Spiritual Formation

meditation, worship, and study, and we breatheout (exhale) His word through our choices.Moral growth, then, is a maturing process injudgment and action, particularly regarding ourrelationships with others. Spiritual growth is amaturing process in reception, graduallyexpanding our capacity to listen to God and to

be open to His word. Spiritualgrowth involves a reception ofdivine influence; moral growthinvolves the outworking of thatinfluence with others.

C.S. Lewis famouslylamented the educationalprocesses producing men with-out chests.To extend the analo-gy, todays college educators pro-duce students without chestswhen they ignore the respiratory system, the moral and

spiritual apparatus necessary for human growth.Our authors write from within the inter-

dependence of the moral and the spiritual.Important questions are at stake:What is therelation of spiritual formation to the pursuit ofknowledge? How can we be knowers while cul-tivating our spiritual life? We also feature aforum on a spiritual discipline vexing the bestof our students:What institutional contexts areappropriate for confession? How ought wespeak of our innermost life with others? Wehave given additional space to our keynote essayby Steven Garber. His elegant reflectionprovocatively frames the entire discussion.

Kenneth Chase, director of CACE

A fresh wind is blowing through college anduniversity campuses. Students are seeking a spir-itual life, a devotion to deeper meanings andbroader human connections.The most secular ofcampuses contain students passionate aboutforming a life suitable for withstanding the bru-tal forces of global commerce, war, and politics.

Students at Christian cam-puses share in this movement.Asbastions of orthodox teachingand proper living, Christian col-leges have nurtured generationsof students to think and actrightly in important matters, buttodays students want an internallife as robust as their cognitiveand behavioral training.They areturning to matters of spiritualformation, to the growth andcare of their souls.

This issue of Discernment offers moralreflection on the processes of spiritual forma-tion.What is the relationship between these twocomplementary processes? Any attempt to finelydistinguish between moral and spiritual growthwill fail, for moral and spiritual considerationsare interdependent. Spiritual growth is necessaryfor the wisdom that leads to moral judgment, yetmoral judgment lends considerable guidance toour pursuit of spiritual growth. In Psalm 74, forexample,Asaph is driven to praise, a spiritual dis-cipline, through moral indignation aroused fromseeing Gods enemies victorious.The moraljudgment prompts the spiritual movement, whilebeing itself shaped by spiritual insight.

We can think of these processes as analo-gous to breathing.We must breathe in (inhale)the word of God through disciplined prayer,

DiscernmentS o t h a t y o u m a y b e a b l e t o d i s c e r n w h a t i s b e s t . P h i l . 1 : 1 0

Spiritual Formation and College Life

A Newsletter of the Center for Applied Christian Ethics Wheaton College Summer/Fall 2004,Vol. 9, No. 2/3

...todays students

want an internal life

as robust as their

cognitive and

behavioral training.

Inside:

Spiritual Formationas Counter-Cultural Action 2

Shaping the Heart 4

Loving, Mourning Knowing 6

Finding theSimple and the Profound 8

Confession Symposium 10

CACE News & Notes 16

Discernment Summer/Fall 20042

growing in faith, or we can choose to stop some-where along the way at several stages. I will use akind of shorthand by referring to the stages that SamKeen talks aboutchild, rebel, adult, outlaw, and thelover or the fool.1

At the child stage, the operative word is yes.We are open and assenting, vulnerable and surrender-ing.We say yes to God and yes to those in authority.We listen uncritically and we absorb.The next stageis like being a two year old: this is the rebel stage.The operative word is no.We have new questions,and we need to figure out what we think.The thirdstage is the adult stage.We say both yes and noappropriately, and we are involved in responsibleinteractions in a community of faith.The fourthstage, the outlawfunny that comes after the adultis often triggered by personal or public tragedies. Itmay feel like life itself is exploding as questions wethought were settled are violently re-opened, bring-ing grief, outrage, and dismay. Perhaps the operativeword at the outlaw stage is why? and often accom-panied by why me? If we are shunned at this stage,we may not return to faith. But if we pursue ourquestions and passions with God, the next stage iscalled the lover or the fool. Having seen lifes terriblepossibilities, the phrase of the lover or the fool is,Nevertheless, I trust in God. I am convinced thatwe all glimpse each of these stages all along the way,that we move back and forth among them.

What nourishes spiritual formation? Knowingyourself, knowing your personality, noticing yourfaith history, and appreciating how God has drawnyou through numerous streams and traditions andScriptural invitations.A pattern of life that includesdisciplines helps us to be open to God, ourselves,and others.

A spiritual discipline is any wholesome practicewe engage in for the purpose of hearing andresponding to God.We hope the Spirit will use the

Spiritual formation is filled with surprises. Ourwords about Christian spirituality point toward our

experience with God, but they can tellonly part of the story. Our translation ispartial.We are individuals, and Goddraws us individually. He invites andnourishes and pursues us.Yet, we are alsopart of a community, a legacy of God-seekers.We learn from each other, butwe realize there is much we do notperhaps we cannotcomprehend aboutourselves and about God.

Scripture says we are created in theimage of Goddestined for intimacy

with God.The phrase spiritual formation is used topoint toward all the ways that the divine/human rela-tionship is nourished. Spiritual formation describesthe uneven path when we resist God and when weembrace what God seems to invite.As Jesus describesit in Luke 10:27, spiritual formation is about love.You shall love the Lord your God with all yourheart, and with all your soul, and with all yourstrength, and with all your mind; and you shall loveyour neighbor as yourself (NRSV, emphasis added).

Divine and human love in relationship is thecore of spiritual formation.Whatever we know andexperience of spirituality takes place in the midst ofordinary human life. Our spiritual formation shapesthe ways that we invest our deepest loves and ourmost costly loyalties. It is about our willingness to bebearers of Gods love in and to the world.Andknowing ourselves is an essential part of being bear-ers of God.As we grow, and grow up, we begin tolearn more about ourselvesthe particular self thatwe areshaped in the image of God.

Who are you? Developmental theorists who write about stages offaith development say we can choose to continue

Spiritual Formation as Counter-Cultural ActionBy Jeannette A. Bakke

On February 6, 2002, CACE hosted three leaders in the field of spiritual formation at a public lecture at WheatonCollege.The following three articles and Q&A section are edited versions of their remarks.Editor

A Newsletter of the Center for Applied Christian Ethics Wheaton College 3

Losing controlWe are keenly aware of our limitations when werecognize the enormity of the tasks of spiritual for-mation.There is a nearly endless range of facetswhich influence human development. How will wefigure out what to do about spiritual formation?

