges of contemporary culture.
CONTACT US
PAG E 2 S T H E ST U DY C E N T E R N E W S L E T T E R FA L L 2017
Phone: (434) 817-1050 Email: info@studycenter.net Website: www.studycenter.net Instagram: @studycenteruva Facebook: studycenteruva Twitter: @StudyCenterUVA
TRADING SPACES Bill Wilder Executive Director, bill@studycenter.net We always enjoy having parents and friends visit our house on Chancellor Street. I have to say, though, that the first week of August wasn’t optimal for a firsttime visit. Boxes, furniture, bookshelves, printers, and rugs cluttered the hallways, library, and main meeting room. Walls of one office boasted splotches of multicolored paint samples while the office next door was primed into a dizzying white-out. It could have been taken for an epic (if unseasonal) spring cleaning since nine offices and rooms were submitted to massive scrubbing, sorting, and disposing along the way. In actuality this maelstrom was an office version of musical chairs as the Study Center responded to the arrival (or prospect) of new staff members.
a treehouse. Now that he is located beside our busy library, Fitz enjoys more frequent run-ins with inquisitive students during the week. His transition means you’ll need to look elsewhere for the prayer room, too. It’s now located off the main meeting room, while the InterVarsity office previously in that spot is downstairs with the RUF office. There are still more changes, but I’ll leave a few for you to discover when you come by. Unlike the early-August pathfinders, though, you won’t have to weave your way through filing cabinets and paint supplies.
All this movement has been spurred on by transitions in Study Center staff over the past few months. To begin with, Shelly Pellish stepped down from her post as Director of Administration and Development last spring in order to pursue other vocational possibilities. As many of you know, Shelly had a tremendous impact on the Study Center—and not just When the dust cleared, everyone had a seat and almost ev- in development—over the course of her ministry here. eryone was in a different office. Both undergraduate ministries offices moved, with women’s ministry director, Lane Among other things, Shelly wished to make the Center an Cowin, making a cozy office at the top of the stairs and men’s ever-more welcoming and caring place for everyone who ministry director, Jay McCabe, transforming the attic into a entered our doors. One could point to the many hospitalbohemian office and hangout lounge for guys. Both Jay and ity events that she developed and expanded during her tenLane now have spaces more conducive for mentoring stu- ure here: the Move-In Day Lunches, Homecomings Tailgate, dents, and the transition has given them new energy going Family Weekend Reception, Exam Snacks, and Graduation into the fall semester. Day Lunch. She committed herself to well-appointed rooms in which to study or meet, plenty of coffee to drink, and a The Center’s educational ministries director, Fitz Green, bevy of interns working to set up, break down, clean, cook, also moved up in the world, ascending from his office in the organize, and otherwise manage a busy house, day in and basement to the leafy room off the third-floor library—the day out. She certainly demonstrated that kind of care in oak branches cloaking the windows turn it into something of her own office and schedule, which was almost always open PAG E 3 S T H E ST U DY C E N T E R N E W S L E T T E R FA L L 2017
for mentoring, counseling, and conversation for students. For all these contributions to our ministry and more, we’re grateful. We remain committed to honoring Shelly’s love for hospitality, so that our sharing of biblical truth always goes together with the kind of student care that she modeled so well. I’m glad to say that Shelly’s commitments have now become part of the fabric of our ministry at the Study Center. One benefit of the internship program that Shelly developed is the help it provides in filling our assistant or coordinator positions each year. Indeed, most of our assistants now come to us with former intern experience. This August we welcomed former Study Center intern Rachel Gaffin as our new Administrative and Communications Assistant. Rachel joined Carly Vanness—also a former intern (and resident)—who now enters her second year as the newly designated Hospitality and Facilities Coordinator. You may find both Carly and Rachel in my old office (at the foot of the attic stairs) on the second floor. That office is now enjoying more Christmas lights, brownies, and music than it ever has before. We also said a farewell to Larisa Aleksandrov, with thanks for her service as Engagement and Programs Assistant this past year, and bid Josh Oswald (another former intern) adieu after serving a year as Hospitality and Programs Assistant. Larisa and Josh coordinated some of our events, including the Alumni Reunion Reception and Graduation Day Lunches, and helped with much of our daily logistics. Larisa also worked on our communications and assisted with the class that I teach.
