Vox Clara - Winter '09

So that in Me you may have peace

Vol. II, Issue 2Winter 2009

President

James Plank ‘09

editor-in-Chief

Allen Huang ‘10

designer-in-Chief

Joey Klein ‘08

PubliC relations

Clara Caruthers ‘11

business

Kelly Fee ‘09 Christina Littler ‘10

seCtion editors

Grace Ahern ‘09 Tara Guarino ‘12 Samantha McGirr ‘11 Nic Reiner ‘10 Katie Turner ‘09

staff writers

Rachel Kelley ‘12 Hai-y Le ‘12 Jonathan Scrafford ‘09 Julie Smith ‘11 Heidi Thorsen ‘12

ProduCtion

Jessy Klima ‘09 Josiah Hall ‘09 Steven Puente ‘10 Greg Witmer ‘09 board of advisors

D.G. Elmore Steve Stenstrom Andrea Swaney

Our VisiOn

Letter frOm the editOr

Vain

the eVOLutiOn Of free WiLL

LabOring With gOd

seLf-determinatiOn in LOVe

reLigiOus PLuraLism: a neW era?

featured fruit: Peace

fictiOn: a sOLdier cOmmenting On Peace

POetry: driftWOOd Prayer

different schOOL, same gOd

fictiOn: abundant Life

the Peace Which transcends aLL understanding

histOry feature: PesPectiVes On Peace

freedOm summit

get inVOLVed

cLOsing thOughts

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23

26

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Allen Huang

Ethan Kung

Jonathan Scrafford

Guest Writer: Whitney Moret

José Bento

Julie Smith

Rachel Kelley

Madison Kawakami

Catie Lycurgus

Sara Snyder

David Carreon

Paul Kornfeld

Hai-y Le and Heidi Thorsen

Contents

Vox Clara, Vol. II, Issue 24

Our VisionVox 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: “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?’” 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 refer-enced 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 solution. 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.

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 en-riches faith. And we invite all to join us in this important conversation.

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; search-ing for meaning, for truth and for Love. And seeking collec-tively, 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 NostraA 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 Some-one, who against all divergences of belief, all differences of temperament, all memories of mutual 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 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.

Stanford Journal of Christian Thought 5

Letter from the EditorAllen Huang

Peace is inextricably linked to a social order that respects the rights and dignity of the person. When Pope Bene-dict XVI spoke before the UN General Assembly during his visit to New York, he said, “A vision of life firmly anchored in the religious dimension can help to achieve this, since recognition of the transcendent value of every man and woman favors conversion of the heart.”

What right does a religious figure have to suggest how to achieve peace in the world? Aren’t religions, and Christi-anity in particular, by nature exclusive in their claims to truth, and therefore not helpful in the journey towards tol-erance and harmony? The latter point has turned out to be the case too many times in history, but it doesn’t necessar-ily lead from the first. Think back to Mahatma Gandhi’s peaceful advocacy for India’s independence. Recall the Dalai Lama’s continuing work of promoting inter-religious dialogue. Within the Christian tradition, keep in mind Wil-liam Wilberforce’s campaign the stop slavery in the British Empire. Don’t forget the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his fight for civil rights. Remember the work of Mother Teresa of Calcutta in fighting poverty around the world. When religion stands up for the truth of the dignity of the person, tremendous strides are made in advancing civiliza-tion and purging it of imperfections.

The key to letting the religious dimension have an impact-ing place in the public square is to let inter-religious di-alogue flourish. If religious communities strive to be in dialogue in a culture that respects their voices, they will bring an ethical aspect to public issues that draws upon thousands of years of thought, purified through time by mistakes and struggles. All the different parts of society ought to be able to express its views and come together to a truth that respects the person.

Vox Clara has a voice to bring to the issues that concern the people of a place of learning. By our name, we do not

claim that this journal is the clear voice, but we believe that the person whom we follow, Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, has the clear voice that brings peace to our souls and societies. He is the ultimate peacemaker. Before we can make peace with each other and ourselves, we must make peace with the One who created us, and Christ is the one that does that for us.

For some Christian traditions, this season of Lent offers many moments to reflect on the work that Christ has done. It is a time for purity, sacrifice, and humility – values that deserve greater attention today. Through this period we especially reflect on his forty days in the desert and en-counter with the Devil. His struggle shows that peace is not something easily obtained, imposed from without. Rather it is born within, the fruit of love, sustained by sacrifice. In Jesus’ life this idea culminates in the drama of the Passion and triumph of Easter where we meet a Love more power-ful that Death.

Through his life, death, and resurrection, Christ made peace with the Creator on our behalf. And from this peace with the source of all life, we can begin to develop peace amongst ourselves, because we recognize our heavenly heritage. Created by Love himself, let us find glimpses of the divine in each other.

Vox Clara: a journal of Christian thought at StanfordP.O. Box 18658Stanford, CA 94309

www.voxclara.org | [email protected]

The quote on the cover is taken from John 16:33: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (NIV)

Cover Photo: Greg Witmer, “Algonquin”


VainEthan Kung

It is a fear lurking in everything we do, a fear lurking in life—at the end of the day, we are afraid to look back and see a big empty space of fruitless existence. It is the basis of disappointment. It is that subtle feeling of futility, when our time, efforts, and our very breaths all go to waste, and square one becomes much too familiar. You finally realize that you messed up, miscalculated, neglected, failed; another day, month, or year of wasted efforts have gone down the drain. You may remember standing there limp and exhausted, speechless and bare-naked as you crawl back to God to admit that you have nothing. Did that which you considered vain eventually bring you closer to Him?

***There once was a farmer who carried water from the well back to his house through a long deserted road every day. He carried the water in two buckets hung from the ends of a stick that he shouldered. The bucket he always carried on his left was a bit leaky, and upon his arrival home each day, there was only about half a bucketful left. He never thought much of it, and carried his water this way day after day, and year after year. At the end of his life, as the farmer laid in his bed and reflected on his days, it suddenly struck him— all these years, he had been wasting his efforts carrying a leaky bucket and spending all the extra labour in vain. In a slight bit of regret, he took one last look at the world he was about to leave, and noticed something very strange outside

the window. There was a narrow strip of beautiful flowers stunningly blooming all along one side of the deserted road. Walking through the road day after day with his leaky bucket on his left shoulder, he had been watering the soil everyday beneath that side of the road, and the flowers had been flourishing consequently throughout this time.

***Vain: adj. Not yielding the desired outcome; fruitless. The key word here is “desired outcome.” Everything that can occur “in vain” implies an associated lack of a “desired outcome.” Our definition of what is in vain directly ties to the ultimate goal of our actions. Everything that does not advance us towards that job or career we long for is considered “in vain,” when our desired outcome is professional success. The blood and sweat we spend feels like vain when our hard-fought endeavors go unappreciated, along with our inborn desired outcome of recognition. Or perhaps, that failed courtship feels like vain, because our efforts fall short of a lifelong romance that we yearn for. While all the aforementioned are healthy goals which can serve to point us towards God, Ecclesiastes clearly tells us that they simply do not have the capacity to serve as ends in themselves. “Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.”1 If we remember that, ultimately, our “desired outcome”