The clearest possibility I know to suggest toany person or institution is to ask God and continueasking God, to pray about and in the midst ofeverything. Surprisingly, part of this process includesinviting each other to speak out loud about spiritualformationto voice our hopes and fears. Perhapsthis active part is easier. Maybe the more difficultinvitation is to ask God by letting go of our clatter

and questions, to cultivate morecontemplative hearts, to provideopportunities for silence and soli-tude in which our questions, hopes,and choices can be transformed.

Ask God, and then listen.Listen to people who nourish theirdivine/human love relationship, lis-ten to those who are familiar withthe experience of spiritual forma-tion. Listen to your faith communi-ty. But, most of all, listen to theHoly Spirit. Do not create a com-plex program of spiritual formation.Instead, figure out ways to invitepeople to be and become beloved

friends of Godfriends who desire to be formedand transformed by the Spirit.

Ask God what is right for today. Live in thepresent.Allow the Spirits timing for the fruit toripen, for the new ways to be born.The movementof spiritual formation is Gods life indwelling ourlives, calling us to be awake and inviting us to beour true selves created in the image of God.

Hear the words of Jesus again, this time not asa command but a promise.You shall love the Lordyour God with all your heart, and with all yoursoul, and with all your strength, and with all yourmind; and your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:27,emphasis added).

1 James W. Fowler and Sam Keen, Life Maps:Conversations on the Journey of Faith (Waco:Word Book,1985), pp. 118-124.

disciplines we choose to draw us to Godto beloved, renewed, and guided.We have discovered thatwe need to tend our spiritual heart as intentionally aswe provide for physical and intellectual development.

Spiritual formation in the academySix hopeful possibilities and one paradox regardingspiritual formation and academia:

1. The leadersfaculty, staff, administrators,and student leadersset the tone for a communitywhich models, embodies, and expresses what itmeans to be people of faith.

2. We seek to be aware of the characteristics of spiritual development and become familiar withhow generations naturally facilitateand hinder each other.We want tosavor the possibilities in relationshipsbetween students and caring adultswho are not their parents.

3. We long to describe spiritu-al formation in terms that are free-ing, that demonstrate the principlethat one size does not fit all, and thatshow there are opportunities foreveryone to identify their gifts,strengths, and limitations.

4. We seek to facilitate confi-dential relationships where we listento each other with prayerful atten-tion, as we frame personal questions,pursue healing and development, and shape meaningful dreams which flow out of prayer anddiscernment.

5. We continue to show that we valueChristian spirituality by offering courses whichencourage everyone to learn about spiritual forma-tion and explore practices and possibilities.

6. We want to develop an awareness of and acapacity for an inner life which influences outerchoices.

And now for the paradox. Spiritual formationwill always seem counter-cultural in academia.Whereacademic excellence reigns, students are learning tobecome competent, to be analytical, and to take con-trol. Paradoxically, God beckons us to release ourintense hold upon our self-designed programs and ourself-designed selfto simplify, to lighten up, to invitethe Spirit to speak to us, to listen, and to follow.

Maybe the more

difficult invitation

is to ask God by

letting go of our

clatter and

questions, to

cultivate more

contemplative

hearts.

Jeannette A. Bakke,

Ph.D., is a spiritual

director and faculty

associate at Bethel

Theological Seminary,

where she lectures

and teaches regularly

on the topic of

spiritual direction.

Her degrees include

a B.A. from Wheaton

College, a D.Min. in

spiritual direction

from the Graduate

Theological

Foundation, and

a Ph.D. from the

University of

Minnesota.


that took place in the life of that individual thatshaped character, culture, values, and ethics? Whattook place in the act of godly kindness serving thatyoung Palestinian lad and in that young Palestinianlad embracing that Israeli soldier? Was that true spir-itual formation?

Christian spiritual formation definedTrue spiritual formation is the resolution and thecommitment to have a heart and a character that ischanged.The purpose of spiritual formation is tochange people from the inside so that through thispersonal relationship with God and Christ, they arecommitted to one another, and to love one another.It changes their beliefs, feelings, habits, and choices.It penetrates the deepest layer of the soul, whichshapes character, thought, intellect, action, motives.It changes us into disciples of Jesus Christ, guidingus to live a life of Christ in a virtuous way. We willbe formed by somethingif not by Christ, then byculture, racism, materialism, elitism, paganism, or athousand other thingsand there is spiritual forma-tion taking place in the world today. MohammedAtta was formed spiritually when he flew those jetsinto the buildings and destroyed thousands of lives.We may not like the formation, but he was formedin what he believed.

So what is Christian spiritual formation?Christian spiritual formation refers to the Spirit-driven process reforming the inner world of thehuman self in such a way that it becomes like theinner being of Christ Himself. Social structures needto be reformed; educational systems need to bereformed; economic structures need to be reformed.So what moves us to understand that spiritual trans-formation and spiritual change can affect thesestructures of society? Amos 5:24 provides insight:And righteousness will ever flow like streams of living water. Society today needs to see people who are formed in the image of Christwho are committed to the life of spiritual formation,transformation, and change.

It was a Sunday afternoon. I was in EastJerusalem with Bishara, a Palestinian pastor.TheIntifada was happening at the time, and as we drove,Bishara said,Let me tell you a story about whenone of my parishioners was in prison. He had been

accused of throwing rocks at the Israelioccupying forces across the green belt inEast Jerusalem. Because of this accusa-tion, his home was threatened to bebulldozed and torn down by the mili-tary. So they took him and put him inprison, and while he was in prison, hebegan to pray. He was fearful of whatmight happen during his imprisonment,questioning everything that came tohimfood, water, conversationindoubt about what that might mean for

his own safety and security. Now a young, tougheighteen-year-old Israeli soldier came to the doorand saw this young man reading the Bible. Helooked at the Palestinian, and said, You must eat tobe strong. But the young man did not respond tothe young Israeli soldier, because he thought it wasa trick.And the next day, the Israeli soldier said, Itoo am a believer. I see you reading the Bible.Youmust trust in Jesus also.The young Palestinian manlooked at the Israeli soldier and couldnt believewhat he was hearing. He thought, This could betrue or this could be a plant. The next night, theIsraeli soldier came in again with more food, andthe young Palestinian man did not eat the food, buthe prayed that night when the soldier left, saying,Lord, if this is you, let him bring me three choco-late bars tomorrow.The next day, the Israeli soldierwalked into the cell and brought three chocolatebars.They embraced.When the young Palestinianman got out of prison, he went back to EastJerusalemand despite all that separates the two,they found themselves meeting and having commu-nion, celebrating the Lords Supper.

