Introducing Karl Barth

I have no idea who Karl Barth is.

I spent the majority of this past summer working in the Masland Library.  Okay, insert reader commentary:

Reader: “WHATTT? The library is open during the summer???”

Why, yes, dear reader!  The library is open for Monday-Saturday during summer classes and Monday-Friday for the rest of the summer.  If you do decide to stop in anytime after summer classes are completed, you will likely see student workers among the bookshelves, preparing the library for the coming school year.  This past summer, myself and several other student workers were given the task of shifting almost every book in the main section of the library.  In the course of this tedious-but-necessary task, one man’s name seemed to appear over and over:

KARL BARTH.

No matter what section we were shifting that day, Karl Barth had either written a book on it or someone had written a book about Karl Barth’s thoughts on the matter.  I have done no research on who exactly Karl Barth is and why he has so many opinions about everything, so it does not really make sense that I am writing a blog post about him.  However, I believe in you, reader, and your researching ability.  I just searched his name in the library catalog and was given over 300 results, so he is probably an important person.  So, go! Find out who this man is!  Maybe write him a letter asking him to please calm down and stop writing so many books that I have to shelve.  Here’s a couple books that are in our library collection about good ol’ Karl:

Karl Barth in the theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer –  BX4827.B57 P3615  2000

 

How Karl Barth changed my mind –  BX4827.B3 H59 1986

 

The Humanity of God –  BT28 .B273 1996

*This one is actually by the man himself!*

 

Christianity and Barthianism –  BX4827.B3 V36 1962

Okay, so apparently Barth has a whole school of thought named after him.

 

Hopefully those books can get you started on the journey of Barth knowledge on which I have never traveled.

~Valarie Meiser

Live Gladly

“Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.” (Philippians 2:14-15)

5 a.m. Jolted awake by yet another fire alarm. The Heritage Hall microwaves are at it again. As the residents of Heritage gathered outside the building in 30 degree air – some wrapped in blankets, some wearing shorts and t-shirts, some fully dressed and ready to take on the day – there were many conversations going on, but as I sat shivering on the curb, there was a theme that kept jumping out at me as I overheard snippets of conversations: complaining.

“I have to be up in two hours!” “I have to go to class!” “I just want to be back in bed.” “Who makes popcorn at 5 a.m?!” “I’m gonna hunt down whoever set it off this time.”

I’m tired.

I’m cold.

I’m this.

I’m that.

Fellow Cairn students, I have a newsflash for you: We’re all tired.

Throughout the past few weeks, conversations around campus have been marked with the consistent theme of complaints – about the food in the MAC, about professors, about due dates, papers, lack of sleep, friend drama, Student Life, you name it. The fact is that we’re all struggling. It’s November! It’s the time of the semester when huge papers start piling up, daunting reading assignments take forever to finish, and getting any amount of decent sleep seems impossible. It is so easy to begin to believe that you are the only person who is experiencing stress, exhaustion and the feeling of being completely overwhelmed. But the truth is, you’re not the only one.

This fact presents a point of encouragement and a challenge. Be encouraged that you are not alone. You are not the only one who is buried by life, and therefore, we are buried together. We can take this opportunity to walk alongside one another, to point each other back to Jesus, to remind each other that our strength and joy in each day comes only from HIM, not from ourselves. We are a community of believers. We have the amazing opportunity to live together, eat together, learn together, grow together, and experience 5 a.m. fire alarms together.

A couple weeks ago in chapel, Dr. Williams challenged us to practice encouraging one another. Giving each other courage, empowering one another. Can I ask you to do just that? Think twice about the words that you speak. There is value in being honest with each other concerning the condition of our hearts and in sharing our burdens, but there is equal value in building one another up. There needs to be a balance of the two.

Friends, we have this hope that Christ sustains us. He sustains us through each day, each moment, each assignment, each sleepless night. Because of this hope, we have the freedom to be filled with joy. But we have to choose it. Choose to be joyful rather than pessimistic. Choose to look on the bright side. Choose to notice the beautiful fall leaves. Choose to be thankful for the fact that we are here, doing life together. Yes, it’s hard. Yes, it’s stressful. Sometimes it involves shivering outside at an ungodly hour rather than catching a few more hours of sleep. But this stressful and overwhelming college life is where God has called each of us. It is in this season of stress that He can best teach us to surrender our schedules to Him and to look to Him for strength to get everything done on time. Let’s choose to make the best of it, and to help each other to see this time as a blessing, instead of a burden.