“...your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

-1 Corinthians 15:58


really rests nowhere under the sun, but only under God’s love and grace, we notice that the definition of what is “in vain” suddenly looks a lot different. In fact, nothing really happens in vain, because “our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases,”2 and what He wants is “to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross,”3 in order to bring “everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory”4 back to Himself. Consider it this way: Since we are created for His glory, and since God is glorified when His most beloved creations are brought back to Him, then everything, everything He allows in our lives eventually reconciles to serve this purpose. Whether it be joy or sorrow, success or failure, union or separation, each can serve to draw us back to Him in its own way. Maybe it reveals part of God’s character or sovereignty so we can better understand and fear Him. Maybe it resembles our relationship with God in some way, in order to present us glimpses of what it is like to be united with Him. Maybe it humbles us so we may be cleansed in His forgiveness. Or even maybe, it just reminds us of the critical thirst in our spirits so we would begin to look for water before we die. While it is certainly true that sin and suffering are against God’s will, He constantly turns them to serve His purpose. Recall the violent betrayal of Joseph by his brothers that led to a decade of his slavery: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”5 Consider Jesus’

comment on the seemingly pointless suffering of a man born blind: “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.”6 Even Job eventually learns that God had a purpose for his senseless life, with or without his understanding: “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. . . . Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.”7 However, while it might be easy to reflect upon biblical stories in hindsight, when it comes to our own lives, the idea can sometimes be difficult to recognize in our own lives. In a moment of doubt it can often feel like, “I tried, and I simply failed; how could this ever serve to reconcile anyone back to God?” Well, I don’t know, but consider this—neither did Joseph as he was sitting in the caravan on his way to Egypt after his own brothers beat him, left him for dead, and eventually sold him to the Ishmaelites in exchange for twenty shekels of silver. Neither did the blind man as he lived through decades of blindness before he met Jesus; neither did Job when he followed God devotedly his whole life, only to have afflictions come upon him like some sort of punishment. And certainly neither did the disciples when, after throwing their lives away to follow Jesus, only to see Him arrested and executed like a criminal on the cross. If we have learned anything from the scriptures, it is that God always has so much more planned for what may seem like momentary vanity, and so

the one thing we can do is always find peace in His sovereignty.

“Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”8

So really, what is in vain? The next time you feel discouraged and disappointed, try looking at things through the lens of God and evaluate them with the true values that He appoints for the grand scheme of His glory. As you remember God’s sovereignty and our ultimate goal of drawing near to Him, you may be pleasantly surprised by the peace that this truth offers. You will also see that no matter what it takes and how much it hurts, God will lovingly pursue us day after day, tirelessly forgive us day after day, and woo us home so that He will be glorified, and we too will be glorified because of Him, in Him.

***The farmer only saw the flowers. He never fully understood the abundance of life that the small oasis he had created along the road had sustained throughout the years.

References:1. Ecclesiastes 2:11 NIV 2. Psalms 115:3 NKJV3. Colossians 1:19-20 NASB4. Isaiah 43:7 NIV5. Gen 50:20 TNIV6. John 9:37. Job 42:28. 1 Corinthians 15:58 NIV

Ethan Kung is a Bioengineering graduate student. He is often doing useless things like climbing onto rooftops or catching wildlife.


The EvolutionJonathan Scrafford

Free will is a concept of central importance for most ordered societies, which are predicated on the assumption that humans are free beings capable of making choices by exercising individual free will. Christianity in particular places an emphasis on free will as an essential aspect of the human soul. In January, philosopher Daniel Dennett spoke at Stanford in a lecture entitled “The Evolution of ‘Why’ as the Key to Free Will” in an effort to explain the development and nature of free will without appealing to the supernatural. Dennett’s argument stemmed from reasonable premises and led to true conclusions; however, several flaws in his position indicated the importance of the supernatural as the true key to understanding human free will. In many cases, philosophers arrive at the wrong conclusions due to false premises rather than bad logic. To Dennett’s credit, he begins his argument with reasonable observations. First, he observes that humans are composed of “mindless robots” – proteins – which lack free will, and yet we can make choices: we are free, although our parts are not. Second, he takes as a premise the view of the scientific community that evolution through natural selection accounts for the development of the human body. While Christians believe that only divine intervention could

account for the creation of the human soul, neither of the above assumptions is contrary to faith, and both serve as useful points of reference for answering Dennett’s question: are the mind and free will derivable from living tissue by evolutionary processes? Dennett answers this question in the affirmative, arguing that in the course of evolution, a transition occurred which allowed nature to select not only on the basis of genes, but also by “memes,” which he describes as the basic units of ideas. Like genes, memes are self-replicating, as seen by the development of culture as a result of the transmission of ideas between generations. Dennett describes the human race as “apes infected with memes,” meaning that at some point,

the human brain became capable of representing ideas in the forms of words. Indeed, he describes words as the “virtual machines” which enable the mind to think. Dennett points to the notion of “why” (that is, reason and causality) as the principle source of free will. Whereas Darwin’s proverbial finches had reasons for the diversity of their beaks, such animals are incapable of representing those reasons. That

is, the finch cannot see its own place in evolution. Homo sapiens, Dennett argues, is the only species capable of representing its own reasons, and it is this self-understanding of “why,” he argues, that is the basis of our free will. In addition, Dennett concludes that humans do have free will, that morality does therefore exist, and that personal responsibility follows by necessity. To his credit, then, he does arrive at some true conclusions regarding human freedom and thus stands for such humanistic principles which are increasingly called into question by modern atheistic philosophers and materialistic scientists. Still, three flaws in his logic prevent his proposal from fully answering the question of free will, and they serve as a testament to the need for recognition of the supernatural for a comprehensive understanding of human freedom. First, the origin of memes remains a mystery. If we truly are “apes infected

with memes,” at what point in evolution did we acquire them? More importantly, if memes are the result strictly of evolution, what type of genetic mutation could arise to lead to this new trait which Dennett himself said during the lecture was beyond the merely genetic level? Just as Christians believe that divine intervention from a supernatural God sparked the origin of the human soul in the course of the natural development of

Dr. Daniel Dennett, professor of Philosophy at Tufts University, gave a lecture at Stanford on January 12th entitled “The Evolution of ‘Why’ as the Key to Free Will.” This article is a response to his presentation.

Can the mind and free will be derived from living tissue, solely by evolutionary processes?


the human body, we may also believe in Dennett’s notion of memes and simply recognize that the origin of memes occurred through divine intervention; in this way, the development of free will is supernaturally guided. Second, Dennett’s description of free will is incomplete. He defines the

human sense of freedom as our ability to see our place in evolution, recognize the reasons for the beautiful structures of our bodies, and understand our reasons for choosing certain actions. However, this explains only our perception of free will—not free will itself. That is, it is possible within Dennett’s model that humans do not have freedom, but are instead stuck in some Matrix-type state in which we are only along for the ride and can merely observe the rational nature of the courses our lives take. Using memes, we may be able to represent the reasons for our actions as we can represent the reasons that the

sky is blue, but that’s not free will: to understand the source and cause of the freedom itself demands a supernatural explanation, since causality is beyond the scope of material observation or mimetic representation. Finally, the implications of Dennett’s logic are dangerous. In particular,

if free will is strictly a product of evolution, then personal responsibility is impossible. If choices are simply a result of chemical reactions in the brain, how could someone be held responsible for the choices they make any more than they could be held responsible for the laws of physics which guide the reactions? Dennett attempted to deny this implication, insisting that “physics has nothing to do with free will; evolution is the key.” However, evolution in the scientific sense is entirely inseparable from physics. That is, evolution is based on biological patterns that are based on

chemical principles which are in turn based on the laws of physics. Therefore, unless Dennett is willing to admit a discontinuity from physics to chemistry to biology to evolution to free will, then “free will” is not free at all, but based on the laws of physics. Of course, Christians would put the discontinuity at the last

step, insisting that divine intervention, and not evolution alone, is necessary to account for human free will. During the lecture, Dennett at one point stated that “if the mind is a ‘skyhook,’ then free will must be a miracle.” In other words, if the mind is not entirely and solely grounded on evolution (or the laws of physics therein), then free will is only possible through a miracle. Christians embrace this notion, recognizing that human freedom is indeed a miracle; it is only through divine intervention that we have a human soul, only by God’s grace that we have free will.

Jonathan Scrafford is a senior from Wichita, Kansas, studying Biological Sci-ences and Spanish. He will get married to Diane Santos in June and will enter medical school next fall.

of Free Will

If choices are simply a result of chemical reactions in the brain, how could someone be held responsible for the result of the laws of physics?


