I am officially finished with school and it hasn't sunk in yet. Nice ...

I graduate from Goshen College today. After a long and winding road, I'm finally (ceremoniously, at least) finishing this chapter of my life.

I started my college career at Dordt College right after I graduated high school in 1997. But, after failing almost every class I took the first semester of my sophomore year, I decided I should probably take a break to figure out why I was going to college.

The break ended up being four years, during which time I worked as a freelance graphic designer around Chicago.

Despite attempts to go back to Dordt and an attempt to move across the country to George Fox University in Portland, Oregon, we instead ended up starting a nonprofit, running out of money and moving to Michigan as a result.

And that's how I ended up at Goshen (in Goshen, Indiana); it was close enough to where we were living in Three Rivers that I could commute. Thankfully, our friend Bri had decided to go to Goshen as well, meaning we could carpool together. She is also graduating today.

So there's the story without embellishment, in case you wanted to know. I'll put a promotional pitch in for Goshen later. Right now I have to get ready to go ...

Tomorrow morning, I'll be hopping in a 15-passenger van with several other Goshen College folks to drive approximately 800 miles to Bethel College in North Newton, Kansas, for the annual Intercollegiate Peace Fellowship (ICPF) gathering. This year's theme is "Reaching Across Boundaries Through Dialogue" and the keynote speaker is Sojourner's editor Jim Wallis.

The conference hopes to specifically address domestic divisions, making Mr. Wallis an ideal choice. His recent book, God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It, deals with a popular topic for Wallis, namely getting the left and right in the United States to work together in an effort to protect and provide necessities for the poor and dispossessed.

While I'm looking forward to the conference, I have to admit that I'm not too eager to travel 12-13 hours in a van (both tomorrow and Sunday). I love ground travel (particularly when I'm driving), but vans and buses don't sit well with me. My travel companions should make the trip easier to stomach, though.

My presentation on Saturday went well and, as a result, I've been asked to write a series of columns for Goshen College's newspaper, The Record, on cultural engagement. I'm excited for the opportunity, but I think I should tone down the explicit Neocalvinist rhetoric while still getting across the strengths of the tradition.

I've posted the entire paper below; I hope I've accurately represented both Neocalvinism and Wink.

Tomorrow, I'll be presenting a paper titled "Engaging the World: The Intersection of Neocalvinism and Walter Wink" at Goshen College's undergraduate research symposium. The presentation is based on a comparative book review I wrote last semester comparing and contrasting Walter Wink's Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination with the the Neocalvinist theology of creation, fall and redemption.

Wink uses a creation, fall, redemption model in his analysis of the Powers, which he identifies as "the spirituality of institutions" and "their outer manifestations." Having so defined principlaties and powers--instead of as merely disembodied spirits, ala Frank Peretti--Wink holds that structures and systems rebelling against their divine vocations is evidence of the demonic. He uses the term "Domination System" to describe what happens "when an entire network of Powers becomes integrated around idolatrous values." He goes on to argue:

Any attempt to transform a social system without addressing both its spirituality and its outer forms is doomed to failure. Only by confronting the spirituality of an institution and its concretions can the total entity be transformed, and that requires a kind of spiritual discernment and praxis that the materialistic ethos in which we live knows nothing about.

His primary thesis, then, is that the Powers are good, the Powers are fallen and the Powers must be redeemed.

In their different approaches to creation, fall, redemption, Walter Wink and Neocalvinists bring different theological strengths to the table. I'll be exploring these in my paper (which I still need to finish!) and posting them here when available.

well, i finished off my semester this morning. seven down, one to go. now to get caught up on all of the other things i need to do ...

I'm finally getting around to thinking about my senior paper, the culmination (of sorts) of my learning in the Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies department at Goshen College.

My thesis, so far, is that peace work needs to start on the local level in community before it can be effective on a larger scale. I hope to argue that by developing right relationships in our communities through institutions (civic society) we can foster the redemptive work of the Spirit, thereby leading to redemptive systemic change.

