On My Mind – Lyle Dorsett

Twenty years ago, the Wheaton Alumni magazine began a series of articles in which Wheaton faculty told about their thinking, their research, or their favorite books and people. Former Professor of Christian Educational Ministries and Evangelism Lyle Dorsett (who taught at Wheaton from 1983-2005) was featured in the Winter 1993 issue.

When I was a teenager, the father of my best friend used to sing a song that included these lines:

……………Well I might have gone fishin’,
……………but I got to thinkin’ it over,
……………and the road to the river,
……………is a mighty long way.
……………It must be the season,
……………no rhyme or no reason,
……………just takin’ it easy,
……………it’s my lazy day.

Today my mind is filled with gratitude. Why? It could be the season. As I write, leaves of rich yellow, red, and golden hues are falling all over campus. The football Crusaders played again yesterday and won rather handily. Turkey, pumpkin, and cornstalk decorations adorn the offices and dormitories. ‘Tis the season to be thankful.

But my gratitude has a reason that goes much deeper and way beyond the season. It is tied up in being a part of the Wheaton College community.

Mary and I and our son, Michael, came to Wheaton from Colorado in the summer of 1983. Looking back over ten years here stirs my heart with gratitude. I am thankful for numerous things some far too personal to set forth here. On the other hand, there are several causes for gratitude that are on my mind, and I feel constrained to share them with the extended Wheaton College family.

First of all, I am grateful for colleagues on the faculty and staff–true brothers and sisters in Christ who encourage me, pray for and with me, bear my burdens, and hold me accountable. I am also thankful for those seldom-noticed heroes and heroines who keep the buildings so clean and the grounds well groomed.

Besides colleagues on the faculty and staff, students fill my heart with joy. I realize it is fashionable nowadays to bemoan the fall of America in particular the morals of our young people. Quite frankly, Mary and I–thanks to our Wheaton College experience–feel hopeful rather than concerned. In my office I have a large map of the world on the wall. This map is covered with red pins that pierce scores of cities and countries on every continent but Antarctica. Each pin represents a place where at least one, but often many, former students work in vocational missions and ministry.

I am grateful to God for raising up SO many students out of Wheaton College to work in the great harvest He has prepared. I am also grateful to these former students for responding to God’s call on their lives.

In addition to these who work directly with the harvest, there is another group of alumni that warm my spirit. These are the women and men who have not been called to serve in vocational ministry or missions, yet are giving sacrificially to support their friends who have been called to go. Mary and I feel a deep sense of gratitude to those people, who for one reason or another, have stayed at home but feel a marked sense of responsibility to assist their former classmates who are doing yeoman service on the front lines.

Recently, Mary and I have become deeply involved in a new mission agency, Christ for Children International, designed to minister to children in Latin America. CFCI has yet to celebrate its second birthday, but already there are eleven missionaries serving in two cities in Mexico. Of those eleven, ten are Wheaton College graduates. Because of our daily involvement with this agency, we have seen first-hand how Wheaton students and alumni are giving sacrificially to make this work possible. They also comprise a prayer network that has undergirded the work and enabled it to go forward.

Finally, I am grateful for the chapel services we hold three days each week. It is in chapel where we meet together and learn who needs prayer and a burden shared. Together we join to sing praises to our Lord Jesus Christ, for it was in his name that Wheaton College was built, and it is in his name that we go forth to advance his kingdom.

Yes, I am grateful. And much more than the season makes me this way.

———-
Lyle W. Dorsett received his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri and for several years taught in state and private universities. He came to Wheaton College in 1983 to become Director of the Marion E. Wade Center. He was involved with the Billy Graham Center’s Institute of Evangelism and in 1991 was appointed as Professor of Educational Ministries and Evangelism in the Christian Education & Educational Ministries department. He has also authored numerous books and articles including biographies of Billy Sunday, E.M. Bounds; Joy Davidman (wife of C.S. Lewis), D.L. Moody, and A.W. Tozer. Since 2005 he has been the Billy Graham Professor of Evangelism at Beeson Divinity School and Pastor at Christ the King Anglican Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

