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Writing as Christian Proclamation in Contemporary Contexts: The Truth's Superb Surprise
Debra Rienstra, Calvin College
July 17-28, 2006
Calvin College
Hosted by Seminars in Christian Scholarship
Sponsored by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, with funds provided by Lilly Endowment, Inc.
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Seminar Description
In a culture full of people who wish to be spiritual but have little vocabulary for spiritual things, how can we use the power of language to testify to what we, as Christians, believe and experience? Avoiding triumphalism, defensiveness, and dogmatism on the one hand and mere yeasty yearnings for transcendence on the other, how can we tell the ancient mysteries of God in fresh and relevant ways?
This two-week seminar explored how excellent writing can present central Christian themes to contemporary audiences, especially those outside of or new to the church. By reading and discussing together a selection of historical and contemporary writers—from Reformation psalm translators to Dietrich Bonhoeffer to Lauren Winner and Donald Miller—we considered the effectiveness of numerous strategies: traditional and innovative vocabularies, formal and informal styles, personal stories, narrative structures, and theoretical argumentation, the use of Scripture, varieties of story and metaphor, and the special challenges of speaking across cultures and sub-cultures (among other issues). We also considered questions of audience access, including how to navigate the various subdivisions of the publishing business.
Mornings were dedicated to group discussions based on our texts, while afternoons were free for individual writing projects and small-group collaborations. We gathered a cross-disciplinary group of participants including literary writers, journalists and editors, preachers, and teachers. Our goal for our time together was to to frame the issues we face today as writers of faith and set future directions for our shared task.
About the Director
Debra Rienstra is Associate Professor of English at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she teaches literature, composition, and creative writing. In addition to her scholarly publications in early modern British literature, she is the author of two works of literary non-fiction: Great with Child: On Becoming a Mother (Tarcher/Putnam, 2002) and So Much More: An Invitation to Christian Spirituality (Jossey-Bass, 2005). She lived in Sun Valley, California, in 2005, with her husband and three children while on special appointment to the Brehm Center at Fuller Theological Seminary. Under the sponsorship of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, Debra is writing a book on language in worship while serving as the Brehm Center's 2005-2006 Artist-in-Residence.