Now the question I pose to you:Was that spiritual formation? Was there a unique formation

Shaping the HeartBy Glandion Carney


tion and transformation is the churchs responsibility.But it is also the educational systems responsibility.Education is a process of shaping character, andmeaning, and purpose.The quest in this aspect ofour life is the same as in any other: God seekshumanity, God loves humanity, God wants to trans-form humanity, God wants to bring His message toa broken humanity. Gods commitment to thiscomes to a people who are committed to a life ofspiritual formation.

Obedience is essential to Christian spiritualformation. External manifestation of Christ-likenessis not, however, the focus.The process of change isnot a list of commands but rather a process of gracethat comes to us through the love of God and affects

our life deeply. Christ be formed inyou, says Galatians; the watchwordsfor this process are Christian spiri-tual formation.This is fortified bythe deeply moral and spiritualinsight that change takes place inthe most simple of ways.

When one is committed tothe true character of Christ, andwe all strive for that through thegoals of spiritual formation, thequestion is this: How much good isgood in the face of evil? A lot ofgood? Or a little good? Whatchanges the equation of evil? It isthe good you do.When you teacha child to read, thats the presenceof Christ in spiritual formation.

When you go and visit a prisoner, thats the presenceof Christ in spiritual formation.When you stand in acommunity and say No longer will we tolerateracist and sexist jokes, thats the spirit of Christ inspiritual formation.When you love your enemy,thats the spirit of Christ in spiritual formation.Change takes place when you are able to deal withhabits of heart, when the manifestation of Gods loveis shaping your character so that you no longer arebeing driven by lust, deceit, and dishonesty. This ischaracter change; this is true formation: to be likeChrist in the inner world. So, do good, pursue theLord, live out His grace, and let Him form you in allof your ways.

What happens in an institution when one canpursue four years of academic excellence andachieve the highest degrees and never have charac-ter formation? What happens when an institutionchooses to develop its students with skills to suc-ceed yet does not transform a corrupt heart? Thequestion must be asked about an institutions abilityto commit itself to the true transformation of per-sons and their character.An answer requires us tounderstand that the heart is the very core of therevolution.The heart is the very core of the renova-tion.The heart is the very core of change. Butchange is an uncomfortable kind of thing. Its per-sonal, its reflective, its evaluative.Were asking abouta change to the academic culture, asking studentsand professors not just to be com-mitted to the development ofminds, but the ongoing develop-ment of hearts. So how does oneenter a collegiate institution andthink about change?

I think every student attend-ing college ought to get two simplelittle things: a journal, and TheImitation of Christ by Thomas Kempis.The same energy placed onthe development of the academicmind ought to be placed on thetransformation of character and theheart: the commitment to pursuelife of integrity and faith throughservice, through inner-life forma-tion, through pursuing what itmeans to follow the path of Jesus, and pursuing theSermon on the Mount. Every once in a while, stu-dents ought to be forced to go on a retreat, toreflect, to think, to pray, to evaluate what it meansthat their lives are being changed in the ways thatChrist would change their hearts.What would hap-pen? We would have Christian students who under-stand that change is a dynamic process of developingcharacter, a new value system that embraces justice,shalom, and the love of God.

Formation as an educational responsibilityNow we tend to leave spiritual formation to thechurch, dont we? We say that the process of forma-

Society today needs

to see people who

are formed in the

image of Christ

who are committed

to the life of

spiritual formation,

transformation,

and change.

Glandion Carney

is a member of the

Renovar Ministry

Team. In 1995, he

felt compelled to

start Centrepoint:

A Community for

Spiritual Formation

in Grand Rapids,

Michigan, and

presently consults

with groups seek-

ing to be more

intentional about

spiritual formation.

He is also the

National Chaplain

for the Christian

Legal Society.

So why study? As I live my life among stu-dents, listening in as I meet them in places far andwide, that question is harder that one might think.

To press the point:Why study, if he whoknows the most, mourns the deepest? You see, if onetakes the task of studying seriously, then one willsooner or later see and hear the groanings of theworld.And that is very hard, always and everywhere.

I remember one student I had, who was raisedin a home where reading the Word and reading theworld were equally prized. She chose a college verymuch like Wheaton, a place where teaching is trea-sured, where the curriculum is centered around theconviction that we live in a coherent cosmos, andtherefore that a coherent life is possible.As her pas-sions grew, she studied both politics and parasitology,and at the end of her sophomore year initiated aremarkably stimulating six months of off-campusstudy.A summers service in a medical clinic in theKenyan bush, followed by a semester of studyfocused upon international health and developmentin Geneva, Switzerland, allowed her both micro andmacro windows into the complex brokenness of thetwo-thirds world.As the days passed into weeks, dif-ficult questions cascaded down upon her developingconscience. If God is in heaven, how can there be somuch grieving on earth? Who is God, anyway? IsHe believable? Is He good and sovereign? Does theWord of God really give light into the ways of thisworld, with its social, economic, and political injus-tices? There were no cheap answers.

Because, you see, it is true: she who knows themost, mourns the deepest.

I want to underscore this: given what I do andwhere I go and who I meet, I hear stories likeherseach one completely uniqueweek afterweek, year after year.

The hunger for knowledgeSo what is it that Simone Weil meant when shewrote,The most crucial task of teaching is to teachwhat it is to know?

She would not have been hired to teach

We are surrounded by the sociological phenome-na of an information age; or as James Billington, ourLibrarian of Congress, prefers to call it, an info-glut

culture. Knowledge is power.At least thatis the promise etched in stone over thedoorway into the Library itself, a librarywhich is the largest in the world.Knowledge is power? Yes, sometimes insome places. But knowledge is also over-whelming, as Billington himself under-stands. He asks,With all our access toknowledge, are we becoming any wiser?That challenge is not unique to our time.Byrons poetic insight echoes through thecenturies,He who knows the most,mourns the deepest.

This is a conversation about thenature of spiritual formation: wondering what thatimagery and language means for a college, for a college curriculum, and for college students and fac-ulty and administrators. I want to focus upon the lastwords of the 20th-century scholar and saint, SimoneWeil. On the night of her much too early death, shewrote in her journal,The most crucial task ofteaching is to teach what it is to know.

What is it to know? What does it mean for acollege committed to a Christ-centered curriculum?What does it mean for students, for faculty, foradministrators committed to forming a coherentfaith, to understanding the integral relationshipbetween worship, worldview, and way of life? Whatdoes a strong position likeThe most crucial taskof teaching is to teach what it is to knowmeanfor a conversation like this one, a conversation aboutspiritual formation?