Army Specialized Training Program

John LaVine

John LaVine

Photo: Minnesota Historical Society

In mid-August 1942 Wheaton College experienced its first war-related blackout. At 10:30pm on August 12th alarms, whistles and air-raid sirens blew sending students to shelters below ground. The following summer 250 soldiers arrived on campus to begin Army Specialized Training Program 3672, otherwise known to everyone as ASTP. The program sought to meet the wartime demands for junior officers and soldiers by training skilled technicians and specialists. Headquartered in the old gymnasium (Adams Hall) the 20-dozen or so men were housed around campus and took their meals in the basement of Pierce Chapel. About a half-dozen faculty were involved in instructing these post-basic training soldiers. It was an interesting joining of forces in that Wheaton College did not adjust its lifestyle expectations for the soldiers while on campus. Due to the final pushes of the war and the need to replace fallen soldiers the program was cut back and was withdrawn from Wheaton in April of 1944.

One of the soldiers stationed at Wheaton for supplemental training was John LaVine. gathered by the Minnesota Historical Society, below are some of his recollections of his time at Wheaton.

“We finished our basic training…and was awaiting transfer to the Army Air Corps when my assignment to go to Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, came through, to the ASTP unit there, and David’s assignment came through to the same college, so we boarded the train with several others and proceeded to return to Chicago. From Chicago we took, I think it was, the North Shore Line, an electrified commuter railroad up to Wheaton, to the college, and reported in there. Were assigned our billets, which were in the college gymnasium, and that was where about 50 of us slept on Army bunks, in Army fashion. Wheaton College was kind of a nice assignment. Wheaton was a fashionable Chicago suburb. I believe it still is. Wheaton College was, I believe, a Methodist school — [it had a] religious affiliation, anyhow. It was a small liberal arts school. The city of Wheaton was “dry” because of its college and Methodist background, so we had to go into Chicago, for the action, and so that’s where we did go. I think we went into Chicago only a couple of times, probably down on Clark Street, and so forth.”

“We were at Wheaton — I think it was winter semester, and then it was quite an engineering and scientific-oriented curriculum– it was not a humanities — and I think I had an Algebra test, and Algebra, although I’d had some in high school, really wasn’t my forte, and I did engage in attempting that famous dictum, a parody of “Victory through Air Power”, the slogan during World War II. I was trying “Victory with Eye Power” on an examination and got caught. If they’d had any sense they’d have bounced me out of the program, but I ended up walking a penalty tour al a West Point. We didn’t have our own weapons at Wheaton College. They had had an ROTC on it, and they had, I think, old Civil War muskets, that they’d fill the barrels with lead, and I was issued one of those — which must have weighed about 40 pounds — to walk around with on my shoulder for a couple of days. By this time, the needs for soldiers was acute with the increasing activity in the European theatre and the imminence of the invasion there, and also in the South Pacific, so the Army decided that it could not afford the luxury of the ASTP program, and so the program was closed down after that one semester at Wheaton College, and we were then returned to real life. The entire unit was loaded onto a troop train in Chicago, destination Camp White, Oregon.”

 

What Wheaton College Did for Me: Norman Rohrer

Norman Rohrer’s recollection appeared in the March, 1966, edition of Alumni magazine. In addition to writing several books, he was Executive Secretary of the Evangelical Press Association.

God used Wheaton College to pull me off the road where I was wandering aimlessly and set me on a course of Christian service. When I stopped at Unit I Men’s Dorm in the summer of 1949 I intended only to spend the night and then be on my way to Alaska. Mr. Arthur Volle, then living in the dorm with his family, asked if I had come to go to school. I explained that, though I was 20 years old, I had no high school and couldn’t even think about college. But he didn’t give up. He invited me to take a series of aptitude tests which I did in the Wheaton Administration Office. At the end of that time I was given a letter which I took to York High School in Elmhurst, Illinois.

On the basis of that letter I was given five two-hour exams called the General Educational Development tests provided by the Armed Forces. I passed those on Friday, got my high school diploma for $4.58 and enrolled the following day for second semester Summer School at Wheaton College. I knew immediately what I wanted to do and went straight to the table marked “Writing.” This became my major. Each summer at Wheaton I traveled abroad in search of stories and experiences. From Wheaton I went to Grace Theological Seminary and earned the B.D. degree and from there into Christian journalism. Today I am a freelance writer serving 14 accounts among mission agencies and service organizations, including my post as executive secretary of the Evangelical Press Association.