Laboring with God:Praying the imaginary into real Shalom

WhitnEy MorEt

our heartbeat to his. In this moment, we can imagine shalom as reality and invite God to help us truly pray his will. The role of imagination as part of the power of faith is sometimes used as an argument against religion. In Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster quotes George Bernard Shaw’s play, Saint Joan, to illustrate that imagination is indeed just another way God created us to serve him. Foster writes, “Joan of Arc insisted that she heard voices which came from God. She was informed by skeptics that the voices came from her imagination. Unmoved Joan replied, ‘Yes, that is how God speaks to me’” (36). I came to Harbor House for two purposes. One, I was fulfilling a promise I made. Last spring, I went to Harbor House to volunteer there for three days on a service trip with my church fellowship, and I vowed to come back. Two, I chose Harbor House as a research site for my undergraduate thesis in sociology. My project involved the role of faith in the provision of services at faith-based organizations, and I wanted to witness it firsthand. I spent two weeks in January at Harbor House, volunteering with the kids’ program and conducting interviews with staff, clients, and volunteers. My findings were more than academically fruitful. I had been waiting for God to speak to me, and, through the people at Harbor House, at last he did. Each volunteer and staff person I talked to proclaimed that God had called them to Harbor House expressly to share his love there. Many of them had turned

There’s something distinct about the atmosphere at Harbor House, and it’s apparent from the moment you enter. Harbor House is an urban ministry in the San Antonio district of Oakland, with services like an emergency food stock, counseling, ESL for immigrants, and its signature after-school program for local children and youth. It serves low-income community members by offering them the services and support they need. Harbor House is a pleasant place – found in a huge old Victorian, sunny and welcoming – but you can’t really call it tranquil. At least not when the kids are around. Stomping and yelling, laughing and banging on the piano: during weekday afternoons, it feels like the whole building is alive. No, Harbor House is not a serene place, and it has none of the quiet reverence or formality of a church. Compared to a church, though, it is just as full of God, and just as full of peace. Shalom is a Hebrew word usually defined as “peace.” In reality, it means much more than that. Shalom refers to completeness, harmony, and a deep sense of well-being. Shalom is what God

had in mind when he created the earth, and shalom was the effortless, gentle peace that pervaded Eden before the Fall. Shalom is what God still has in mind for his creation and his people. The work of his servants is to reconcile the chaos of the world around them to God and his shalom. For some time, I have been searching for that sense of peace in my relationship with God. I tried to seek him, following all the right prescriptions, saying the right words, scheduling Bible study and prayer into my mornings everyday before class. It felt, though, like I was throwing prayers at God like letters in sealed envelopes, hoping that perhaps he’d pick them up one day, open a few, and even answer them. “Speak, your servant is listening!” I demanded, like Samuel. But was I listening? Did I even expect an answer? Prayer isn’t just about talking at God, but an opportunity for us to listen to him. After all, he already knows our desires and needs. But when we take the time and make the effort to pause, to accept and acknowledge his presence directly, he allows us to match

Vox Clara is not the only journal of Christian thought founded recently on college campuses. In an effort to draw upon the experiences of fellow Christians, regard-less of alma mater, we will periodically be printing arti-cles written by students at other universities around the country. This article was written by an editor of one of our sister journals, To An Unknown God, at UC-Berkeley.


down other opportunities and had made financial sacrifices to be there, but one thing they all had in common was a vividly apparent joy in the Lord. They weren’t serving a God who treated prayers like junk mail. They were in constant and conscious conversation with God, and God was talking back. They were living out his shalom. Our world is oppressed by poverty, injustice, and violence. It takes a powerful God to grant not only joy, but a real sense of shalom amidst the battle against these forces. But this is the struggle of social justice, and it’s a true expression of God’s love. By offering their hands to God’s will, even at great personal cost, the people I met at Harbor House were led by a vision of God’s redemption, an imagination filled with shalom, and a heart timed to the beat of the Lord’s. Even when the cruelty of personal experience could have made shalom seem like a daydream, they held on to that vision, and labored alongside the Lord, in prayer and in action, to share that shalom with those around them. The kind of peace at Harbor House isn’t an absence of conflict, but a peace that cannot be contained, an active, overflowing peace charged with God’s love.

WhitnEy MorEt is a fourth-year Sociol-ogy major at UC Berkeley with a minor in Global Poverty and Practice. Before she dies, she aspires to learn guitar and see KISS in concert.

Vox Clara was inspired by the Augustine Project, which is a growing movement to plant Christian journals at colleges across the country. The Project’s stated goal is to be a “thoughtful witness to [Christian] faith in the modern university,” knowing that “Truth cannot be pursued in a vacu-um.” The Augustine Project was founded by Jordan Hylden, a graduate of Harvard University.

Other member journals include:

• Harvard Ichthus

• Princeton Revisions

• William and Mary Beacon

• To an Unknown God (UC Berkeley)

• Closing Remarks (Brown)

• Baylor Iconoclast

• Wheaton Pub

• Duke Religio

• Utraque Unum (Georgetown)

• Wide Awake (UVA)

• The Fish (Univ. of Chicago)

• Brownson Review (Notre Dame)

• Yale Logos

• Cornell Translations

• Dartmouth Apologia

The Augustine Project:augustineproject.blogspot.com

To An Unknown God: unknown.rufcal.org


Self-Determination in Love

JoSé BEnto

“‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest’” -Matthew 25:26-27

Everyday experiences and common sense tell us that man is a free being. Although conditioned by several factors -- circumstantial, social, biological, etc., he is not deprived of the capacity of self-determination. In reality, the more conscious his reason is of these natural limitations, the more it is capable of not being blindly subjugated by them. It can even identify these natural factors so as to make them its allies in order to make freer choices. This freedom brings responsibilities with it, and of all responsibilities the most important one – love, because love influences our relationships with God, other people and ourselves. Love is often associated with the relationship between a man and woman. However, the common notion that this kind of love is something that only happens spontaneously goes against the call of Jesus to choose to use our talents well and to increase them. How can a couple avoid a divorce or two young people continue a deep relationship when the love that arose between them simply disappeared just as spontaneously as it began? If we believe that love is a gift, a talent given by God, in what ways are we responsible for strengthening and attenuating it? The crux of the problem is the misunderstanding that feelings, whether they are sexual attraction, emotional affection or any other psychological phenomena, are the principal components of love. If those feelings determine its quality, then love is not completely subject to the will. With this line of reasoning, the link

between love and responsibility is nonexistent. However, because love is something directed towards another person, it must consist of the affirmation of the value of the beloved person, and this affirmation requires an act of the will. This value is not utilitarian, in which what one gives is based on what he can receive from the other. Rather, it is based on how much one freely and willingly gives to the object of his love. And this love is more authentic the more it is uniquely dependent on the person, not on other subjective entities. Though the incentives for the recognition of the value of the person spring very often from the natural sphere, it cannot be dependent on this. Physical attraction and emotional sentiment should be sought as the natural sources of love between a man and woman at the initial stages. But they cannot be the aim of true love, which is based on the whole person. Also, the love between man and God, of which the love between a man and woman is an image, cannot be dependent upon feelings, but rather on the recognition of who God is and of who we are. Feelings in and of themselves are not negative, and often serve as the impetus from which love springs, but they must be integrated in the affirmation of the value of the beloved. They are only good in as much as they increase our perception and assertion of the value of the other person. When a man first has romantic feelings toward a woman, he may freely choose to love the person towards whom these feelings manifest. If he approaches a relationship with the value of the person in mind, even if feelings fade or change, he will be able to hold fast to love because he made a commitment to it. Perfect love is thus an act of will by which two persons recognize the value of each other. And because of this value, they choose to give themselves to one another, for the good of both. For Christians, this personalistic norm, the affirmation of the value of the person as the object of love, is rooted in the image of God that man carries inside of him. Since God puts no limits on man’s capacity to love, each of us will be accountable for the measure and quality of the love we give. If the love is truthful and freely given, it will also be creative, increasing as much as we are willing to allow it. By believing that increasing his talents was not in his hands, the wicked servant decided to hide the little good he had. And for that he ended up outside and alone. Let us act differently.