Some despair and smile.At Oxford University,one can find bookmarks, postcards, even sweatshirtswith a gargoyle in grief, hands across his eyes, andthese words:

The more I study the more I knowThe more I know the more I forgetThe more I forget the less I knowSo why study?


Loving, Mourning, KnowingBy Steven Garber


theology at most Christian colleges; at critical points she did not see clearly. Brilliant and commit-ted, and yet she stumbled in understanding mereChristianity.At the same time she hungered toknow, in the deepest, most human way, in a way thatby its very natureembedded in the epistemologyitselfwould call her to responsibility. For that, shewas passionate.

Do you know her hungers and passions? Atten, she told her parents she was a communist, andshe meant it.At twenty, she had finished first in herclass at the Sorbonne, studying philosophy.And then,wonder of wonders, she met Trotsky, the communistvisionary. It was a profound disap-pointment.As she later reflected, hewas for humanity, but did not reallycare for human beings.

And she walked away fromParis and from her Marxist ideal-ism. Her hungers and passions werestill alive though, and they took herinto the factories and farms ofFrance to live among the proletari-at, the sufferers and groaners of hernative land.

It was amazing grace thatfound Simone Weil several yearslater, and gave her eyes to see thatin the hungers and passions implicitin the vocation of Jesus she wouldbe able to find her own way to know the world inits multi-layered lamentand to love it too.Veryself-consciously she began to worship Jesus, the Godwith tears.

As she grew in her understanding of what herprofession meant, she began to reflect upon her ownlife and learning in light of her deepening love forChrist. Her work here is fascinating, and worthy offar more commentary than I will give.At its heart,she began to see that there was, in truth, a profound-ly rich answer to the question,Why study?

In her essay,Reflecting Upon the Right Useof School Studies with a View to the Love of God,she wrote,Although people seem to be unaware of it, . . . the faculty of attention forms the realobject and almost the sole interest of studies. . . .Every school exercise, thought of in this way, is likea sacrament.1

Hear her, carefully.Every school exercise,thought of in this way, is like a sacrament.

One of her interpreters, John Hellman, com-ments:

In the end all of the different forms of atten-tion which Simone Weil describedattention toworkers, attention to sufferers, attention to academicsubjects, attention to languages or literary composi-tion, attention to ones neighbor and to the peculiar-ities of the modern culture which oppresses himeven attention to Godwere tied together. 2

She began to see that coherence was possible.In stark contrast to Trotsky, she saw that belief and

behavior could be held togetherwith integrity; that ones worship,ones worldview, and ones way oflife could be coherent.To have lovefor God and love for learning,together bound up with love forones neighbor, especially the suffer-ers: By grace, it is possible. It was forher, and it is for you and for me.

A biblical epistemologyWeils insight is profound, because itis true. It is true because it is deeplyrooted in a biblical understanding oftrue knowing. Our own deepestroots as the people of God reachback into the Hebrew worldview

with its assumptions about human beings and histo-ry about the ways we know and live in Gods world.There is an epistemological vision that grows out ofthis fertile ground. If we were to listen in, frombeginning to end, this deeply Hebrew and holy andhuman way of knowing could be summed up in thisway: to have knowledge of, means to have responsi-bility to, means to have care for. If one knows, onecares; if one does not care, one does not know. It ispersonal knowledge, but not private or subjective;the differences are decisive. Rather it is rooted in thedeepest realities of Gods nature and character, and ofour bearing His image, called to care for the worldin imitation of Christ.

It is a million miles from an Enlightenmentepistemology, with its prizing of detachment and

Does the Word

of God really give

light into the

ways of this world,

with its social,

economic, and

political injustices?

Steven Garber,

Ph.D. is the resident

scholar at The

Evermay Project

in Washington, DC.

He has recently

served as Fellow

and Lilly Faculty

Scholar at Calvin

College and is a

Senior Fellow for

The Clapham

Institute. For many

years, he has been

a member of the

faculty of the

American Studies

Program, an inter-

disciplinary semes-

ter of study on

Capitol Hill.

Continued on page 15


Schulze: Im going to pick up on that, Jeannette. IfGod says,Yes I can, what would be one small practical,pragmatic step for the beginner, someone new to the lan-guage of spiritual formation and direction.We heard aboutThomas Kempis The Imitation of Christ, and thejournal, the reflection time, some time away. If Im a fair-ly young believer, perhaps a college student, or someonewhos newly come to Christ, what would you tell me?

Bakke: I would tell you to tell God the truth.Tosay,I have 2-percent willingness. I would ratherread another book besides the Bible.The Bible lookslike a telephone book. Could you help me?

Carney: With the two-percent, you can read theBeatitudes, think about what it means to be anapprentice of Jesus Christ, and ask Him to be yourteacher. In little ways, your eyes will be opened, theheart will be opened, and you will be guided andinstructed by Him. In little ways, see how much thatgrows you into character and Christ-likeness.

Garber: Ask God to teach you to love what Heloves; look to God day by day and say Teach mewhat you love, O God. Help me to examine what Ilove that isnt worth loving.Teach me to see and tohear the world as you do.

Schulze: As you become more practiced in the spirituallife, is it still simple and profound, and what for you arethe simple and profound things that God is calling you topersonally these days? Where is your cutting edge?

Carney: Simple and profound, because I havegrandchildren, I have a dog, and I have a wife of 33years. And there are grace-filled moments in thatGod uses those experiences to transform me and tospeak to me. I have a chair, and a candle, and a littlejournal, and a couple saints that I reflect on, and therest is just a roller-coaster ride.

Schulze: What have you heard from each other:Is there is a message that stands out, a key point thatstruck you?

Garber: A word like peace grows outof one of the most profound themes inthe whole of Scripturethis is the waythat God wants people to live in Hisworld, this vision of Shalom.When I lis-tened to Jeannette speak, I found myselfthinking we are destined for intimacywith God. She called us into this pur-suit, this destiny, this way of living thatbrings us deeper into a true knowledgeof and intimacy with God Himself. Oneof the things I heard from Glandion wasthat weve got to see this language of

spiritual formation as outside a privatized spirituality,a compartmentalized piety, and I deeply resonatewith that. I think when we speak about piety andspiritual formation, and dont get to questions oftruth and justice, we really havent spoken about itbiblically.