I hand much of the credit to Wheaton College. Without its providential intervention I would no doubt have wound up in Alaska with little aim or purpose and of even less usefulness to the Lord. It’s easy to see why I can say, “Thank God for Wheaton College!”

On My Mind – Ruth Bamford

Twenty years ago, the Wheaton Alumni magazine began a series of articles in which Wheaton faculty told about their thinking, their research, or their favorite books and people. Former Dean of Students Ruth Bamford (who worked at Wheaton from 1970-1994) was featured in the December 1991/January 1992 issue.

Ruth BamfordOften I find myself thinking about how hard students at Wheaton work. It is no wonder they look forward to days off and holidays just like the rest of us. While their lives are often very exciting, they are also tough and tiring as well.

It’s like this: Most students have a part-time job. They spend anywhere from 4 to 30 hours a week at work. A full course load means 12 to 15 hours of lecture and lab in addition to the multiple hours spent preparing for daily written assignments, tests, and papers. Remember “all-nighters?” They are still a popular way for students to squeeze everything they can into the day and night. On top of all this, many students are involved in a weekly outreach or ministry, which takes all or part of an evening.

All this activity not being enough, most students place a high value on relationships and spend a lot of time talking, playing, praying, falling in love, and out, and making up!

Summer does not even bring relief from busy schedules. There are summer jobs to be had, summer youth programs to lead, and plans for life after college to be made.

Will there ever he a time in their lives when there is more opportunity for enriching experiences?

I am often asked how students have changed over the years.

Taking an outward glance, students today are much more affected by our culture than they have been in years past. Popular music and clothes fashions change every six months or so and are much more casual, Students’ dress fluctuates anywhere from conservative to funky or downright weird. Except for freshmen, most students have access to a car. Everyone has a favorite TV show.

Taking a deeper look, the “sins of the fathers” are affecting these young people. Some are torn emotionally as a result of divorce, abuse, and addiction within their families. They are also dealing with tough issues in the classroom and in their relationships including: environmental ethics, equality for women and minorities, hunger for two-thirds of our world, economic recession for most of the world, and popular views of sexuality that are ungodly. (For those of you interested in understanding how our popular culture has affected our youth, I recommend that you read Dancing in the Dark. (Schultze, Anker, Bratt, et.al. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991).

From an educational standpoint, students coming in today certainly know a great deal more of what is going on in the world than we did, and a significant number of them have been overseas. Computer literacy is as important today as knowledge of a foreign language. Students at Wheaton today are both bright and culturally aware.

They are also, however, much more individualistic. Except for required chapel services where we enjoy regular worship together, all-school events draw much smaller numbers than in years past. On the other hand, these students have a heart for God, and often put us to shame with their zeal for evangelism and their excitement for reaching out to those less fortunate than they are. An exception to the general rule: recently the Gospel Choir, 80 strong, led an evening of exciting worship with almost 2000 in attendance.

What do I think of today’s students? Frankly, I’m impressed. They are extremely creative and energetic. Granted, there are varying degrees of personal maturity, but overall their commitment to the Lordship of Christ is very strong.

They can be very critical of the way decisions are made. Many students would like to see the “no dancing” rule changed, but despite this, they show restraint, honesty, and thoughtfulness in how they approach this issue. They have good ideas, and expect to be treated with fairness and integrity.

Being an administrator has its ups and downs–mostly ups, however. We love these students. They are God’s gift to us, and to each other. We learn from them the idealism and hope that still believes that individuals and groups with commitment can make a difference in this world. They keep us on our toes as they question us and look to us for models of the ethics and commitment to the Lordship of Christ that we espouse.

———-

Following graduation from Wheaton, Ruth taught public school music in Detroit, Michigan. After earning her master’s degree in administrative services front Michigan State University, she accepted a position as counselor in charge of student activities at West Suburban Hospital School of Nursing. After ten years at West Sub, Ruth was invited by Dr. Henry Nelson, former vice president of student development, to become Associate Dean of Students at Wheaton College. For the last 19 years, Ruth has coached, supervised, trained, assisted, counseled, and befriended thousands of Wheaton College students.