JoSé BEnto is an international student from Portugal studying Electrical Engineering. He invests all his free time in being with friends.

This article is a response to Pope John Paul II’s book Love and Responsibility.

Photo: Paul Zaich


Religious Pluralism: a New Era?JuliE SMith

At a Catholic Mass here at Stanford this quarter, I learned that it was only quite recently that denominational services were allowed to be held in Memorial Church. While this struck me as surprising, I began to wonder which is the way to peace – to minimize differences by keeping religious life as non-denominational as possible, or to embrace religious diversity as a means of mutual understanding? Is peace even possible in a context of religious pluralism? Dr. Eboo Patel, who came to Stanford as this year’s Roger W. Heyns lecturer, believes that religious pluralism is not only possible, but that it’s beneficial. On inauguration day 2009, Patel saw a microcosm of America’s history manifested in our newly elected president, a man who has declared his patchwork cultural and religious past as a strength, not a weakness. In Obama, Patel sees hope for a new generation that understands religious pluralism “not as mutually exclusive, but mutually enriching,” despite many centuries-old struggles between religious traditions around the globe from Bombay to Belfast. The crucial step towards this new attitude in favor of pluralism is the development of a generation of interfaith leaders who seek to replace the paradigm of the “clash of civilizations,” a perspective which sees religious diversity and violence

inevitably going hand in hand. The new paradigm of pluralism is defined by Patel as a society whose members live in “equal dignity and mutual loyalty,” as opposed to an extremism in which society’s members ‘want their group to dominate and everyone else to suffocate.’” Patel outlines three major characteristics of interfaith leaders who serve this definition of pluralism: Vision, Knowledge, and Skillset. Vision is the ability of an interfaith leader to define reality in terms of pluralism and extremism. For example, in viewing America’s war on terror, the interfaith leader would have the insight to define the “us” and the “them” not along religious lines of Christian vs. Muslim, but as pluralist vs. extremist. In this way, drawing the faith line is analogous to the way Martin Luther King Jr. drew the color line. To King, the color line was not that which separated black and white, but that which separated “people who would perish together as fools from people who would live together as brothers.” The second quality of an interfaith leader is Knowledge. This characteristic has three dimensions. First is the thorough knowledge of one’s own faith tradition in order to speak to pluralism. For Patel, who is a Muslim, this is the knowledge that the prophethood of Mohammad was first recognized by Waraqah bin Nawfal, a Christian scholar who never himself

Eboo Patel was this year’s featured speaker for the

Roger W. Heyns Lectureship in Religion and Community sponsored by the Office of Religious Life. On January 27th, 2009, he spoke on

the topic of “Interfaith Leadership in a Time of

Religious Crisis”. This article is a response to that

discussion.

“It is the duty of all believers, to whichever reli-gion they belong, to proclaim that we can never be happy pitted one against the other” -John Paul II


Religious Pluralism: a New Era?converted to Islam. This knowledge influenced Patel greatly in the way he feels obligated to respond to other faith traditions. The second dimension of Knowledge is the recognition of those qualities that speak to pluralism in other faith traditions. In his speech “No Religion is an Island,” the great interfaith leader Abraham Joshua Heschel argued that “there can be disagreement without disrespect.” Heschel was a proponent

of the understanding of all religions as interconnected by virtue of our common humanity. For peace then, we must have knowledge of the parts of other religions that are able to foster pluralism. The third component of Knowledge is a knowledge of national history that speaks to pluralism. In the U.S., for example, some consider America primarily Christian and others consider her primarily secular, with each faction selecting a historical framework to back up their perspective. An interfaith leader must be equipped with a knowledge of history that will be able to support the view that religious pluralism is very much a part of this country. The third characteristic of an

interfaith leader is Skillset. On a practical level, this includes the ability to organize interfaith events, to facilitate dialogue, and to have the network and the opportunity to shape those around them. Skillset requires that an interfaith leader be able to correctly address religious tension in light of the pluralist vision, and to use a knowledge base to have an impact through storytelling and facilitation

of religious interactions. Patel, as executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core, seeks to build these skills by empowering interfaith leaders to work together through service projects. A movement away from religious isolation into a greater sense of the primacy of our common humanity is paramount to the fostering of peaceful inter-religious dialogue. This attitude, that “there is a requirement for justice and pluralism that precedes the privilege of worship,” as Patel says, is exactly what we need to foster among interfaith leaders. For Christians desiring interreligious peace, it is perhaps important to conclude that an understanding of our

common humanity is not achieved by the dilution of one’s faith tradition, but by strengthening it. I, as a Christian, am fully committed to the belief that Christianity provides the language that is the greatest and truest expression of God’s Love. It is also essential to recall our Christian obligation to share that Love through the message of Christ and by the witness of our lives. I agree, however, that my faith also requires me, as Patel has

beautifully said, to recognize where that Love is spoken in the language of other denominations and religious traditions. A fuller understanding and expression of one’s own religious tradition actually aids one’s ability to recognize in humanity that for which we must all have “mutual respect and mutual loyalty.”

References:1. John Paul II, Sunday remarks from studio window, Feb. 23, 20032. Heschel, Abraham. “No Religion is an Island”. Accessed 22 February, 2008. <http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~alan/chaplain/Heschel.html>

JuliE SMith is a sophomore from Raleigh, North Carolina majoring in Philosophy and Literature. She is a member of the Stanford Women’s Crew team and is grateful for her amazing classmates and teachers here at Stanford.

The trajectory of this new attitude rejects extremists, who want their own group to dominate and everyone else to suffocate.

“inner peace” in an effort toward self-improvement, “peace building” in the sociopolitical sphere, or wishing we could just “peace out” for a while, the roots of these phrases are in-terconnected. Individuals cannot easily feel at peace within conflicted environments, like war zones, abusive relation-ships, or situations of dire poverty. Similarly, societies can-not truly be at peace unless the individuals who make up the whole are at peace themselves.

The Christian concept of peace shares this idea of the interconnectedness of internal and external peace with other religions as well as some modes of secular thought. What sets Christianity’s concept of peace apart from other perspectives is the belief that we achieve lasting peace by participating in the love of God through Jesus Christ. Peace, in its Christian definition, is more than the absence of war or the presence of inward calm; it is the result of a profound relationship with God, one of the Fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22).

Jesus confirmed this at the Last Supper when he told the apostles, “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name—he will teach you everything and remind you of all that [I] told you. Peace I leave with you; my peace

I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid” (John 14:26-7). Je-sus leaves his friends a promise of peace by assuring them that he will send them the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Thus, the peace of Christ is not of the world—it is not rooted in superficial personal feelings or flawed political systems, but rather in the profound and in the eternal. This eternal peace is indeed a gift that Jesus has giv-en us, but it is not a gift that we receive passively. To move towards this peace on earth we must actively seek to culti-vate peace within ourselves and with those around us. We’re familiar with Jesus’ instruction to love our enemies (Mat-thew 5:40-45), but how many people truly practice what he taught? Christian leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. are an example to all that Jesus’ teachings on peace have the potential to transform modern society and its people at their core. It is up to us, then, to follow the words of Jesus and heed the advice of St. Paul, “Let us then pursue what leads to peace and to building up one another” (Romans 14:19).