Bakke: I heard a real call to be awake, to be willingto see even when we would rather not see. I heardthat when you [Garber] were saying,He whoknows the most, mourns the deepest. When we arewilling to see more than we can possibly bear iswhen we finally begin to pray and invite God tobear our sorrow and carry our grief.When I wasyounger, I wanted to be like Jesus, but I didnt knowwhat that really meant. Jesus was willing to do allkinds of things that naturally we arent, including tosee what was happening in His own day and time.So there is a real call to be awake and then to askGod what that means for each of us. Some days I sayyes, and some days not so much, but theres a certainway to say,God, can you do anything with two-percent willingness?

Finding the Simple and the ProfoundAfter finishing their prepared remarks, the three contributors participated in a guided question and answer session moderated by Dr. Edee Schulze,Wheaton Colleges Dean of Student Life. An edited transcript of their conversation is reproduced below. Editor

Q&A


Edee Schulze, Ph.D.

is the Dean of

Student Life at

Wheaton College.

Prior to becoming

dean, Schulze

served as director

of residence life at

Wheaton. She is

involved in music

ministry, as well

as a growing

involvement with

an orphanage in

the Dominican

Republic and a

ministry to Native

Americans.

Bakke: Thats a hard question, because I think lifebecomes more ordinary all the time. Somehow, Godis in all of it, differently, and the small things for meinclude having some solitude, because I need a wayto be refreshed.Another discipline for me is swim-ming. I would find after I was teaching, by the timeId get in the swimming pool, thinking about whatthe day was like, then gradually my day would settledown into a few words, whether the words werethank you, or have mercy, etc. It seems to methat some kind of physical activity helps me at times;when I try to sit and pray, its deadly.

Garber: I would say that this business of learning toknow and to love at the same time is just what Imthinking about all the time thesedays. I am married to Meg, and sheloves me, for which I am verygrateful, but I find that the longerthat I am married, the more Ireflect on,Is that possible, to knowme and to love me at the sametime. Even as I find myself remem-bering back to my first year of mar-riage and saying to her time andtime again,Can you still love me,now that you know me? I couldhide things from my roommates,but now, I was living with some-body all the time whom I wantedto know me, and yet I was afraid ofwhat it would mean to know me,because I didnt know if she wouldbe able to love me once she did.

I think this tension gets teased out into everypart of life.Whether it is the student going to othercountries or whether it is in the countless conversa-tions I have with students who see things in this culture and all over the world that make them think,I have to be a cynic now, because now I know theway it really is. Well, my challenge for them (andfor me, I guess) would be:How is it really? What is it really like?We need to see the invitation ofChrist, who wants us to think deeply about the possibility that God in Jesus has both known andloved me. He has both known and loved His brokenworld, and He calls me to that same vocation.That iswhat I am thinking about all the time.

Schulze: My last question relates to the evangelicalChurch. Jesus had great hopes for the Church when Hesaid to Peter,You are Peter, the rock, and on you I willbuild my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevailagainst it.What is the message that todays evangelicalChurch, as a collective, needs to hear in regard to spiritualformation?

Bakke: It is not a do-it-ourselves project.Ask God.

Garber: I remember reading a book years ago byRichard Lovelace from Gordon-Conwell Seminarycalled The Dynamics of Spiritual Life, in which hedoes an inductive study of church history on what itmeans to be renewed by God, personally and institu-

tionally, and he talks about how weare not only justified by grace, butwe are sanctified by grace.And it is important to push grace out tosanctification as well.

There is so much that we askof each other that gets passed ongeneration to generation and intoattitudes and ways of being witheach other, formularies which areintended for good but often turnout to be for evil. I think we needto be deeply, deeply touched by thegospel of grace, not only in termsof justification, but its sanctifyingpower in our lives.

Carney: That is a difficult ques-tion that you pose, because socio-

logically, the gospel is not working in our culture.There are over 33,000 Christian denominations outthere. I dont think Jesus ever intended that. So whatdo we ask the Church to do? Humbly repent, seekthe Lord, and ask the question,What are we doingto be like Jesus?The Church has much to do toherself in her own character development and formation.And it is we, the Church, who mustembody the message of Christ to have an impact on society.We must embody the message of Christ,impact society, and have change of character andheart, speak to the brokenness of our world, and bethe people of Jesus.

...we need to be

deeply touched by

the gospel of

grace, not only

in terms of

justification, but

its sanctifying

power in our

lives.


sufficient. Finally comes what we properly call theConfession, which is a confession of our failures,particularly in light of having heard the Wordexpounded and applied.Thus, we are coming toterms with the reality that even in our best momentswe fall short of that which is expected of us.

Its the nature of the confession that happensat that moment in the liturgy that it is general, and itis public. So the confession liturgically is not intend-ed to be a kind of real wrestling with my own sin. Itis more a sort of general and public recognition ofmy failures. Every Sunday people dressed in variousdegrees of nicety drop to their knees and generallyconfess their sins to some degree.And it is interest-ing that as I talk to folks who come into the liturgi-cal tradition I find it is often this very part of theliturgy that draws people from other church tradi-tions: the fact that as we gather together as the bodyof Christ, we make this general admission of ourfailings.This helps prevent the church from becom-ing a community of pretense.

Private confession is, in fact, a very rigorousspiritual discipline that meets a deep human need. Itmeets what is in fact a deep emotional and spiritualand psychological need to deal with the shortcom-ings in your lives and, more importantly, to actuallyhear somebody say to you,Jesus has dealt withthat.As much as we might know that theologically,there is a powerful experience when in private con-fession you hear,Your sins are forgiven.

Morally speaking, there are two opportunitiesfor private confession.The first opportunity, I thinkmany people think of this kind initially, is in thewake of a particularly grievous failing. Oftentimeswhen Christians have really failed to live up to whatPaul calls, you know,a manner unworthy of thegospel of Christ, theyll feel that theres a need, aparticular need, a more acute need for making a ver-bal confession of what has happened. Or, if not just

The Revd. Mr. Charles F. Edgar III is

Rector of Church of the Apostles in

Columbia, South Carolina. Fr. Edgar

received his BA from Wheaton

College, his M.Div. from Trinity

Evangelical Divinity School, and his

STM from the University of the South

at Sewanee,Tennessee.

As we think together about the role of confes-sion, we might do well to begin with the churchtraditions that consider penance or confession to besacraments.The Reformers held to only two sacra-ments, because Jesus directly commanded His churchto do two things, baptize and take the Lords Supper.Interestingly though, the claim in the Catholic tradi-tion that penance is one of the sacraments is precise-ly because in John 20:23, Jesus tells his disciples thatif they forgive the sins of anyone they are forgiven,and if they withhold forgiveness from anyone it is withheld. Confession and forgiveness are funda-mental parts of the ministry entrusted by Christ toHis church, regardless of whether we think it is asacrament.