Transcribing Nature

Sarah Nutting's art class, 1890

Dr. Charles Blanchard’s eloquent, undated address to a graduating art class demonstrates Wheaton College’s commitment to artistic endeavor solidly grounded in the principles of the Christian faith.

“Young ladies of the class graduating in art: I have been requested by your principal and yourselves to preside on this occasion, and to hand to you these testimonials of your patience, industry and ability in your chosen profession. It is with pleasure that I comply with your request. The artist is the transcriber of nature. In sculpture, graphic representation and colors, she reproduces the forms of beauty which in the heaven above and on the earth below God has provided for the enjoyment of his rational creatures. The artist, if her aim be lofty, her ambition pure from the taint of selfishness, is one of the world’s most highly honored workers. The names of Praxetiles, Zeuxis, Raphael, Angelo, Da Vinci, Rubens and Andora will, through all the ages to come, as through the ages past and in the living present, stand aside the names of those men who in military life or in council halls or in the sacred desks have been honored servants of God and honest workers among men. For you also there is a place not, perhaps, so prominent, but certainly as worthy in this great field of human life. That you will faithfully perform your appointed duty we have we have reason to hope from the manner in which you have for these years past walked before us, and handing to you as I do the diplomas of the institution, testifying your completion of the course which you have pursued, I do so with gladness and hope and wishes for your highest prosperity and widest usefulness.”

The inefficient gospel in an age of efficiency.

The Wheaton College Archives & Special Collections house the papers of noted sociologist and theologian Jacques Ellul. Though not all recognize the totality of Ellul’s ethics and writings, as the more secular fail to see the significance or importance of his theological writings, Ellul’s Christian works are key to understanding all of his other writings.

Jacques EllulEllul, born January 6, 1912 in Bordeaux, France, and grew up in a non-religious home. His mother was a devout Christian but in deference to Ellul’s father never discussed her faith with Ellul until after his own conversion. By his own description, his conversion was a violent one followed by years of struggling with his faith. After coming to peace with his faith and its call upon his life Ellul associated with the French Reformed Church, which he chose because it was weak and unorganized. Ellul always sought to side with the poor (in spirit, wealth, or other resources). Though he read Calvin it was Barth who appealed to Ellul. Another early influence upon Ellul’s Christianity was the Personalist Movement, which he helped found in France with Emmanuel Mounier. This movement stressed the reality, value and free will of persons. In conjunction with personalism, Immanuel Kant formed Ellul’s thoughts on the movement and Ellul claimed to have read the entire corpuses of Kant and Barth. Beside the poverty of his childhood, caused by his father’s unemployment, another influence upon Ellul was Karl Marx. Ellul believed that Marx accurately described the system under which Ellul’s world operated, but due to the influence of the Bible, and Jesus Christ as the hermeneutical key, he did not believe that Marx provided a suitable solution to the world’s ills.

Ellul’s most important work is considered to be The Technological Society (in French: La Technique, 1954). Other important writings are Propaganda (Propagandes, 1962) and The Political Illusion (L’Illusion politique, 1964). His works sought to provide readers with the ability to critique how they engage the modern world. One of the most significant critiques of our time, especially from a Christian perspective, would be upon the “cult of efficiency” that permeates our culture. It is Ellul’s more explicitly theological writings, the ones that round out the pictures provided in the more sociological titles listed above, such as The Meaning of the City, The Politics of God and the Politics of Man and The Presence of the Kingdom, which challenge the practices of our culture. We live in a culture that emphasizes efficiency and demands it from every task. However the Gospel is inefficient.

Our culture is concerned with its technological advances and our lives are measured by what we possess. The accessories of our lives speak volumes about what we and others find important as they speak to our wealth, freedom and ability to acquire resources easily. The history of civilizations tells of their wealth and might, even of the strength of its armies and the technology of warfare. However the history of God’s dealings with humanity — his acts of grace and mercy towards his creation — tell of a bulrush baby being rescued and furnace-cast followers being saved. God has a heavenly host at his command, yet he seeks and uses the weak and powerless. We see this in the story of Gideon who was from the smallest family in the weakest clan (Judges 6). Solomon extolled the Lord for his care for the weak and needy (Psalm 72). Ezekiel records the words of the Lord and tells us that God retrieves the strays, strengthens the weak and destroys the strong (Ezekiel 34). The Gospel is intertwined with these principles to the point that Paul revels in his own weaknesses (II Corinthians 12) as they serve as conduits of God’s grace.