While we pursue this peace, it is inevitable that we will make mistakes, tear others down, turn away from our rela-tionship with God, or step off of the “path of peace” in a multitude of other ways (Luke 1:78-9). Human fallibility and ultimately, brokenness, prevent us from achieving the eternal peace of God solely through our own efforts. We are in need of a savior. In his death and resurrection, Jesus made a sacri-fice of love for all people, making it possible to achieve the eternal peace with God that we long for. St. Paul explains this concept in the letter to the Ephesians (2:14-19):

For he is our peace, he who made both one and broke down the dividing wall of enmity, through his flesh, abol-ishing the law with its commandments and legal claims, that he might create in himself one new person in place of the two, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile both with God, in one body, through the cross, putting that enmity to death by it. He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were

What are the ‘fruits of the Spirit’?But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kind-ness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, we must also follow the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-25

The characteristics listed in Paul’s letter to the Galatians as “fruits of the Spirit” are, interestingly, characteristics that almost all humans desire. Inevitably, however, the reality of our humanness keeps us from perfectly reflecting these

characteristics all the time. The key difference in someone aspiring for these attributes and a follower of Christ is the latter’s realization that it can’t be done on his or her own. Christ, embodied as the Holy Spirit in an individual, is the agent of change. In the end, as the Spirit works to transform a Christian’s desires and attitudes, these attributes are not something Christians decide to do but become a part of who they are. Anyone can display these characteristics; the distinction for the Christian is that these attributes represent a natural outpouring of the transformed heart.

Love | Joy | Peace | Patience | Kindness | Goodness | Faithfulness | Gentleness | Self-control

Photo: Greg Witmer

We may approach peace from many perspectives. Whether we are seeking

near, for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God.

As Christians we believe that Jesus mended the estrange-ment between the human and the divine. If he can make peace at that level, then certainly he can heal divisions with-in our hearts, our families, our societies, and our world.

But we must allow him to work in our lives. We believe that each Christian is a member of the body of Christ and that God’s Holy Spirit works through ordinary individuals in unique and amazing ways. This can be a comfort as well as a challenge: we have the assurance that God loves us and wants us to live meaningful lives, but this comes with a re-

sponsibility to use our gifts to help build God’s Kingdom. Both of these aspects, the assurance and the calling, can lead us to a better sense of peace. When Jesus appears to his disciples in the upper room, he says, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (John 20:21). In this statement the mission to serve is linked to the Lord’s peace. By accepting Jesus’ task, infinitely challenging though it may be, we have the comfort of knowing that we are not alone on our journey and that we work toward a cause that transcends the day-to-day anxieties of everyday life. We “are no longer strangers and sojourners, but…members of the household of God,” a status that dignifies us and enables us to reflect the most admirable qualities of the human spirit; those of Christ Jesus within us.

For the troubled, may you find Peace.In peace I shall both lie down and sleep, for you alone, LORD, make me secure.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

The Advocate, the Holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name—He will teach you everything and remind you of all that [I] told you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.

I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.”

Psalm 4:9

Mathew 5:9

John 14: 26-7

John 16: 33

Love | Joy | Peace | Patience | Kindness | Goodness | Faithfulness | Gentleness | Self-control

Photo: David Carreon


A Soldier Commenting on Peace

MadiSon KaWaKaMi

To my dearest Isabel:

News of your birth has just reached me, here, halfway around the world, and nothing has brought me more joy in these past months. I have waited for you, I have hoped for you, and in spite of this great separation between us, I love you already. I write these words to you now, but I would not have you read them until you are older, much older, when, perhaps, you can better understand what I am trying to say. But there is an urgency to these words, these truths that have been so dearly bought that I wish to impart to you. If I cannot return to you, may these words guide your life towards a hope and a peace more encompassing than any other.

My name is David Greenberg, but you can call me Dad. I was born in Washington State, and I’ve been there ever since. I met your mother in a coffee shop in Seattle, during my time at the University of Washington. By met, I mean I ran into her, effectively spilling the entire contents of my Starbucks coffee into her lap. Luckily for you, she didn’t merely storm out still dripping from our chance encounter. Thanks to that coffee spill, I ended up buying her a cup of coffee and sharing a table and a little bit of life with her. She’s amazing, and I hope you remember this. She loves God, she loves you, and she even loves guys who spill hot beverages on her. If that’s not true love, I don’t know what is.

But that was a long time ago. Soon after I joined the Army Reserve, there were a series of attacks on September 11, 2001 that would change everything. And soon after, America was engaged in a war on terror that would lead us to the deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan. I can’t say I’m the same person I was when I left. I never used to think that I feared death. I went to church, believed in life after death, all of that. But it’s a lot easier to profess a belief in those things than to actually, truly believe in them. We see a form of death civilized here in America, in our cities, in our small towns where all out war has not raged for over one hundred years. But in these Middle Eastern war zones, death is unfettered, in all its terrible glory. And I was, for a time, profoundly shaken because of it. Even hope, it seems, would keep its distance from such destruction. Instead of an invisible war against self or suburbia, whose battles rarely venture out of the confines of our minds, this war is right out in the open. And the danger is real in a way that I have never known. It is physical, it is visceral, and it is terrifying. I found here that I did fear death, at least the death that I saw; the unceremonious deaths that cheapened human life


MadiSon KaWaKaMi

in ways that I will not describe. Death in war is not glorious. Instead it brings out the human capacity for grotesque acts of evil, and what’s worse is that it makes these awful acts somewhat acceptable. Here, more than ever, I have seen how far mankind has fallen short of the glory that God originally envisioned for us. Soon after we had arrived in Baghdad, our unit was deployed on daily patrols throughout the city. More often than not, we would end up helping civilians, and, though danger was always at the back of our minds, it was rare for insurgents to attack such a large group of soldiers. And so it was one day that we were traveling through the city, and we parted a large group of people crossing the street. From the trucks, I looked down at faces filled with pain, and then I saw the wooden coffin carried along by a few men. There was no wailing or screaming, for these things are forbidden to Muslims in mourning, but tears flowed freely among the group. We continued on, though I could not help but look back

to the steadily plodding coffin, rising above the heads of its carriers. I do not know if the person in that coffin died fighting as a friend or an enemy, or if he had died fighting at all. Regardless, I saw the grief and the love written on the faces of those in that funeral procession. I do not have a choice in who I fight. You will. So choose your enemies wisely, making sure that they are truly enemies. I could not get some of those faces out of my mind, and I struggled with the part I might someday play in someone else’s tragedy. We could not escape death in the city or even within our own ranks, and we grieved not only for our friends, but for their families and communities. With one shot, in one second, someone would be gone. I have suffered, as I hope you never will, and here, in the midst of war, the Enemy weaves a bleak vision before our eyes, a vision that would seek to diminish the glory of our God. Oftentimes, I have been overcome with

despair. Yet in these dark places of the world, when all other noise has stopped, when all I am left with is death and loneliness and pain, I have most clearly heard the soft, compelling whisper and promise of our Lord. In these places, I have come to see most clearly through the delusion that the Enemy would have us believe. Granted, your life will not go untouched by grief, but you must learn to distinguish between grief and despair. At this point in time, a chaplain took up residence near my tent, and sometimes I would hear the soft, melodious harmonies of the Ave Maria, drifting along through the desert air. It drew me out of my own tent, and I found myself carried through soft valleys of sound all the way up to those heavenly heights on the tail of a voice so beautiful I was overcome at times. I would often think of you during those nights in the desert. Even in this place, I see the undiminished beauty of God, a sliver of the eternal, a small shard of peace we may pick up and treasure, holding


it close to our hearts, so that death and destruction may, at least for a time, be kept at bay. What a paradox, so much beauty and joy and so much grief all masterfully thrown together upon this living breathing canvas under heaven, far removed from Adam and Eve’s Eden. I would not have you lose faith over the things I have recounted to you. I write of these things so that you will know that you will be fighting all your life. Your fights may not be waged with guns and explosions, but with painful words, inner struggles, and moments of