Confession is routinely a part of a public liturgy.The Catholic tradition of liturgy has twofundamental parts of the service.The first is theliturgy of the Word, and the second is the liturgy ofthe table, or the Lords Supper, the Eucharist, HolyCommunion. Confession is the culminating momentof the liturgy of the Word.Three confessionalmoments follow the sermon.The first is the Creedbeing pronounced, which we can understand as aconfession of the Christian faith in light of whatweve just heard.Then comes a time for the peoplesprayers, which may be seen as a confession of ourneeds in light of what weve heard, as creaturesbefore the creator; it is recognizing were not self-

Confession Symposium

Confession is vital to spiritual formation.Yet, confession also carries responsibilities and burdens. Interpersonal harm mayresult from confession done poorly, whereas community may grow from confession done rightly. Four individuals immersedin the practices of confession reflected on the ethics of confession for a November 2003 forum at Wheaton. Here areexcerpts from their helpful discussion. Editor


own lives.We need concrete ways of showing up inGods presencegiving God access to those placesin us that are not like Christand knowing that inthat moment, even as we are opening up to God, wecant do anything about it. God must come in anddo His transforming work. So, confession is a spiri-tual discipline.

But the matter of confessionparticularlypublic confessionis confusing because we live in aculture where there are no boundaries around whatis to be shared publicly and what is to be ponderedprivately. Not only are we boundary-less in terms ofwhat we communicate to others, but we are also a

voyeuristic culture.We are accus-tomed to viewing peoples mostprivate moments on national televi-sion. It is no longer good enoughto be actors on a stage or an actorin a movie projecting what happensprivately in peoples lives; now wehave reality television.We wantmore and more of all this privatestuff to be right out there publicly.We want to see peoples relationalworlds, we want to see their sexual-ity, we want to see the betrayal hap-pen, we want to see them loveanother person in a way that shouldbe kept private.We want to seetheir failure and their shame and

their disappointment or their sexual exploits or theirflirtations.Were used to that now; were used to thatbeing public.

At the same time, we are a culture that pro-motes a profound sense of denial about the presenceof sin in our lives and the way in which our sinswound others.We are intent on pinning the blameon somebody else rather than using language ofconfession and brokenness and ownership andresponsibility. I remember dealing with a woman ina church who was also an elder; she was very, verybright.We had some difficult communications inwhich she was quite mean, and when I went withher to talk about it, the best that she could say wasthat her communication was less than artful. Is thatconfession? I dont think so. Its a way of using language to keep from having to own what we do to other people. So how do we move into this

in relationship to one sin, perhaps after an extendedperiod of having fallen away from the faith andwandering for a while, part of returning into the lifeof the church and into a more serious expression ofthe Christian faith would be this kind of privateconfession.

The second way that this is normally done isas a part of a regular and routine spiritual discipline.Normally, confession occurs in this fashion.Thistends to be done most frequently in smaller, moreintimate communities, which are intentionally gath-ered in certain ways. It seems to me from my pas-toral experience in confession that the greatest diffi-culty with the entire business ofmaking a private confession is speci-ficity.The confessee will say,I reallystruggle with pride, or,Ive hadlustful thoughts.And my job as theconfessor is to say,Well, tell meabout that.When? Give me anexample.And thats a very difficultthing for people to do.Were muchhappier to speak in generalities,Im a failure. Its hard for us to sayin particular,This is where I havefailed. In matter of fact, unless onein this process of private confessionis willing to be personal and specific,then the absolution that is pro-nounced at the end of a confessionalexperience is largely meaningless.The quality ofabsolution is directly related to the willingness of theconfessee to be specific.

Ruth Haley Barton is a co-founder of

the Transforming Center in Warrenville,

Illinois, which provides training in the

areas of vision, community building,

teaching, and content development. Her

most recent work is Invitation to Solitude

and Silence: Experiencing Gods Trans-

forming Presence (InterVarsity Press, 2004).

Confession is good for the soul. Confession, likeany other spiritual practice, opens me up to theactivity of God.All spiritual disciplines are based onthe fact that we cannot work transformation in our

How is it that I

can go through a

service and confess,

but its so hard to

do it face-to-face

with someone

that I have hurt in

the moment?

Im sorry that my jealousy kept me from joiningyou in this moment. Or,Im sorry that my ownego kept me pushing in a meeting in a way that wasnot productive for us. Im sorry. So, one of thethings I know for myself is that if I am not confess-ing my sin to one another in the ordinary momentsof my life, in the nitty-grittiness of my life, in thecompany of others, there is not much spiritual trans-formation going on.

Andrew Comisky received his M.Div.

from Fuller Theological Seminary and

is currently the founder and director

of Desert Stream Ministries. He has

previously served as president of

Exodus International. His most recent

work is Strength in Weakness: Healing

Sexual and Relational Brokenness (InterVarsity Press, 2003).

Confession is an important part of my life, mysobriety, my sanity. For me, it is fundamentally aboutintegrity and wholeness, and wholeness begins withan honest reckoning with brokenness. Confessionhas been key to breaking through to community.My understanding of confession is tied into findingtrustworthy priests.And by that, as a Protestant, Imean the priesthood of all believers: trustworthyindividuals with whom your secrets are safe andwith whom you will commit yourself to on anongoing basis, especially in breaking free of repeti-tive sins, what might be considered familiar sins.Thatwas really crucial to me. It was a breakthrough tocommunity by bridging the split in my life, so I wasnot just being seen as a pious person by my peersbut finding those with whom I could also clearlyand concretely be a sinner.That was key to beingknown in the community.Thats the only way Iknow to define covering in community.

A lot of us speak of church covering areas ofweakness, yet the only way that actually happens isnot just by being an audience member once a week,but by being known by members of your communi-ty with whom you can meet and pull aside regularly.Sometimes before a service you think,My offeringis not clean here. Im not ready to raise my handsand worship here. My hands arent clean. And youfind those ones there to whom you can confess. My

discipline in such a way that it promotes true spiri-tual growth rather than helping us to capitulate tosome of the excesses of our culture?

I think we need to practice public confessionin the larger context of self-examination, as part of awise and gracious plan for our personal self-exami-nation. In fact, confession is really the culmination ofthe self-examination process. It is that place of self-examination where we invite God to show us whatit is in us thats broken, what it is thats not likeHim, what it is thats wounding other people.Andthat is a long and very gracious and wise process.