Decades ago the writings of Jacques Ellul ominously reveal the problems of our efficient age. In his Technological Society Ellul clearly outlines the trajectory of society and what is so portentous is that he penned these words more than fifty years ago and we are still on that same trajectory and seeing the terminus out in front of us; the outcome that Ellul portrays is not inviting. In very rational fashion he articulates the logical conclusions of the choices humanity has made. He calls his readers to ask questions, like “what will this create?” prior to embarking upon a course of action or implementing a new process/technology.

Ellul died May 19, 1994 leaving a theological legacy that can be found in more than fifty books in French that were translated into English and eight other languages.

Emily Gardiner Neal

Agnostic journalist Emily Gardiner Neal did not intend to attend the Episcopal church that evening. Though Christianity offered a fine ethical code, she really had other things to do. But a friend needed a ride, so she stayed for the service. That night she observed congregants who seemed to be expecting something from God, whether an answer to prayer or a physical healing. In fact, the reality of the healings prompted her to investigate further. Studying case after case of Christians who received a recuperative touch from God, Neal was finally persuaded of its reality – though she had not yet converted to the faith. However, she observed a distinct inner luminosity flooding the faces of these humble believers. “It was my noting of this phenomena, again and again,” she writes, “which was to lead me to believe.” In other words, charismatic healings were a direct manifestation of the Holy Spirit. To her logical mind this was simply the evidence of a living God. Her move to faith was a gradual acceptance rather than a sudden, impulsive decision. With all her intellectual convictions satisfied, “I was ready at last to confess a living God and his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, who was sent to redeem the world.”

Now her career entered a new phase. She functioned not only as a reporter, but she occasionally taught in churches, addressing matters involving the healing ministry. Eventually Neal documented her experiences and reflections, penning such titles as A Reporter Finds God and God Can Heal You Now. Frequently invited to speak, she soon found herself on the other side of the rail, ministering God’s healing power through the laying on of hands. Her third title, The Lord is Our Healer, addresses questions sent by her readers. Her fourth book, In the Midst of Life, discusses the death of her husband and the meaning of death for Christian people. Her fifth, Where There’s Smoke, chronicles her experiences as a missioner during the troubled ’60s. Continuing her wide traveling, writing and speaking, Neal encouraged Christians of all denominations to regularly attend sacramental and healing opportunities through liturgical services. Not wanting to place undo emphasis on the miraculous, Neal urges, “…that the primary purpose and ultimate goal of these missions is not simply to achieve physical well-being, but to bring individuals to a closer relationship with God.”

In 1987 the Episcopal Healing Ministry was established, with Neal serving as its first president, declaring “…that the healing ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ may be taught, proclaimed and practiced under authority of the church universal throughout the world.” Emily Gardiner Neal died in 1989. Her papers (SC-197), are housed at Wheaton College Special Collections.

On My Mind – Lynn Cooper

Twenty years ago, the Wheaton Alumni magazine began a series of articles in which Wheaton faculty told about their thinking, their research, or their favorite books and people. Professor of Communication Lynn Cooper (who has taught at Wheaton since 1978) was featured in the Autumn 1993 issue.

One of the challenges facing educators today is the management of multicultural institutions. This summer I attended the Christian College Consortium conference on campus, along with staff from Bethel, Greenville, Taylor, and Trinity, to discuss strategies for implementing diversity in the curriculum. One often-overlooked strategy we discussed for fostering community in the midst of change was mentoring.

There’s nothing new or magical about the practice of mentoring. In Homer’s classic story, Mentor served as role model, counselor, and teacher to the young Telemachus, who became Mentor’s apprentice, disciple, and student. In modern terms, mentoring is a natural pairing between individuals. Mentors are older and experienced sponsors who take younger members of the organization under their wing and encourage as well as support their progress. The advantages of the mentoring experience is particularly important for both females and culturally diverse students who often face personal and social barriers to achievement.