heartbreaking loss. One day soon you will begin to understand this tension between joy and grief, struggle and peace. These things will not change. You have entered into a world broken at the seams by our own selfishness, greed, and even our own good intentions that sometimes betray us. Oh the lengths I would go to shield you from pain, from hardship, from poverty: the things that will threaten your faith. It is important to know that peace is not abundant. It is something you find amongst the ashes, in things that have been broken. Even in the midst of the very worst of human life, there is peace in the rubble, in the cracks. I know that someday, when you are older, you will seek the answers to questions, questions that will grow in your mind over the years as you walk through a life marred by sin. For in this world, things will happen which defy explanation, which really make no sense at all. But it is better that you know from the start that nothing in this

broken world can give you the answers you seek. I may rejoice at the sight of the morning sun coming quickly over the dark horizon, I can smile at the sight of children laughing in spite of everything, and I can see hope in these people who are struggling to rebuild what has been lost. I am heartened by these things, but peace? Peace must come from within. A person, an object, an event, these things cannot truly give you peace. I’m not telling you to run from these questions, to hide away behind a curtain of religious fervor that

would masquerade only as a form of ignorance. If you would seek, seek the answers from the One who will not shy away from hard questions, the One who will fill your life with hope if you will let Him. When you cease to depend on the external, those elements cannot touch what lives and thrives within. They operate in different realms, existing independently of one another, and I would ask that you take comfort in this: that true internal peace cannot be shaken by these fleeting moments of darkness. God is here, God is with us, and in these little glimpses of heaven, He reminds us of the eternal nature of His love. Wars will wage, disasters will strike, and your heart will break more than once – but these things, in the end, will pass away. These external attacks on our faith cannot ever touch that fingerprint of the eternal within us from which our love and hope and faith grow. At the end of the day, there is still that separation between earth and

heaven that will wrench us away from those that we love the most, that span of sky and matter that, for a time, will separate the living from the dead. It’s not a good bye, and I know this, but it can sure as hell feel like one. But when all seems lost, God is there to remind us that He is God, and He has raised the dead and He has walked and wept among us, and He can heal even the most broken of things. There is a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time for war and a time for peace. Ecclesiastes. It’s time to pick up the pieces, and keep on living

in hopes that when God does call you home, you will have much to tell me: the places you’ve been, the people you’ve met, the things you’ve done. Make life an adventure worth recounting, and when it leaves you broken, cling to the things that do not change, and know that you are dearly loved by your Father in heaven and your father here on earth.

Until our next meeting, with love,

Dad

MadiSon KaWaKaMi is a sophomore major-ing in English. She enjoys spending time with her friends, California sunshine, and the oc-casional fountain day. She does work when she finds time to fit it into her schedule.

External attacks on our faith cannot touch the fingerprint of the eternal within us.


catiE lycurguS

Driftwood Prayer

I want to know you, Lord,I used to see Your face

but I have drifted far away—strayed from Your grace.

I wish I knew the calmthat once lay tucked inside,

now only crashing waves pound these splintered sides.

Please Lord, come againand clasp my wooden heart.Carve this broken driftwoodinto a precious work of art.

Photo: Greg Witmer, “Lighthouse”


Different School, Same GodSara SnydEr

The modern world tells me, “be true to yourself.” The gospel message instructs me to allow God to shape the desires of my heart. As a follower of Christ, how can I actively seek to become a conduit of God’s love and thereby “be true” to my creator? I confronted this foundational question this past fall when I attended Wheaton College in Illinois as a visiting student. One-third the size of Stanford, Wheaton offers a liberal arts education to students who seek to integrate their Christian faith with the life of the mind. Traditional academic disciplines such as math and English are tackled with the same love of learning central to any secular institution, and yet are further illuminated by discussions on how to consider this knowledge in the context of God’s creation. Wheaton also offers unique coursework in Christian theology and Biblical studies. I chose to attend Wheaton for a semester not only to experience a classroom environment in which God is openly acknowledged as the giver of knowledge and the motivation for all academic pursuits, but also to learn from a student and faculty body that strives to encourage the faith of the individual through community. I dove into my classes; some of them dealt with the typical academic topics of Philosophy and Public Health and Nutrition. Others explored more overtly faith-based themes such as my coursework on C.S. Lewis, The New Testament as Literature, and The Gospel in Cultural Contexts. I was struck by the multiplicity of viewpoints possible within a community sharing the motto “For Christ and His Kingdom.” The heated discussions I encountered in and out of class inspired me to consider how Biblical principles can inform questions of personal responsibility, gender relations, holistic healthcare, the role of the Church, living “in the world but not of it,” and many other topics with similarly serious implications. Although I was content to acknowledge that thoughtful Christians may not always agree, and in fact should not always agree given the complexity of the world and the finite

nature of our humanity, I nonetheless longed for a conclusive answer to the question posed at the start: “How can I actively use my will to enable God’s will to be done?” Although I do not claim to possess the answer to this question, I did gain two insights at Wheaton that help me to rest peacefully at night and live purposefully when awake. First, I learned that unless my love for God is my central priority, my love for everyone and everything else in this world will be out of place. C.S. Lewis highlights this need to prioritize different kinds of love in what he calls an “ordinance of loves.” By fixing my eye on the things of Heaven and looking first to God who “holds all things together” (Colossians 1:17), I honor Him as the source of life. Furthermore, my love for others and for the world around me will grow stronger and purer as a result of my love for God. While I naturally tend to rebel and idolize the gifts of this world above their creator, experience continues to teach me that only by exalting God above anyone else will I be able to experience a true and rich love for others. He is my first love. The second lesson Wheaton taught me regarding how to apply my will in seeking God’s will is that I must choose to live transparently. In my New Testament class, we studied numerous parables and exhortations urging us to eliminate any incongruity between our inner and outer lives. The classic example of the Pharisees that outwardly held to rigid practices of the law but inwardly were prideful and egotistical is a powerful lesson for me. Jesus emphasizes that he sees the condition of our heart and the depth of our faith, rendering ostentatious displays of religiosity meaningless. Although I am scared at times to consider what others might think of me when I let them see my imperfections, I am delighted to recall God’s assurance that his “grace is all you need, because [his] power is perfected in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). I am so thankful that I experienced a semester as a Wheaton College student. I now possess new tools to view the Bible as both contextualized in history and timeless in its claims of truth. I now am further convinced that the strength of love in a Christian community is transformational. I now can return to Stanford and say with confidence that, as much as I value my time spent at Wheaton, I am ready for God to work through my weaknesses here on this campus. May I choose to live transparently so that my love for God and his powerful grace is evident in everything I do.

Sara SnydEr is a junior double majoring in Mathematics and Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities. In her free time she loves to play tennis, swim, hike, run, sing, and play guitar.


Different School, Same God Abundant Lifedavid carrEon

“I’m going to see Papa,” said a bright-eyed young man who stood before his mother. “What?” was the only word the woman could choose which could express her bafflement. There was a trace of annoyance in her voice because her morning electro-stimulation had been interrupted. She sat up in the sofa. “I want to see Grandpa. You said when he retired last year that I could go and see him any time I wanted,” the young man said, the sides of his eyes upturned hopefully. “Of course you can. But why would you want to waste your time? Wouldn’t it be more comfortable to stay at home?” his mother asked. She was right. It was always more comfortable to stay at home. She was no hypocrite. She zealously obeyed this advice and had not left the home in five years. “I suppose you’re right,” said the man, looking from his mother to the floor, but then his tone rebounded, “but I want to see him. I can’t explain why, but I feel like it’s important.” “Jim!” she began with a rising, shrill pitch as if preparing to mount a protest. But the protest failed, the pitch fell, and she muttered, “Do whatever you want,” as if throwing the words from a body collapsing into unconsciousness.

