Editor's Preface

Barbara Carvill's address to August's Faculty Convocation appears, along with the rest of this edition of Minds in the Making, more belatedly than expected. Both its delay and its amended time of arrival, however, are utterly fitting, given Carvill's theme of humble perseverance. Originally spoken at the beginning of the school year, Carvill's words exhort us now in the middle of the Calvin semester, with weeks of papers and finals standing between us and Christmas break, to keep going.

"[D]uring those dark hours in the semester," Carvill said, "don't lose heart. Continue, pray, and do your best, and know that God does accept and bless your modest, clumsy, bungling, misshapen heart work and that, through Christ, that heart offering is redeemed and made beautiful." This weary giver of clumsy, misshapen offerings is grateful for Carvill's timely message, and for the spirit of humor, humility, and healing in which her message was delivered and received, after months of tension following the 2005 Commencement.

Less timely, seemingly, but similarly affirming, is Laura Smit's address to the college-wide Convocation in September, when Hurricane Katrina had just wrought its horrific destruction. In those weeks, academic study seemed less urgent than the need for relief and prayer for the victims, and in some ways it was. And yet, as Smit shows, academic study can lie at the core of who we are as disciples of Christ.

Like any hot-button issue involving religion, Intelligent Design has been subject to public discourse at its most simplistic, rancorous, and self-defeating. Like any issue addressing the basic framework of how God interacts with creation, Intelligent Design deserves discussion that is thoughtful, cautious, and useful. In their contributions to this edition of Minds, Loren Haarsma and Uko Zylstra model such discussion.

With the season of Advent now, startlingly, just weeks away (though not the least bit distant, of course, in the minds of retailers), John Witvliet calls us to reflect as we prepare to commemorate the first and second comings of Christ. Witvliet's in-depth analysis of the book of Isaiah provides a much-needed correction to the common practice of plucking a few choice verses from the 66-chapter book and emblazeoning them on church bulletins and Christmas cards as charming holiday platitudes.

Instead, Witvliet calls our attention to the theological themes of Isaiah, particularly the reign of God in opposition to the false comforts of idols. With this view in mind, Witvliet says, we may deepen our understanding of God, of the idolatries of our age, and of the vivid promise of the coming of the Messiah. May this Advent season be, in Witvliet's words, an "anti-idolatry campaign," and a time of bowing at the manger with fresh awe.

A new feature this edition is In Brief, a roundup of recent articles of interest from academic (and substantive general interest) periodicals. Here, in a mere five paragraphs, on subjects ranging from the remedies of 17th century medical almanacs to the literary eccentricities of Edmund Wilson, is a juicy taste of what a liberal arts education is all about. Like this e-collection as a whole, may this new feature serve to whet intellectual appetites and stimulate what Barbara Carvill calls "insightfulness into the relatedness of all issues."

NB