While most of the research has focused on people in work organizations, the effects of mentoring and role models in learning environments are equally important. “Natural” mentoring which can develop between faculty and students provides opportunity for greater interaction and encourages intelligent, resourceful, and motivated students. However, the findings related to faculty who serve as mentors are varied and sometimes contradictory in terms of their importance to students. For a number of reasons, faculty will not always make the best mentors.

The trend in many colleges and universities is to use “planned” mentoring programs which incorporate faculty as well as alumni, staff, and administrators. Planned mentoring programs help students succeed while in school, focus academic and career goals, and get started once out of college.

Planned mentoring programs are especially valuable for culturally diverse students, Having opportunities to have someone edit papers, interpret institutional norms and jargon, or provide a respected opinion in situations requiring mediation increase the student’s chance for success. Implied in mentoring is a concerted effort to make our campus a place where students learn to emulate Christ. There is a commitment, not to a program, a principle, or a quota. Instead, mentoring implies a commitment to people and a desire to see them succeed.

At Columbia University, alumni are asked to serve as mentors at the beginning of the school year. The Alumni Office matches students and mentors according to their expressed preferences. Although the program lasts a year, the mentors and students decide how often they want to get together. The mentoring program at Lake Forest College matches alumni with students according to shared career interests. There is regular contact from the institution for feedback from participating students. Other than a kick-off and final celebration meeting, the mentor-student contacts are determined by the individual’s needs. At Bell Haven College, students are nominated by professors based on their Christian commitment, their G.P.A., and their need for guidance. The mentors must be successful Christian professionals from the community and local churches who volunteer to take on a protege in their field. This program lasts one semester and requires a minimum of four meetings.

My job as teacher is greatly enhanced by alumni who have been willing to serve as role models and mentors. This last year, my students were able to listen to Dan Balow ’78, Corinne Cruver ’92, Bill Seitz ’77, Ted Harro ’89, Kris Rubow ’89, Deborah Williams Duncan ’87, and Jane Nelson Hensel ’84, along with other visitors from the community. Sandi Londal ’92 and Virginia Blackwell M.A. ’92 arranged to have 29 students visit their corporate employer. Julie Schwemin Garnache ’90 took time to have dinner with a student considering a communications major. Tara Barnett Van Dyke ’91 interviewed graduates for job opportunities in urban ministry. Leslie Nunn ’87 provided another internship for a student, and Julie Lee Logan ’93 helped research the mentor programs reported in this article. There are so many others who have routinely answered questions and given information through the Career Development Center’s Alumni Network, fortuitous encounters, or personal pleas from college departments. Wheaton College is blessed with talented and generous alumni.

As Wheaton College strives to become a more diverse community we need to encourage these new representatives of Christ’s kingdom. Mentoring is effective in helping underrepresented individuals succeed in unfamiliar environments. An emphasis on interpersonal interaction, cooperative problem-solving, multicultural understanding, and institutional commitment creates a learning climate in which diversity is not only valued, but expected.

———-
Dr. Lynn Cooper has taught courses in public speaking, group dynamics, organizational communication, interpersonal communication, leadership, as well as, gender/diversity and communication during her tenure at Wheaton. Her professional interests include: applied communication research, managerial listening, decision-making and problem-solving, team building, and conflict management. Her research involves quantitative, qualitative, and applied communication research in the areas of organizational listening competency and small group dynamics.

Miss Julia

The following obituary for Miss Julia Blanchard and the accompanying eulogy from her funeral service, delivered by V.R. Edman, appear in the July/August, 1959, Wheaton Alumni magazine.