I realize the idea is a little nebulous; hopefully I can pull everything together that's whizzing around my head. Here's the beginning of the book list I'm working with:

• The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons and other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community by Ray Oldenburg


• Celebrating the Third Place: Inspiring Stories about the "Great Good Places" at the Heart of Our Communities edited by Ray Oldenburg


• Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert D. Putnam


• Sex, Economy, Freedom and Community by Wendell Berry


• Civic Revolutionaries: Igniting the Passion for Change in America's Communities by Douglas Henton, John Melville and Kim Walesh


• Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream by Andres Duany, Elixabeth Plater-Zyberk and Jeff Speck


• Sidewalks in the Kingdom: New Urbanism and the Christian Faith by Eric O. Jacobsen


• The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People by Jonathan Schell


• Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination by Walter Wink


• In the Fields of the Lord: A Calvin Seerveld Reader edited by Craig Bartholomew


• The Calvinistic Concept of Culture by Henry Van Til

I'm not sure if anything here sparks a connection to other materials, but I'd be interested if you have any other relevant resources.

after writing the last blog entry during lunch yesterday about how thursdays are usually miserable for me, i proceeded to have quite a wonderful thursday.

first, i spent a few hours with fellow peace, justice and conflict studies majors, discussing some of the recurring themes from our junior seminar class (yes, i'm taking junior seminar as a senior): the honor/shame system, redeemable powers, liberal/conservative political idolatry, etc. i can't believe how often we get into really deep theological discussions in class; it's been a really rewarding semester so far.

then i ran into alyssa, kirstin's sister (a freshman at goshen), studying on the lawn outside of the union building and talked to her for about an hour.

all in all, an enjoyable day.

more great stuff from volf, whom i mentioned a few entries ago, this time specifically regarding a Christian approach to culture (how appropriate!):

"Our coziness with the surrounding culture has made us so blind to many of its evils that instead of calling them into question, we offer our own versions of them--in God's name and with a good conscience."

and this . . .

"The proper distance from a culture does not take Christians out of that culture. Christians are not the insiders who have taken flight to the new 'Christian culture' and become outsiders to their own culture; rather when they have responded to the call of the Gospel they have stepped, as it were, with one foot outside their own culture while with the other remaining firmly planted in it."

this book is really good.

i'm reading miroslav volf's Exclusion & Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness and Reconciliation for a class at goshen and, even though i've only read the introduction, i'm already terribly excited about the book.

when determining who we are as christians, volf posits that we must keep the cross at the center. it is a deceptively simple idea. at one point, he quotes from The Real Jesus by luke timothy johnson as johnson is exploring the gospel accounts and the "one essential aspect of the identity and mission of Jesus" they all point to:

Their fundamental focus is not on Jesus' wondrous deeds nor on his wise words. Their shared focus is on the character of his life and death. They all reveal the same patterns of radical obedience to God and selfless love toward other people. All four Gospels also agree that discipleship is to follow the same messianic pattern. They do not emphasize the performance of certain deeds or the learning of certain doctrines. They insist on living according to the same pattern of life and death shown by Jesus.

but volf, who hails from croatia, does not shy away from the difficulty of such a task. he's not suggesting a simplistic "all you need is love" attitude.

he admits, rightly so, that in a world of violence, where Christ-like self-donation is often met with brutality, the symbol of the cross becomes a scandal. the scandal isn't the danger associated with self-donation, though, it is the abandonment. Christ cried out on the cross, "Why have you forsaken me?" which volf translates as "My God, My God, why did my radical obedience to your way lead to the pain and disgrace of the cross?"

when self-donation is met with violence, the act itself becomes a cry "before the dark face of God." the only conclusion is that the cross is a scandal.

and here's where it gets really interesting:

The first disciples followed and were scandalized. Yet they continued to tell the story of the cross, including the account of how they abandoned the Crucified. Why? Because precisely in the scandal, they have discovered a promise. In serving and giving themselves for others, in lamenting and protesting before the dark face of God, they found themselves in the company of the Crucified.

isn't that great stuff? i hope i've represented it accurately and i can't wait to read more.