As John Piper wisely stated: “If you live gladly to make other glad in God, your life will be hard, your risks will be high, and your joy will be full.”

~Emily Tielmann

*Image not owned by Masland Library, Creative Commons usage

Completing the Course

The end of the semester is finally here! The final challenge awaiting all of the students is finals week. There is something about finals week that is just so, well, final. To put it simply, finals week is the culmination of all of the hard work that has been done all semester long. For each class, it comes down to one final paper. What better place to write your final papers then the library? To help the student body, the library is staying open until 12 AM from Sunday to Tuesday.

This week will be a little hectic for the library since everyone is finishing up with books that they checked out. For final papers, the library has an immense selection of books for students to use as resources. I am working on a final paper for my New Testament class, and I have selected a number of helpful books to guide my argument. I have chosen eight commentaries that I thought would be helpful. The BIB REF section on the lower floor of the library includes many commentaries and books on Hebrew and Greek translations. I may use some of these books as well, however books from the BIB REF section may not be checked out.

The paper concerns I Corinthians 8-11 and the idea of food that is sacrificed to idols. I cannot say anymore in regards to this paper because I have not started it. However, the idea of food sacrificed to idols has appeared in other places in the New Testament (Romans 14-15 and Revelation 2 for example). For other classes, the final may come down to one more class presentation. The computer labs on the lower and upper level of the library supply the sufficient technology for students to use on their presentations. If any of the students need any help with operating one of the systems or finding resources, there will normally be a student worker in the computer lab on the lower floor. Perhaps some of the finals next week are exams (possibly cumulative). The librarians and sometimes student workers work hard trying to keep the library a quiet and productive environment for people to do their work. The student can even isolate himself from everyone by going to one of the small cubicles in the library to try to concentrate on studying for his exam.

The library will also provide students with coffee and hot chocolate so that they may take a short break. Truly the library is prepared to help students get through finals week. The remaining question is this: are the students prepared to finish this semester strong? The final grades on Self-Service represent a semester’s worth of hard work, or maybe not so hard work…

-Daniel Wright aka Superfly

Cairn University’s Agora 2012

November is here! All of the debates and political conversations will finally begin to come together and it will be time to decide who you think would be more fitting to lead this country.  With all of the different aspects to contemplate it can be overwhelming. Who is the lesser of two evils? Who will be able to handle this great responsibility? Where should I place my trust? What will really happen if you are put into office/stay in office?

The Agora Conference this past weekend was centered on Politics and how as Christians we should function within this. During the sessions that I attended a broad framework was provided in how we as Christians should look at different events that take place within our government. It is important to remember that no matter who is in office, it is an accurate reflection of the United States of America as a whole; whether we agree or disagree with the President’s actions, it is the people who gave him this position. We must pray for the individuals in our government and trust in God’s ability to use them in whatever way He pleases. 

No matter if you did or did not attend the Agora Conference, there are many issues that we should be praying about and trying to gain a further understanding of within our government. Every vote does count and so not only should we take advantage of the right that we have a citizens but we should also be informed in our decision making. Besides watching the debates on television, reading articles online, and discussing political issues amongst friends books can be a great resource to help challenge your thinking and give you a better understanding of the information you already have.  Unfortunately, the books I am about to suggest I have not yet had the chance to read myself, but as I look into the issues further I felt as though these books could be helpful  – and the best part is we have them here within our own library! (:

Christianity and Politics by William Wilberforce

                BR 115 .P7 W474 2004

Voting as a Christian: The Economic and Foreign Policy Issues by Wayne Grudem

                BS 680 .P45 G782 2012

Voting as a Christian: The Social Issues by Wayne Grudem

                BS 680 .P45 G783 2012

The Bible in Politics: How to Read the Bible Politically by Richard Bauckham

                BS 680 .P45 B38 2011

~Leia Brunette

The Things We Take for Granted

I have had two experiences during summer vacation so far that I thought would be worth sharing, particularly on this blog. The first comes from my summer job, and the second comes from my local library in-the-middle-of-nowhere, Chester New Hampshire.