Move-In Day Lunch 2017 During UVA’s move-in weekend, we hosted our annual MoveIn Day Lunches and welcomed over 120 incoming students (plus their families) into our home for lunch, laughter, and opportunities to connect with the Christian community on Grounds. Here are some highlights from this twoday event!
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Finally, I am pleased to announce two new managers here at the Study Center. The addition of managers—a position between assistants and directors—to our staff team is a new structural development here at the Study Center and allows us to provide occasional longer-term staff opportunities for younger staff, including former interns and assistants. Lisa Rohrer, who has also been an intern, resident, and assistant here, is now our Programs and Communications Manager with overall responsibility for all our communications and many of our events. Nikki Perrier, another UVA alumna, also joined the staff at the beginning of September as our Development Manager. We’re delighted to have both of them on board in these new positions, though I will leave it to you to find their offices when you visit the Study Center. Fair warning: one will be much easier to find than the other! This is both an exciting and sobering time of transition at the Center for Christian Study. For the past seven years the Study Center has enjoyed a remarkable degree of consistency on staff, which indeed continues among our full-time directors. However, over the past year we have also said some hard good-byes and made some exciting additions to our team. We continue to be blessed by Rick Campanelli, who came on last year as our part-time Director of Graduate Ministries. Now we look forward to an academic year with Lisa, Nikki, Rachel, and Carly all in new positions providing some young and creative energy as they work together. With all that in mind, we hope that you’ll come by the Study Center as you’re able, do a bit of office sleuthing, and help us to welcome fully our newest members to the Center for Christian Study.
THE IMPORTANCE OF “AND” Fitz Green Director of Educational Ministries, fitz@studycenter.net Those who know me know that I’m an “and” kind of guy. I delight in linking words (usually in puns), people (when a grad student in engineering meets an undergrad considering the field, I’m happy), and ideas. That’s one of the many things I love about the Study Center’s ministry. We’re an “and” kind of place. We’re about the intersection of faith and learning. We describe our ministry as hospitality and Christian study. When we think about engaging culture, we think about affirmation and critique.
ists, or solely from scientists themselves. Rather, “scientism is busily, but largely surreptitiously, at work throughout practically the entire intellectual and cultural landscape.” Even though there are many other types of learning happening in a university, we can still tend to consider as “real” knowledge only what we can observe in nature, measure, and repeat through experimentation. We may include data-driven social science research in this, but what about politics and history, literature and art? Hutchinson makes the case that much of what we Another “and” we always return to is that of science know to be true we know because it is justified and and faith. It’s one of the most persistent conversa- rational, not because it is proven scientifically. tions in our kitchen. It’s the topic of our longestrunning small group, and we frequently address it This matters because Hutchinson—the scientist— in lectures. We haven’t taken it up in a major lecture insists that good learning is wide and broad. For since 2012, when John Lennox gave a talk entitled universities to flourish they need to value, pursue, “Has Science Buried God?” That was a full student- and teach this kind of knowledge, and not only what generation ago, and now a different set of students is repeatable, useful, or practical. It also matters asks the same set of questions: Are science and faith because Hutchinson—the Christian—believes that contradictory? How do I study science as a Chris- reality stretches beyond what we can see with our tian? Is it possible to be confident in what I believe eyes or measure with our instruments. Pointing to if it’s not “scientifically” verifiable? Hebrews 1:3 he notes, “God has not set the mechanism of the universe in motion independent of his That’s why we eagerly anticipate our Veritas Forum attention and gone on vacation… He continuously lecture this fall featuring Ian Hutchinson. Hutchin- sustains it by the word of his power.” We can believe son is Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering this precisely because we believe that Jesus was at MIT. In addition to the significant contributions raised from the dead, and this is no less true because he’s made to the field of nuclear fusion, he also lec- it is proven historically rather than scientifically. tures all over the country on the relationship between science and faith. Now here’s someone living There is much more to Hutchinson’s argument. our “and” vision for life. You can read his book, or you can attend the lecture this fall (or watch it afterward online). Yet for Hutchinson has written a book based on his expe- me the most compelling argument for the gospel is riences lecturing and thinking about questions of simply to hear a brilliant scientist at the top of his science and faith. In Monopolizing Knowledge, he ad- field stand up in front of hundreds of people and say dresses the way in which natural science is treated unabashedly, “I think that Christianity is true, and as the only “real” way of knowing something. This that’s why I follow Jesus.” There’s an “and” I love to error he labels “scientism.” The real danger he iden- hear. tifies comes not from a small cadre of radical athe-
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THEOLOGY OF CREATION
FIRST YEAR DINNER
WITH SIMON OLIVER OCTOBER 5 6:00–7:15 P.M.