“I’ll be back for dinner!” said Jim, with a smile. The discomfort began immediately, as the perfect 72 degree house had to be exchanged for a hot 80 degree sunny day. The sun was bright, and by the time the first trace of sweat began to form, Jim was almost certain that he had made a mistake; this trip would not be easy. He remembered his mother’s warning of the discomforts of his venture again as he waited three minutes for the bus. He told the driverless bus his destination; it beeped compliance and began driving. He took a seat and waited. And waited. Boredom gnawed away at Jim’s mind for thirteen long minutes. Finally the bus pulled up to the Active Living Center (ALC) where his grandpa had retired. Jim looked up at the building before him. A cylinder rose fifty stories in the air and the polished, windowless face of the building looked like it was pure silver, shining in the sun. The beauty of the building was shoved from Jim’s mind by the painful brightness of the sun’s reflection. Jim walked briskly (but not quickly) towards the building to escape the tyranny of the sun. As he approached, the doors opened and a blast of perfect air refreshed him, cooling his sweat. Just then he realized that he was thirsty. His


mind raced. He knew of the dangers of dehydration and heat stroke. Jim looked around the room for a water machine. There, a few steps ahead of him, was his salvation. He drank the water. It tasted to him like ambrosia, the sweetest thing he had ever tasted. He could not figure out why it tasted so good even without sugar. He was a happy man, but happy in a way that was unusual for him. It was more than the typical electrically-induced emotion. Clearly he felt happy every morning during his morning electro-stimulation; the electrodes in his hypothalamus guaranteed it. But this was different. Jim breathed deeply and took the first well-deserved sigh of his life.

room towards an elevator. Jim looked around the room with eyes wide, slowly painting over the room. His lips parted and formed the ‘W’ in a “Wow” which would be silent. “Is this your first time in an ALC?” Dante asked, smirking. “Yeah…” said Jim, a bit disconnectedly. “Well most people never get a chance. That is, they don’t come here until they’re allowed to come permanently,” said Dante.Dante and Jim stepped into the elevator. “Forty-two,” Dante commanded. “Forty-two,” confirmed the elevator. “It’s too bad. These places are really a sight to behold. They’re the symbol of the twenty-second century,

lives far more than we are; they’re happy here. ALCs have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly!” Dante sighed, “I have another fifteen years before I can retire. Buddhists thought you could reach Nirvana by emptying yourself through years of meditation. In America, everyone reaches it when they turn 55. Christians thought you would be reborn if you believed in Jesus. In America, you’re reborn if you pay your taxes.” They reached a door numbered 57. Dante put his finger on a pad by the door and it opened. Before them was a room, three of its walls covered with tiles, four feet by two feet. Dante walked to the bottom left corner of the left wall

An attendant approached and greeted him. “Welcome to the Abundant Life ALC!” said a perfect voice, confident and clear as an actor of old. “My name is Dante. How may I help you?” asked Dante with such a sincerity as it almost tempted Jim to feel something. “I want to see my grandpa,” said Jim meekly, intimidated by the man. “Certainly! As you know, you can always see your retired loved ones! What is his name?” Dante asked. “James Anderson,” said Jim. “James Anderson,” repeated Dante. A mechanical voice replied from nowhere, “Floor 42, Wing E, Stack 57, Room 1.” “Follow me, if you please,” said Dante cordially as he walked across the

the century we conquered Death and discovered Peace!” Dante’s voice rose to a triumphant note. The elevator had reached the forty-second floor and they stepped out into a circular room. Dante approached a door labeled ‘E’ and walked through into a long hallway with doors on both sides and with too-white light coming from nowhere and everywhere. “We have defeated death,” continued Dante. “Medicine has developed to the point where we no longer need to say goodbye to our loved ones. We simply say, ‘Rest In Peace’ and we can visit them whenever we want. Retirees enter a mental stimulation room and can be woken up at any time. We have studies that prove that they are enjoying their

and touched the wall tile. The tile was the head of a box which slid out of the wall and was seven feet in length. Jim tried to remember the word for the box. “That’s right,” he thought, “’Coffin.’” Dante interrupted his thinking, “Death is now a dirty word. I still get the shudders whenever I say it. We have advanced from the brutal philosophies of our ancestors who worshiped death and thought there was some value to sacrifice and suffering. Now Science has confirmed what a great man once said, ‘If a man is willing to die for something, he is not fit to live.’ Behold Peace!” He lifted the lid of the coffin and before him was his grandfather, looking exactly as he had when he retired one year ago: a sharp nose, jet black hair


and crows’ feet near his eyes (“Smiling wrinkles” were fashionable in 2242). His arms were crossed with his hands on his shoulders and his eyes were closed. “Grandpa!” cried Jim with smile which showed his teeth. His grandfather’s eyes moved under his eyelids. Then he slowly opened his eyes and saw his grandson. Jim’s grandfather squinted and blinked, looking bewildered. “What do you want?” said Jim’s grandfather with an unmistakable annoyance. “I wanted to see you! I’m here to visit!” said Jim, his mood unaffected by the tone of his grandfather. His grandfather looked at him in utter confusion. He searched for words as a man groping in the dark for the light. In the end, he could only muster a baffled “Why?” “I… I don’t know,” said Jim miserably. “I just felt it would be good to visit you.” “Do you think you could make me happier than the electrode?” questioned Jim’s grandfather indignantly. “Well… I didn’t think about it like that. But Papa…” Jim said, his mind swimming, feeling very out of place. “Exactly. You didn’t think. If you had thought, you wouldn’t have come. Why must you remind me of the misery of the world?” lamented Jim’s grandfather. “The world is not all misery. You had a great time before you retired,” remembered Jim. “What about all the time we spent fishing? You always wanted to go fishing! Weren’t you happy then? Don’t you want to go fishing now?”

“Why the hell would I want to fish if I could have this?” Jim’s grandfather motioned at his box. “Sure I enjoyed it, but that happiness is only a fraction of what I have here. We have to make due before we retire. But once we retire, why would anyone want to go back? Do you want me to join in your misery to relieve you before you reach 55? Is that what you want?” “I just wanted to make you happy,” said Jim, feeling terribly uncomfortable. “I have maximal electrical comfort, safety and happiness; isn’t this everything that we’re living for?” asked Jim’s grandfather. Jim paused. He could not deny the logic of his grandfather, but he could not say ‘yes’. Of course he wanted comfort, safety and happiness, but something was missing. Was this peace? “I’m not sure what I want,” said Jim, confused. “I do know what I want, and you’re interrupting it,” Jim’s grandfather replied rudely. Jim’s grandfather closed his eyes, folded his arms back over himself and sighed. Dante came over to the coffin and closed the lid. He pushed it back in. Jim stood motionless for a few seconds. Dante looked at Jim and laughed out loud, “’I wanted to see you’? Are you serious! You disturbed your grandfather for no reason with nothing to say? Of course he was angry. I’d be angry, too! Not even, ‘I’ve got great

news!’ or ‘Sorry to interrupt, but could you tell me…’ but, ‘I’m here to visit’! Ha!” Dante went on laughing. As Jim was led back out of the building he reflected on what his grandfather said. He was right. Everything in the physical universe pointed to him having a more comfortable, safe, and happy life than Jim; his peace was well-placed electricity. But he did not want to be like the man in the coffin. The picture of a crypt came to mind, with row after row of cabinets containing bodies which once were men. Had his conversation been with a man, or with his remains? Even if his body and mind were intact, had not something decomposed? Jim then remembered what he felt after accomplishing his journey earlier that day. It was not comfortable, but it was peaceful, in a way that was softer than comfort itself and deeper even than the electrodes implanted in his brain. Just then a beam of light from the sun struck Jim like a lightning bolt, the sheer violence of it killing all thoughts of peace. The 85 degree air felt as if it was searing his flesh. He finally realized that his mother was right; the house would have been much more comfortable. A too-warm balmy breeze blew away all further thoughts of something more than comfort, for comfort was all Jim could now think about. Jim would only have to endure another forty-two years before he could himself retire. “The sooner the better,” he thought.

david carrEon is in his first year of Medi-cal School at Stanford. David enjoys writing, photography and good discussions especially when they’re on spiritual matters, and hopes to work on international development.