Julia E. BlanchardServing actively in the Wheaton College Library, Miss Julia Blanchard started in 1908 as assistant librarian, and then in 1915 was named Librarian. At the time of her retirement in 1948 she was made a professor emeritus and granted the honorary degree “Doctor of Letters” and appointed the College Archivist. Most Wheaton alumni, with the possible exception of those in recent classes, knew “Miss Julia,” as she was affectionately called by her host of friends. Julia Eleanor Blanchard was born in Wheaton, August 7, 1878. She was the daughter of Dr. Charles Albert Blanchard and Margaret Ellen Milligan Blanchard, and one of the five children of that happy family. She was the granddaughter of Dr. Jonathan Blanchard, the first president of Wheaton and her father served for more than forty years as the second president of the College. Until a few months prior to her death, “Miss Julia” made the old Blanchard House at 623 Howard Street her residence. She died May 6, 1959, at the Geneva Community Hospital where she had been confined during the last months of her illness. The funeral service for Miss Julia was held in the College Church of Christ, of which she had been an active member for many years. Though not planned that way, the funeral service was most appropriate for a librarian who for so many years handled and loved books. From the hymnbook organist Reginald Gerig played and Elbert Dresser sang the favorite hymns of Miss Julia. Her pastor, Dr. L.P. McClenny, read from God’s book portions of Scripture that were the foundation of her faith as well as a source of comfort to all attending. Her former pastor, now College chaplain, Dr. Evan Welsh, spoke beautifully of “The Book of Remembrance” (Malachi 3:16), of them who “feared the Lord and spake often to one another.” President Dr. V. Raymond Edman then brought his message of comfort and hope on “The End of the Chapter.” In another tribute, Prexy had this to say, “To us who knew her these many years, Miss Julia herself was like a splendid book: clear type, bond paper and the best contents.”

“The End of the Chapter” delivered by Dr. V. Raymond Edman

The conclusion of a chapter is not necessarily the ending of the book, unless it is the very best chapter. We have come to the first chapter in the history of the College with the homegoing of Julia Eleanor Blanchard. What a glorious chapter it has been, and how significant that it coincides with the dawning of our Centennial Year. The chapter began a hundred years ago in almost idyllic simplicity. Upon invitation from friends and from trustees of Illinois Institute, Jonathan Blanchard came to the little village of Wheaton on this wind-swept, relatively treeless prairie in 1859 to confer upon the founding of the College, which project was accomplished during the following year. This century-long chapter has been marked by struggles, by strength of character on the part of administration and faculty; and has been crowned with success. It has had its times of deep testing and tears but the outcome thereof has been triumph. There has been prayer with patience, faith with fortitude, consecration with courage, dedication in education with devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. Like the tall elms and the broad maples that adorn its campus, the College has put its roots deep into the heart of God and spread its branches far afield in the earth. The chapter of this century that now closes is spanned by the Blanchards: Jonathan who founded the College and led it for twenty-two years; Charles Albert who carried it forward in days of difficulty or delight for another forty-four years; and concludes with the passing of Miss Julia who had been our librarian for nearly half a century. Miss Julia was always a great delight and encouragement to me. Again and again she told me of her grandfather and father, and when I would report to her an answer to prayer for the College or the provision of new buildings she would say, “Father would be thankful to know the continued blessings of the Lord among us here.” If she were here I would want to say to her again: “Miss Julia, the Book which your grandfather and your father believed to be the Word of the living God, we still believe! The Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom they loved and served, we do still love and serve! The great essentials of the Christian faith as defined in our doctrinal platform we do believe wholeheartedly, and without any qualification or mental reservation! The vision of education that is thoroughly Christian which your grandfather and father had, we have, and will continue to make a reality to our children!”

The chapter of Wheaton’s first century closes, and a new one begins. It is our responsibility to read well what has been written in that chapter so that the one we write today and tomorrow, as our Lord tarries, will conform to what which we have learned from our Fathers. The Blanchards have written clearly and cogently, and at the passing of Miss Julia we reaffirm our faithfulness to the trust committed to us. So help us God!

On My Mind – Gerald Hawthorne

Twenty years ago, the Wheaton Alumni magazine began a series of articles in which Wheaton faculty told about their thinking, their research, or their favorite books and people. Professor of Greek Emeritus Gerald Hawthorne (who taught at Wheaton from 1953-1995) was featured in the June/July 1991 issue.

Gerald Hawthorne1951. Years ago, now. More than half the span of my life ago, to be exact. Certainly a very long time for one single idea to have been on my mind. But that is the case, nonetheless.

In the fall of 1951 a seed-thought dropped into the furrows of my mind. It germinated quickly, and sprouted somewhat prematurely in the form of my master’s thesis, “The Significance of the Holy Spirit in the Life of Christ,” submitted in 1954.