SEPTEMBER 12 6:00–7:15 P.M.
THINKING GREEK WOMEN’S PANEL
OCTOBER 2 9:00 A.M.–5:00 P.M.
NOVEMBER 8 6:00–7:15 P.M.
SOUL SABBATH RETREAT
FIRST AND SECOND YEAR DINNER OCTOBER 10 6:00–7:15 P.M.
HOMECOMINGS TAILGATE OCTOBER 21 TWO HOURS BEFORE KICKOFF
FAMILY WEEKEND RECEPTION NOVEMBER 4 5:00–7:00 P.M.
THINKING GREEK MEN’S DISCUSSION
THIRD AND FOURTH YEAR DINNER
NOVEMBER 9 8:30–9:20 A.M.
NOVEMBER 28 6:00–7:15 P.M.
VERITAS FORUM: DOES SCIENCE HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS?
EXAM SNACKS
WITH IAN HUTCHINSON NOVEMBER 13 8:00 P.M.
PAG E 6 S T H E ST U DY C E N T E R N E W S L E T T E R FA L L 2017
DECEMBER 7–14 10:00 A.M., 1:00 P.M., 5:00 P.M.
A CHRISTIAN VIEW OF TIME WITH LANE COWIN EVERY OTHER FRIDAY (started 9/8) 2:30–3:30 P.M.
FAITH, REASON, AND SCIENCE WITH FITZ GREEN EVERY OTHER FRIDAY (started 9/8) 4:00–5:00 P.M.
ELZINGA RESIDENTIAL SCHOLARS PROGRAM AUGUST 2017–MAY 2018 Applications for 2018–19 available online. Early deadline: September 15 Regular Deadline: October 6
INTERNSHIP PROGRAM
AUGUST 2017–MAY 2018
Applications for 2018–19 available in the spring.
THE GOSPEL IN A PLURALIST SOCIETY WITH FITZ GREEN + ROBERT CUNNINGHAM (RUF) EVERY OTHER FRIDAY (started 9/8) 1:00–2:00 P.M.
MCCABE HOUSE BIBLE STUDY WITH JAY + HOLLY MCCABE THURSDAYS 7:30–9:00 P.M.
MEN’S BREAKFAST
WITH JAY MCCABE + JESSE ROSS WEDNESDAYS 8:30–9:20 A.M. WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP WITH LANE COWIN FRIDAYS 4:00–5:00 P.M.
WHY ARE THERE DENOMINATIONS? WITH FITZ GREEN + JAY MCCABE EVERY OTHER FRIDAY (started 9/1) 2:30–3:30 P.M.
Visit STUDYCENTER.NET for more information and lecture audio recordings. PAG E 7 S T H E ST U DY C E N T E R N E W S L E T T E R FA L L 2017
GROWING A COMMUNITY, BUILDING A HOME
Rachel Gaffin Administrative and Communications Assistant, rachel@studycenter.net
Each year, the Elzinga Residential Scholars Program (ERSP) invites eight male and twelve female undergraduate students to make themselves at home in the Study Center, with the men living in the basement apartment and the women in the Yellow House next door. Year after year, the structures of the program provide the foundation—rooted in the gospel of Christ—for authentic community to flourish. Here, returning residents Sarah Macris (CLAS ‘18) and Zack Rieman (CLAS ‘19) reflect on how rich conversation, Calvin and Hobbes, and the radical grace of the gospel have marked their past year in the program and brought them back for round two. Rachel Gaffin: The Elzinga Residential Scholars Program is often described as a place to live in community as you grow in your faith. How did each of your experiences growing up shape your understanding of the word “community”?
a homeschooler. I had a pretty structured understanding of home, and I came to school hoping to create a home and find people that would become a family. RG: When you two first came to UVA, where did you first look for community or a home? ZR: I went straight for Christian fellowships. Four people on my hall, including my roommate, joined the same Christian fellowship. Two of them were in my small group, so I had a community and home handed to me right there. I joined the Elzinga Residential Scholars Program because I had a taste of something good already and wanted more of it. I had seen community begin with those guys in my fellowship and I wanted to seek that out more intensely in this program. SM: During my first year, I made a lot of friends who were Christians and I felt really content. The summer after first year I worked at a summer camp where I saw that community was more than just friends who happened to be Christians, but actually friends pursuing Christ together. Coming back for second year, I had a hard time finding that same sense of pursuit alongside friends. That desire for friends seeking Jesus together led me to apply to the Elzinga Residential Scholars Program.