It involves, first of all, knowing that we aresecure in Gods love.We cant do self-examination ifwere not sure that God unconditionally loves us. Ina wise self-examination process, we are convincedthat we cannot fall out of Gods love no matter whatwe find within the recesses of our lives; were con-vinced of that in the very souls of our being. If wehave fears that we might be abandoned by God, itsgoing to be very hard for us to see ourselves as weneed to see ourselves. So we must be clear that thereis nothing we can do that can cause us to fall out ofGods love or Gods presence.And then there growsover time a desire to let God at least see everythingthats true about us, or at least, to invite Him toshow us what He already knows, and maybe wedont yet.

I also recommend that we practice confessionin the ordinariness of our life.We need to engage inthe more formal and structured formats for confes-sion, but we also need to confess to those whom wehave affected by our own sin. I love liturgy. I love allaspects of liturgy. I love the places that are built in forworship and confession and intercession and hearingthe scriptures read without comment. But one of themost disturbing things I could say about myself isthat I can do the silent confession or the generalconfession within a liturgical service too easily.

How is it, then, that I cannot bring myself toconfess my selfishness to my husband or my jealousyto my friend or my impatience to my daughters ormy ego-driven pushing to my colleagues. How is itthat I can go through a service and confess, but itsso hard to do it face-to-face with someone that Ihave hurt in the moment? Why is it so hard for meto name that right now? You know what, I cantcelebrate your success, because Im jealous. Im sorry.


Unless thats the case, we may just be falling backinto what I would see as a ritual that has no realpower.

As leaders we need to make sure that our vul-nerabilities towards sin are covered through peoplethat we bring into our lives and that shelter us. Ithink that we ought to model expressions of vulner-ability, speaking of how we have struggled throughand found victory in areas of persistent difficulty.But for our people we have to do that from the

standpoint of modeling the powerof confession as it has released us,not making them the ones who arenow speaking the word of forgive-ness to us. Otherwise, it becomesmore of a show than an experienceof modeling.The only authenticmodeling is if we as leaders areenlisting that help for ourselves. Ifwere not doing that, then I thinkour modeling, or certainly ourexhortation, to others is thin andpowerless.There can be a tendencyfor leaders to attempt to create aninordinate public intimacy withtheir congregation through confes-sion. I hear of pastors doing thatsometimes, and I always have a

check for that sort of behavior: Do you have anyintermediaries in your life? I think if you dont, youare playing to the audience like a singer or an actor.Confession needs to be authenticated in the priestthat we would engage as leader.

Rev. Kristin Frederich is the Pastor of

First Presbyterian Church in Cambria,

Wisconsin. She is also the Dean of

Student Formation at Eastern

Seminary in Philadelphia. Rev.

Frederich holds a B.A. from Wheaton

and finished her seminary work at

Fuller Theological Seminary in California. She has also

engaged in post-graduate study in Historical Theology in

Aberdeen, Scotland.

At Urbana 96 one of the speakers had been atWheaton College during the revival they had earlier

understanding, then, is that given the priesthood ofall believers, a Christian has the authority, as Jesusgave his disciples, to actually speak the word of for-giveness. So its not just sort of a,There, there. Imso sorry that happened to you, but it really is theauthority to say you are forgiven in Jesus name.

The first aspect of the cross is, of course, dying.I die when I confess my sin. I hate it. I still hate it.Ive been doing it for years, and yet I still hate it.Theres something about that revelation of myselfconcretely as a sinner that is a death,but it is a good death, and it is Jesusthat kills and is killing my sin, in asense, as I speak it forth.Also, there islife in hearing the word,You areforgiven.There is actually powerthat is able to come and meet me, toabsolve me of the sin and toempower me in my weakness. Ibelieve there is no empowering inweakness unless we confess ourwickedness. In having done that, as asinner in confession to a brother or asister, I die, but I also live.There ismore of the resurrection to takeroom in my heart and life to contin-ue the journey towards purity,towards loving people well from theheart, even in the unseen places.

As a matter of course, in the groups that werun and the conferences we do and so on, there willalways be a time to come up and confess and some-times people say,Well, I want to confess that Imnot willing to give it up. Or,I want to confess myidolatry that Im not going to let go of now.Basically, they are not willing to die to their sin.Atwhich point we would not speak the word of for-giveness clearly.We would just say,There needs tobe a pairing of desire to turn along with the desireto be cleansed from the sin. So, I would pair repen-tance with cleansing full well knowing that thismight take many confessions, but I think there hasto be both, or else were then back to what some of us from liturgical backgrounds wrote off as inau-thentic: I was just mouthing what the priest told meto say, but I didnt believe it or know it or whatever.I think there has to be some reckoning, an under-standing that this is wrong, and I want to be right.


...given the

priesthood of all

believers, a

Christian has the

authority, as Jesus

gave his disciples,

to actually speak

the word of

forgiveness.

Church is that its an invitation to confession; its acall to confession.

But we then have to be careful for one anoth-er.We have to remember that confession means I amshowing you my broken soul, and so you treat thatwith the gentleness of Jesus Christ.The pattern inScripture is not one of power evangelism, which Iwas taught in seminary. It is not a pattern where youapproach someone and say,I know that you are insin. Of course, you would be making a pretty goodbet; there is a one hundred percent chance of being

right. But, you ought not confesssomebody elses sin; remember whatJesus said to the people whobrought a woman forth to publiclyshame her? He who is without sincast the first stone.

Jesus was specific, even whenhe was speaking to the woman atthe well in John 4. He doesnt say,Ok, lady. I know about you. Hesays,I have a need. He invites herinto the conversation. If you knowsomebody that is hurting and bear-ing a sin that they cannot hold anymore, and you know it, justinvite them into that conversation

and say,You really seem burdened. Ive been walking there, too.Whats going on?When thewoman at the well hedges, Jesus says,You go getyour husband. So she says,Oh, I dont have a hus-band, and he responds,Truth is, youve had fivehusbands, and the guy youre living with now isntyour husband.That must have been empoweringfor her because she took it back to her village.Come, hear a man who told me everything Iveever done. There is joy in having somebody knowyour deepest, deepest secrets.There is an,Ah! Idont have to carry this alone anymore.Then theperson prays with you and seeks Gods face with youand walks with you.

We must remember God is faithful and justand will forgive us our sins (I John 1:9).Thats excit-ing for us, because it means we dont have to be inbondage; we can live the truth, we can live the life,we can be authentic, because there is One who isconstantly renewing us into the image of His sonJesus Christ.

in the year. He described how it started at PierceChapel with a World Christian Fellowship meetingon a Sunday night, where the leaders started to con-fess their real sins, and they began to pray and seekthe Lord.And something tangible happened:Thecampus was transformed, some classes were can-celled, people were in all-night vigils, and everythingchanged.As I sat there listening, I thought, whatmakes that happen? What is it thats in the power ofthe Holy Spirit that moves us to become authentic?

