As a descendant of Moravian settlers in Lititz, PA, I made sure not to miss the presentation of the 2010 The Dale W. Brown Book Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Anabaptist and Pietist Studies to Katherine Carté Engel (Assistant Professor of History, Texas A&M) for Religion and Profit: Moravians in Early America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009). I greatly appreciated her challenging lecture and the opportunity afterward to chat with her on “God in Americaâ€, the general inability of radical Christian communities to sustain radical Christian practices over time and across generations, my “Theology of the Church” paper on the religious history of Elizabethtown College, and some of my own Moravian roots.
More on Katherine Carté Engel‘s research coming, but today we’ll return to Elizabethtown College to address the specific question of how the college wrestled with its religious roots on a practical/detail level and came to advocate/embrace peacemaking. As we wrestle with the history of a specific campus, I pray that you’re encouraged to dig into the history of your campus/discipline (or even your own religious community) and the vision/goals which work out in its larger way of life and the details which emerge from the overarching institutional perspective. May this process inflame your passion for and undergird your prayerful seeking of “Students and faculty transformed. Campuses renewed. World changers developed.” Note: For those whom the lengthy historical details are of less interest, feel free to skim through and focus on the conclusion.
Bible College for Church of the Brethren
The Elizabethtown College: The First Hundred Years true/false pop quiz asks, “’While students at other campuses were burning their draft cards in the 60s, Etown students were burning their chapel attendance cards.’ (True. See page 73)†(Downing, 1). On page 73, 70s Protests contrasts changes in various mandatory campus policies (including mandatory convocation attendance) and the 275 students, faculty, and administrators who solemnly marched through Elizabethtown in opposition to the Vietnam War in the face of strong student opposition. Note: Post on the humbling and amazing story of countercultural peacemaking faculty coming 😉 [Read more…] about Rebirth of Peacemaking in a Much Different Context