Sarah Macris: My dad is in the State Department, so we spent most of our time moving around. Honestly, I didn’t grow up having a tight community, and it’s some- RG: Can you tell me about your expectations going thing I’ve been seeking. I had a couple of close friends in into the program? Did those expectations match rehigh school, but I came into college looking forward to a ality? place and people to call home. ZR: The thing I was surprised by was the spontaneity. I Zack Rieman: I think the word “community” is pretty knew a lot of the guy residents before the program, but important, but I came into UVA thinking a lot more that actually wasn’t the center of the experience. People about the word “home,” especially coming into UVA as and things I didn’t even know to expect showed up in PAG E 8 S T H E ST U DY C E N T E R N E W S L E T T E R FA L L 2017
my life. For instance, God used Daniel [Durgavich], who with God and with his people but were doing it in difI only knew peripherally coming into the program, in ferent ways than me made me a more well-rounded ina super cool, spontaneous way. And this year, he’s my dividual. roommate. SM: There are so many more opportunities for vulnerRG: How does living in (or next door to) the Study ability when you live with others. I was affirmed but also Center affect those spontaneous relationships? challenged by others with regards to what they saw in me and what I saw in them. That was awesome. ZR: I would call the Study Center the heart of the Christian community at UVA. People come in and out from RG: Where did a lot of those conversations take different places, and there’s a real diversity of experi- place? ence here, so getting to live here—actually living in the center of that heart—is really great. Students can choose SM: They happened in the kitchen of the Yellow House. whether or not they want to take part in the Study Cen- We’d gather together and make dinner, or sit up late at ter, or how much they want to be involved, but to see night because we wanted a snack as we were studying. and watch and experience the beating of the commu“THERE ARE SO MANY MORE OPPORTUNITIES nity’s heart … that’s really special. FOR VULNERABILITY WHEN YOU LIVE WITH SM: Zack put that really well; I agree. The program exOTHERS. I WAS AFFIRMED BUT ALSO CHALceeded my expectations in so many ways that I didn’t LENGED BY OTHERS WITH REGARDS TO WHAT even know they could be exceeded. The Yellow House THEY SAW IN ME AND I SAW IN THEM. THAT girls really turned into my family. There was so much joy and security there. One of the things I valued about WAS AWESOME. ” being so close to the Study Center, too, was the chance to be loved by the staff and to love them as well. We would end up sitting around the table talking together for hours. It was usually a mix of three or four RG: How did the programming itself facilitate the of us girls, and always a different combination of the connection between the staff and the students? twelve of us. SM: Lane [Cowin] mentored me throughout the year, which was wonderful, and the “God and Vocation” class on Thursday nights was helpful because we got to interact with members of staff we wouldn’t otherwise know, like Bill [Wilder]. The girls also got a chance to interact more with Jay [McCabe]. Our scheduled time together over a meal every week was really significant and helpful. The structure of the program allows everyone to work within the structure and all be on the same page, which in turn allows for the creation of a more intimate community. It allows for security too because, if you see a person regularly, you know that your friendship will have opportunities to develop. There’s a freedom in drawing close and in letting go because you know you’re going to see them again so soon.
RG: What about the guys downstairs? What did your conversations look like?