But my interest in this topic did not end when I handed my thesis over to the librarian, nor did it diminish with the passing of the years. Quite the contrary, its sturdy roots burrowed deep within my thinking; so that while I was busy doing other things, it was always there, taking shape as the years passed. My spare time for reading was taken up with books that focused on this topic. When I was not thinking about more immediate, more pressing matters, my mind turned without prompting to concentrate on this idea, striving to understand ever more fully why it was that the Spirit of God played such an important role in the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

The idea that has now come to full term, was at first frightening to me, and then exhilarating. Frightening, because it seemed foreign and “unorthodox.” Even the teaching of my church seemed to so emphasize the divinity of Jesus that it was difficult for me to think of him as genuinely human. Exhilarating, because I discovered a new understanding of and appreciation for the person of our Lord, as well as an ever-deepening gratitude to him. The New Testament writers, while never surrendering the truth of the divinity of Jesus, nevertheless championed the reality of his humanity. Thus, whatever else one may say about Jesus (that he was divine, the eternal Son, God incarnate), it is also necessary for that person to say that Jesus was a human being in the fullest sense of this term, lacking nothing that makes a person human, with the exception of sin.

But how can this be? How can one he God and human simultaneously–fully God and fully human? The answer I have been driven to by the force of the New Testament evidence is this: without giving up any attribute of divinity, the eternal Son, before time began, in obedience to the Father, made a conscious decision to completely “encapsulate” his divinity within the confines of humanity. With his birth in Bethlehem, he began life precisely as any other human being begins life.

I now see that–although Jesus was indeed unique, extraordinary, God become human–in the incarnation he did not know what he knew, think what he thought, teach what he taught, say what he said, or do what he did by virtue of his own inherent divinity. Rather, he did so as a genuine human being, one filled unstintingly with and empowered by the Holy Spirit to think and speak and act as he did. The Spirit, the wonderful gift of the Father, was at work in every phase of the life of Jesus–creating his body from the substance of Mary, giving him gifts and graces that protected him and provided for him in the years of his boyhood and youth, enlightening his mind so that he might understand his unique relationship with the Father and his special mission in life, filling him at his baptism, leading him into the arena of conflict with the devil and assisting him in overcoming that adversary, guiding him throughout his life, enabling him to preach and teach with authority, infusing him with the power to do his mighty works, strengthening him to face and accept his own mortality, being powerfully present with him in his death, and working mightily in raising him from the dead.

Now if this is so, then Jesus is not only our Savior, our Lord to be worshiped and adored; he is also our example to be followed. The penultimate (if not the ultimate) significance of the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus was to demonstrate clearly what God is able to do through a human being wholly yielded to his Spirit. The Spirit that Jesus depended on throughout his entire life to enable him to burst the boundaries of his human limitations, the Spirit that helped Jesus to overcome temptations, that strengthened him in weakness, that aided him in the hard job of taking on himself the hurts of the hurting, that infused him with a power to accomplish the impossible, that brought him through death and into resurrected life, is the very same Spirit that Jesus now freely shares with those who in faith and love choose to follow him today (John 20:22; Acts 1:8; Rom. 8:9-11).

This idea has revolutionized my too-limited way of thinking about Jesus. It has also been a life-changing idea, showing me that the Holy Spirit is present and active today, not to make life rich and comfortable for me, hut to equip me so that I might fulfill God’s mission for me in the world–a mission of helping, serving, healing, restoring, giving, and loving. A mission of binding up the broken, of being just and striving for justice, of proclaiming the good news that God is King, and that he has acted to save and transform people in and through the life, death, and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ.

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Dr. Gerald F. Hawthorne was a professor of Greek at Wheaton College for 42 years. Having received his bachelor’s degree in Greek and his master’s degree in theology from Wheaton, he earned his doctorate from the Department of New Testament and Early Christian Literature at the University of Chicago in 1969. He and his wife Jane Elliot Hawthorne ’53 have three children, all of whom are Wheaton graduates. He is the author of or contributor to several books, including Philippians, in the Word Biblical Commentary Series; Current Issues in Biblical and Patristic Interpretation: Studies in Honor of Merrill C. Tenney; and The Presence and the Power: The Significance of the Holy Spirit in the Life and Ministry of Jesus (Word, 1991). Gerald Hawthorne died on August 4, 2010.