The Peace which TrancendsPaul KornfEld

justice. This is one way God has called us to make his love evident throughout the nations so that they may know Him, but the worldly peace we can offer is merely a temporary reprieve from future conflict. I am saying we can also offer a different peace, an eternal peace transcending all earthly understanding. The Hebrew word “shalom” conveys what God planned for creation. Shalom means ‘wholeness’ or ‘completeness.’ In the beginning of creation when the earth and humankind was in shalom with God, they were in perfect relationship with him. Only when Adam and Eve sinned did we lose shalom with God; our relationship was broken and the earth was cursed. Nature has not returned to its intended balance and harmony. Isaiah 11:6-9 shows us a picture of what perfect tranquility looks like:

The wolf will live with the lamb…The infant will play near the hole of the cobra…They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

We see that when God restores shalom on the earth as He promised, the earth will be in his perfect peace and full of his knowledge. How glorious! However, the world cannot provide this peace. True peace is so much more than the mere absence of conflict. God’s peace is different than the world’s peace. John 14:27 states “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not

“Do not be anxious about anything… And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your

hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”-PhIllIPIans 4:6-7

interviewer: “What is the one most important thing our society needs?”beauty Contestant: “I think…that…our society needs a lot of things, like better education, more equality, and of course the most important thing…WORLD PEACE!”

While it is politically correct to aspire for world peace, I would answer this question slightly differently. Although I wish the world would be without conflict and in a state of peace and harmony, it is impossible under the current circumstances. Does this mean our world is hopeless since world peace cannot be attained? Absolutely not. Now I’m not saying at all that we should not strive for worldly peace and

Photo: Jessy Klima


give to you as the world gives.” Real peace comes from faith in God because he alone embodies all the characteristics of peace. To find peace of mind and peace with others, you must find peace with God. Finding peace with God is not something to take lightly, but rather something that is essential to our wellbeing since ‘a heart at peace gives life to the body” (Proverbs 14:30). Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem did not bring political peace to the troubled

people of Palestine. Politically speaking, his presence brought not peace, but a sword (Matt. 10:34). But he did offer a much deeper peace to those whose hearts were open to his presence and his teaching. He offered them and continues to offer us the peace of knowing that we are loved and forgiven; the peace of knowing that God created each one of us for a purpose; the peace of knowing that we are created as precious human crystals, able to receive the love and wisdom that comes from God, and transmit it to others as we show them the love and the kindness that God has

shown us. Jesus offers each one of us the peace that passes understanding, that penetrates deep within our souls. So how do we attain this peace? First, we must not worry. Yes I know—easier said than done. Philippians 4:6-7 explains, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts

and your minds in Christ Jesus.” But this is physically impossible to do by our own power. “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” (Matt 6:27). Our minds are constantly worrying about things to come. But Jesus says “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest… for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matt 11:28-29). Worry hampers our efforts for the present. Worry shows a lack of faith. Worry immobilizes us. But luckily the fight is not reliant on our own power.

He has given us a helper. It is only in constant communion with the power of the Holy Spirit that we can achieve this peace. John 14:26-27 tells that, “The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you…my peace I give you.” He freely gives us his peace and left it in the form of the Holy Spirit so that we might attain an understanding beyond this world. The source of the peace is the knowledge that our Lord

and Savior is the King and Ruler of the world and is with every one of us, enlightening us and showing us the way. Do not be afraid to start right now to ask for true peace. He has promised us his peace and will freely give to those who ask. So let our hearts not be troubled by the things of this world, but live in the knowledge that we can have a deep and lasting peace that transcends all understanding.

Paul KornfEld is a senior majoring in Management Science & Engineering. He is a member of the Men’s Varsity Swimming team, enjoys playing instruments and watch-ing and playing all sports.

To find peace of mind and peace with others, you must find peace with God.

all Understanding


Historical Perspectives on Peace

hai-y lE and hEidi thorSEn

When thinking about the relationship between the words “history” and “peace,” topics such as the Treaty of Utrecht, the Treaty of Versailles, and the Warsaw Pact come to mind. Although each of these events is associated with peace, in reality none of them actually achieved this goal. As Machiavelli wrote in his political treatise, The Prince, “wars don’t just go away, they are only postponed to someone else’s advantage.” The question is: how do you write the history of something that has never really lasted on earth? Although political peace seems to be a distant reality, Christianity holds that people can experience peace daily on a personal basis. Peace is not only an ideal but a reality, revealed to people every day through nature, human interaction, and experience. An individual’s spiritual peace is embodied by the Holy Spirit’s presence in his or her life. In the Gospel of John, Jesus states, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid” (John 14:27). It is no surprise that the symbol of the Holy Spirit, the dove, has evolved into a symbol for global peace. The Christian concept of spiritual peace has continued throughout the history of Christianity with very little change. In 1873, an obscure Chicago lawyer, Horatio G. Spattford, penned the lyrics to the celebrated hymn “It Is Well” after the tragic loss of his two children in a shipwreck. Spattford’s lines have become emblematic of much of Christianity’s views on spiritual peace:

When peace like a river attendeth my way,When sorrows like sea-billows roll,Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to know,‘It is well, it is well with my soul.’

Spattford’s hymn demonstrates how internal peace can

coexist with, and even counteract, external disarray. While Christian concepts of spiritual peace have not changed drastically over the course of history, Christianity’s influence on global peace has varied substantially. From the 11th to the 16th century thousands of European crusaders devastated the Middle East in the name of Christianity, leaving in their wake a tainted impression of Western culture and religion. Christians must learn to reconcile the conviction they have of spiritual peace of Jesus Christ with the necessity for peace and coexistence between religions. Martin Luther King, Jr. proposed, “Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.” While it is nearly impossible to track the history of peace by concrete historical landmarks, there is much to be learned from the history of peace as a study of the means by which people have strived for this end result. Both Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. exemplify the history of peacemaking as an alternative to the more ambiguous ‘history of peace’. Their separate movements of non-violent protest each hearken back to Jesus’ teachings as a source for inspiration. Since we often experience external peace as the processs of striving toward the end result of peace itself, it follows that the life of Jesus, and not only his teachings, are an important source for Christians in the pursuit of peace. In light of scripture and history, Christians should recognize that there are two levels of peace: internal peace, granted by the Holy Spirit, and external peace, facilitated by human actions. From history, Christians can observe how internal peace has been constant, a comfort to belief, whereas external peace has evolved, a testament to the potential of social justice. In a way, the history of peace can be understood as the process of these dual natures growing continually closer to one another, reaching towards a final intersection of spiritual and temporal truth.

hEidi thorSEn is a freshman contemplat-ing an English major. Her favorite activities include writing, drawing, playing the piano, and philosophizing with her friends.

hai-y lE is a freshman hailing from the Carolinas. She enjoys a Sunday morning ritual of church and brunch.

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The deadline for articles for the Spring 2009 issue is April 26, 2009. We will still accept submissions after this date but they may be postponed to a later issue. Please visit our website for submission guidelines. We welcome any quality submissions, but works that fit with our spring journal theme - Patience - will be given preference.

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True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.

-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

To reach peace, teach peace.- Pope John Paul II

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.

- Mother Teresa

Serenity is not freedom from the storm but peace amid the storm.

-Alcholics Anonymous

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.

-Jimi Hendrix

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be trou-bled and do not be afraid.

- John 14:27 NIV

Closing Thoughts

Thank you for reading Vox Clara. It is our sincere hope that you come away enlightened about Christianity. Wheth-er you are a skeptic, seeker, or believer, we encourage you to continue explor-ing the faith. We leave you with these closing thoughts.

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Vox Clara - Winter '09