Most who have experienced or studiedrevivals would agree that confessionis critical to starting a revival.Thereis something about releasing thelogjam of your spiritual dirt thatallows the flow of the Holy Spiritto flood through your life. Likewhat happened at Pentecost, youbecome a conduit, and the Spiritkeeps flowing to others. But whenthis kind of energy and excitementis released it easily can get twistedwhen you start confessing otherpeoples sins.Thats an abusive con-fession. Confession has to be per-sonal; it has to be voluntary; it hasto be the work of the Holy Spiritin your life.We cannot force confession or revival,because we dont always know how the Holy Spiritis working or for what purpose. But what I doknow is that many students at Wheaton and else-where are thinking,How do I become authentic,how do I become right with God and with the peo-ple that are around me?

Confession is Gods gift to us. If we didnthave confession then the sin would just build upinside us like a clogged pipe. If there is no way forwater to flow, all the muck would simply build upinside you. Confession is where we can talk tosomebody else and we can say,Brother or sister,I am wrong here; I have this burden. You carryaround this burden with you everywhere and youwant to lay it down.That is confession, to lay yourburden down at the foot of the Cross and say,It isbeneath the foot of the Cross, and it is gone.Andthat is the opportunity of confession, that is the giftof confession, and thats the invitation. One of thethings I love about confession in the liturgy of the


There is a joy in

having somebody

know your deepest,

deepest secrets.

There is an, Ah!

I dont have to

carry this alone

anymore.

civilization of the 4th-century.What do we believe,he asked, that can help us understand what is goingon all around? Augustine wrote him a long letter in response, setting forth the Apostles Creed, theLords Prayer, and the theological virtues of faith,hope, and love.3

Toward the end, he notes that it is not possibleto know whether someone is good by asking what

they believe. Rather, he argues thatit is only in knowing what someoneloves.And so to have the truest win-dow into ones heart we must ask,What do you love?Worship,worldview, and way of life are allbound up in our answer to thatquestion, and the consequences for acollege are profound.

The first and last question fora Christian college is this:What arestudents learning to love? It mightbe the first question to ask of anentering freshman, and the last to

ask of a graduating senior.What do you love? Whathave you learned to love? In the push-and-pull ofstudy, of athletics, of theater and the arts, of relation-ships in and out of class, of debates and discussionsfrom dawn to dusk, there is one question that mat-ters most:What are students learning to love?

Hear Simone Weil once again:Every schoolexercise, thought of in this way, is like a sacrament.Sacraments point us to God.They are reminders ofthe deepest realities, the truest truths.

Woven into the very fabric of our responsibil-ities and relationships as students, as faculty, asadministrators, we labor towards a vision of learningto love God and to love what God loves, seeingevery aspect of our academic lives as a sacrament.That is what it is to know.

1 Simone Weil, Waiting for God, Trans. Emma Craufurd(New York: Harper & Row, 1973), pp. 105, 112. Originallypublished in 1951.

2 John Hellman, Simone Weil:An Introduction to HerThought (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984), p. 88.

3 Augustine, Enchiridion, chap. 117.

disinterest. Nor are its contours adequately capturedby any post-Enlightenment paradigms, full as theyare of voices, perspectives, and narratives.

One of the most intriguing windows into thisbiblically-shaped way of knowing is the parablecalled forth by the man who got all As and flunkedlife, the parable of the Good Samaritan. Luke tells usof a man who has mastered the academic life; heknows its rhythms and its rules. Hisquestion is not one which growsout of his heart, but out of an acad-emic expertise disconnected fromhis own loves. Jesus responds, andthe conversation seems to concludewith the man one more time givingthe right answer. He has learnedhow to do that. Inspired by theSpirit, Luke observes that the manwanted to justify himself. He want-ed to be correct in his interpretationof the law to love, but not be impli-cated by its meaning. He did notwant the law to touch his heart.What else does itmean to justify oneself, but to push back, to abstractthe laws meaning, to take it out of its context of realresponsibilities and relationships.

And so Jesus tells him a story. For historical,theological, and sociological reasons, two men seeand hear, but do not respond.They know, but do notcare.They see a man beaten and bruised, but do notsee themselves as responsible. Scandal that it is, aSamaritan sees and hears, loving the man as if hewere his neighbor. One more time, Jesus asks a ques-tion, and one more time, the teacher of the law givesthe right answer. Pointedly, Jesus tells him to appren-tice himself to the Samaritan,Go and do likewise.

The biblical vision here is clear: to know is tolove. Simply said.

Sparking a proper desireSeveral centuries later we have this made plain inthe rich tradition of Christian spirituality whichgrows out of the Augustinian vision.A Romannamed Laurentius wrote Bishop Augustine a letter,wondering how to make sense of the disintegrating


The first and

last question for

a Christian college

is this:What are

students learning

to love?

Continued from page 7 Loving, Mourning, Knowing


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CACE News & Notes

CACE Resources The articles and discussions in this issue have been abstracted from publicforums supported by CACE and held on Wheaton Colleges campus.Audiotapesof all CACE programs are available for minimal cost through Wheatons MediaResources Office (630-752-5061).

A complete listing of CACE events, extending back to 1987, is availableunder resources at www.christianethics.org or www.wheaton.edu/CACEBack issues of Discernment also are available here.

Calendar The CACE theme for 2004-2005 is The Future of Humanity:Technology,Medicine, and Genetics. Our opening event was the annual David A. PennerDebate, September 16, 7:30 PM, in Edman Chapel on Wheatons campus. Forinformation about this event and other activities of the Center, see our Web site.

Reader Response If you wish to comment on this issue of Discernment, or if you would like tocontribute to a future issue of Discernment on the 2004-2005 theme, send us anemail at [email protected].

Discernment aims to stimulate interest in themoral dimensions of contemporary issues; toprovide a forum for Christian reflection; and tofoster the teaching of Christian ethics acrossthe curriculum. Published three times a year.

CACE DIRECTOR: Kenneth R. Chase, Ph.D.

MANAGING EDITOR: J.William Reaves 04

RESEARCH AND PRODUCTION:Pat Reichhold

DESIGN: Ellen Rising Morris

Center for Applied Christian Ethics Wheaton College

Wheaton, IL 60187-5593Phone: 630/752-5886

E-mail: [email protected]: www.wheaton.edu/CACE

DiscernmentSummer/Fall 2004 Vol. 9, No. 2/3

Spiritual Formation

Documents

Transcript of Spiritual Formation