OUR VISION Vox Clara is a journal of Christian thought. It seeks to provide a forum through which students of Stanford University can explore and discuss the meaning and role of religion in their lives. We believe this question is not adequately addressed in the Stanford community, and is a danger alluded to in Jane Stanford’s inscription on the north wall of Memorial Church:
tion. It is through Him that we interpret and understand the world around us. Using this journal, we seek to express to the Stanford community that religion is not a set of arbitrary rules and prohibitions, something that limits or takes away our freedom, creativity or indeed ability to live, but rather an affirmation that sheds light on everything, imbues it, vivifies it and redeems it all.
“There is no narrowing so deadly as the narrowing of man’s horizon of spiritual things. No worse evil could befall him in his course on earth than to lose sight of Heaven. And it is not civilization that can prevent this; it is not civilization that can compensate for it. No widening of science, no possession of abstract truth, can indemnify for an enfeebled hold on the highest and central truths of humanity. ‘What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?’”
We at Vox Clara have come together, each with our own experience and from different Christian traditions to more deeply explore how faith illuminates life, and how life enriches faith. And we invite all to join us in this important conversation.
For those of us at Vox Clara, spiritual truths are found in the person of Jesus Christ, the one and only Son of God, who became man, died and rose again for the salvation of all people. He is not a thing of the past, something simply referenced in the pages of the Holy Bible that we turn to once a week, but is the truth that pervades our entire lives, our hope in a world that is beyond human solu-
Simply put, we are trying to give an account for the hope that is within us - the hope that we cherish. We are engaging the university community as Christian scholars, artists, thinkers, workers, students, children, parents, lovers and sufferers. We do not wish to impose our belief, but propose our views to everyone at Stanford who is searching, just as we are; searching for meaning, for truth and for Love. And seeking collectively, we will speak with a clear voice and voyage together, elevating each others’ lives in the process. May the Spirit of freedom guide us.
VOX NOSTRA A note on our name
In the words of the Christian apologist C.S. Lewis, we think of Christianity that, “it is at her centre, where her truest children dwell, that each communion is really closest to every other in spirit, if not in doctrine. And this suggests that at the centre of each there is something, or a Someone, who against all divergences of belief, all differences of temperament, all memories of mutual 4
persecution, speaks with the same voice.” All of us at Vox Clara acknowledge this voice of Jesus Christ and believe that in this confusing, clamorous world, His voice is the only true voice, forming the foundation of our hope and strength. For this reason, we have chosen Vox Clara, a Latin phrase which translates as “clear voice,” as the name for this publication.