ZR: I took a picture at one point that I felt epitomized the program: two books—Christian Theology: A Reader and Calvin and Hobbes—stacked on top of one another. There was deep thought and vulnerability when we talked about God and our lives, and simultaneously we shared ridiculousness and friendship and silliness. One of the guys would start incredible conversations in the common room of the basement as people wandered in and out. We talked about topics that were so varied: everything from God, to the relationship of justice and mercy and how that plays out in our lives, to racism and homosexuality—topics that are being talked about in our secular culture and our Christian culture. It was reRG: Tell me about how being a part of ERSP shaped ally special. your understanding of yourselves. SM: Yeah, that was something I really valued about this ZR: This program has been a way of discovering myself. program. It created space for spontaneous gatherings. Each of the guys last year had a different personality and For example, in the spring, we would have dinners folgrew up with different experiences, so getting to talk to lowed by conversations led by Jay and Lane about things them and do life with them pulled different sides out like race and homosexuality and ethnicity, and a lot of me and made them more visible. Living with a group of times the conversations would last longer than the of people who were trying to pursue close relationships scheduled time. There would be a group of us in the PAG E 9 S T H E ST U DY C E N T E R N E W S L E T T E R FA L L 2017
Study Center kitchen talking, and it was so cool to actually portunity to take what we learned last year as we make a new be able to listen to, learn from, and engage lovingly with one home in the group this year. another. ZR: To sum it up, people are the priority in this place. It’s so RG: Can you tell me how living in this community exciting to continue my relationships with the three returnshaped your understanding of the gospel? Is there any ing male residents. I also have to talk about being mentored facet of the gospel that is more clear after a year in the by Jay. The Study Center is really special because it’s run program? by people who are beyond our current life stage and have wisdom that our peers don’t have. Yet these older staff are ZR: I learned that the call of the gospel is a lot harder and a focusing on us—people who are in our life stages. There’s lot more radical than I ever imagined. I’m thinking right now something unique about that reality which Jay as the diof the grace and mercy that God showed us and that we’re rector of undergraduate ministries for men embodies. He’s called to show to others. A couple of the male residents went gone through almost everything that I can think of or talk to through really hard times living together, and some might him about, and he has a wisdom and history and experience even describe it as the hardest years of their lives. To watch to bring to bear on that. Plus he has spent his life hearing people go through that suffering, and to watch how we got stories of people like me and communicating with people in to bring grace and love into that, was important. We discov- my stage. It’s a really special relationship. ered a little bit more about what the gospel looks like, boots on the ground. SM: Yeah, both Lane and Jay have so much wisdom that we’re really blessed to hear. They both love the Lord so clearly and SM: I gained a greater understanding of what God’s love for tangibly, and they love their students so well. It’s a cool picus looks like as I grew to love and treasure my housemates. ture of Christ’s love for us. I would recommend anyone to If I had something that I needed to talk about or gain ad- apply to the program because, regardless of whether they vice for, people would lay down their time for me. The ways end up living here or not, the application process is still a we made space for each other, even though we had other really good opportunity for reflection and self-knowledge. demands on our time, was beautiful. And seeing the ways that others loved and treasured me, and how Lane loved and ZR: I’m trying to think of something that’s not cliché, but treasured us, gave me a greater picture of the way God de- so often things are cliché because they’re true. The residenlights in us. I mean, he genuinely likes us. He doesn’t just tial program is an amazing program that prioritizes God and love us in an abstract sense, but he genuinely likes us and his people, grows you by surrounding you with leaders and wants to know us. peers, and point you towards God. From there, you have a chance to do that for others. RG: Both of you are participating in the residential program again this year. What brought you back for round Sarah Macris (left) is a fourth year studying two? biology and religious SM: The Yellow House was one of the first spaces that felt like home at UVA, or anywhere, because of how much I moved around growing up. I wanted to continue that sense of home and to create that sense of home for others. There are three of us girls returning, and we have a wonderful op-
Every Job A Parable
RESOURCE SELECTIONS
FROM CENTER FOR CHRISTIAN STUDY STAFF PAG E 10 S T H E ST U DY C E N T E R N E W S L E T T E R FA L L 2017
John Van Sloten
By reflecting on God’s people as image-bearers, Van Sloten encourages readers that all work can reflect the character of God, and God has chosen to reveal himself to us through the work we do.
studies. Zack Rieman (right) is a third year from Arlington, Virginia, studying computer science. In addition to their involvement with the Center for Christian Study, both Sarah and Zack participate in InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at UVA.
Dream With Me: Race, Love, and the Struggle We Must Win John M. Perkins
Perkins, a Civil Rights activist from Mississsippi, reflects on the history of race in our country while looking hopefully toward racial reconciliation.
NOTES FROM OUR LIBRARIAN
Trish Owen Librarian, librarian@studycenter.net Visit CATALOG.STUDYCENTER.NET to search the Study Center library catalog.
“A UNIVERSITY IS JUST A GROUP OF BUILDINGS GATHERED AROUND A LIBRARY.” -SHELBY FOOTE
| While we might not go as far as Shelby Foote in applying these words to our Study Center and its library, there is a way in which the library we now have is truly central, both to the idea of Christian study implicit in our name and our vision statement, but also to the hospitality and welcome through which this idea is lived out at 128 Chancellor Street.
“THE WORLD IS QUIET HERE.” -LEMONY SNICKET
| In the midst of university life, two seemingly antithetical functions of the library coexist in complete harmony: that it is at the same time a place of quiet retreat and of radical challenge. The Study Center library is one of the most welcoming spaces in our building. Chairs and tables, power outlets, and a bank of computers all invite you to come in and partake. Enjoy the quiet space, drink in the panoramic view of the Blue Ridge mountains, pray, think deeply, and step out of the noise and busyness of life at a big university.
“BOOKS CAN BE DANGEROUS. THE BEST ONES SHOULD BE LABELED, ‘THIS COULD CHANGE YOUR LIFE’” -HELEN EXLEY | But tread carefully, because an essential element of the welcome you receive when you walk through the
library doors is in the books themselves as you are welcomed into the life of Truth. Reading can challenge and change you. These dangerous books—a collection of 12,000 volumes—range widely over many topics, but are all chosen to help those investigating and exploring the Truth of orthodox Christian belief. You can browse books on marriage or history or politics, theological works, doctrinal guides, volumes of poetry, works of Christian sociology, or novels woven together with themes of faith. You might find a devotional guide or even a Bible translated into Cherokee. There are shelves of commentaries delving into each book of the Bible, classic works such as those by Augustine, Calvin, and Barth, and also newer works by N.T. Wright and Tim Keller. You can take advantage of the Accordance Bible software on one of our desktop computers, and open yourself up to hundreds of illuminating texts for serious Bible study, accessible to all. Good books don’t get old, and old books which have stood the critique of time become very good indeed. As C.S. Lewis says in his essay “On Reading Old Books,” the only way to keep ourselves from the mental blindness which is characteristic of our time is to “keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds.” In the Study Center library we have a window open to the very best of four millennia of old books. And we are always acquiring new publications, collecting the best from theologians, historians, poets, and artists today. You will find all kinds of people in our library: students, Study Center staff, professors, community members, Grounds ministry leaders, and others. Take five minutes at the librarian’s desk or online to sign up as a patron, and check out a book or two to put in your backpack or on your bedside table.
“THE ENTRANCE OF YOUR WORD GIVES LIGHT” -PSALM 119:130
| In Psalm 119, the psalmist praises the Lord for the gift of his Word. At the Center for Christian Study we hope to promote “wise discussion of Truth in light of the challenges of contemporary culture,” so that we may bear witness to the truth of the gospel in the world. Therefore our library (and its books) exists as a lighthouse of help and guidance—sheltering but also challenging us to know the good news, share the good news, and constantly return to the good news of God’s definitive Word, proclaimed through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels Richard B. Hays
In this second Echoes of Scripture book, Hays shows how the four Gospels complement one another and beautifully tell of the fulfillment of Israel in Jesus Christ.
Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity Mark Noll
Divided into 13 manageable chapters, this is a great book for understanding major “turning points” and key players of Christian history.
Half the Church
Carolyn Custis James What does the Bible have to say about how women are to live in Christ and contribute to God’ kingdom given the challenges they may face today? This book seeks to answer this question. PAG E 11 S T H E ST U DY C E N T E R N E W S L E T T E R FA L L 2017
Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage PAID Charlottesville, Virginia Permit No. 144
Center for Christian Study 128 C H A N C E L LO R ST R E E T, C H A R LOT T E S V I L L E , VA 22903 (434) 817 - 10 5 0 W W W. ST U DYC E N T E R . N E T A D D R E SS S E R V I C E R E Q U E ST E D
Family Weekend Reception
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4 5:00–7:00 P.M.
Join us at the Study Center for hors d’oeuvres and refreshments before you head out to dinner or an a cappella concert with your family! This is a wonderful opportunity for parents to connect with Study Center staff as well as other families. Learn more at: STUDYCENTER.NET/FAMILY-WEEKEND-RECEPTION
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