During this summer my life takes a very different pace, as I am on the grounds crew for a local golf course. Instead of shuffling books or helping patrons with Microsoft Word in a nice air-conditioned library—like during the semester—my average work day here runs from 6:00AM to 2:00PM in the cold, rain, and heat, doing all sorts of different landscaping type-jobs. This year one of my more recent jobs has been teaching a new high school graduate the ropes.

During my time with this new employee, the commonplace discussion about school, life, and family ensued. Upon my saying that I attend “Philadelphia Biblical University” (sorry, I haven’t started saying “Cairn” yet), the discussion about Christianity came up. As this is my third summer working there, all the guys on the course know that I’m a Christian and that I study the Bible at a University. What was different about the discussion this time was how much this new kid didn’t understand about Christianity—his parents were never involved in any type of religion, and he was raised in a government school that never taught him anything about Christianity or the Bible. He was shocked to hear that Jesus was God. We started talking about the Bible. He had never heard of Abraham before. He even asked me if Jews thought that Abraham was God the same way Christians think Jesus was God. Now, I say all this not in any way to make this fellow look bad—he is simply a product of our culture.

The second event was my looking through the catalog for my local library. They don’t even have a copy of Calvin’s Institutes. The closest thing to any sort of “Christian” material available was Joel Osteen, the man from planet prosperity. I was definitely disappointed, although not surprised, at the major lack of Christian materiel available to the public in my area—New England. The land that once was called home to our friends the Puritans.

I tell both of those stories to remind my fellow students of what I was reminded of by them: we take for granted what we have, both in our general understanding AND our library. Not knowing the name of Abraham, if you were raised in a Christian household as I was, is something that’s hard to imagine. As a PBU student, not having access to thousands of commentaries and theological treatise is also something we don’t stop to think about, and often times, it isn’t something we stop to use. Those things being said, I want to encourage you to thank God for the resources he has given you—both through the friends and churches that you have, and also the great collection of writings available to us in the library. Go ahead, pick up a dead theologian. Read Calvin’s Institutes. Praise God that you can. 

~Zak Fixler

Aesthetics

One of the first things you will notice as you step through the wooden doors of the library are the colorful paintings on the wall facing you. These paintings all carry a story, each of them unique. Art has a funny way of expressing stories. Each piece adds a part to an even bigger story that the curator tries to tell. And art, being a very subjective topic, will lead you to interpret the story differently from you brother standing next to you and your sister across the room.

And to think that just a few years ago, our library had very little to offer in the aesthetic realm. Our school has changed a lot. It’s constantly ebbing and flowing, out with the old, in with the new. Soon, students will register for classes next semester, finish the semester strong, leave for the summer, and come back again in the fall. I know this next fall will be different. I know for sure that there will be new students who will contribute to a new PBU community culture. I know some of my favorite professors will be gone, and there will be new professors to fall in love with. Yet, loss is still a hard thing to deal with. Several of our students have been personally hit with this emotional tear, speechless, confused, angry, numb. Dr. Hirt, dean of the Bible department, has been struggling with cancer since last year. We’ve just been informed that Lisa Weidman, Director of Communications and Marketing and a key catalyst for the appearance of fine arts on campus, has a rare form of cancer. Unlike Dr. Hsu’s death, theirs will be expected. We will have a little bit longer to celebrate our last times with them,
stories ebbing and flowing.

I wonder what stories Lisa intended to share with each piece of art she contributed to for our campus. I wonder what stories she will be sharing in heaven, stories that God has embedded on her heart, full of color and wonder and so much beauty, full of ebbs and flows.

~Hanah Bae

Lisa Weidman’s Honorarium page

Dr. Hirt’s Honorarium page

Dr. Hsu’s Honorarium page

Prodigal God

   On October 26, 2011, I had the wonderful privilege of hearing Makoto Fujimura give a lecture about his newest project, the Four Holy Gospels Bible, which was published by Crossway and released in January 2011. It was fascinating to hear about his technique, Nihonga, which involves painting with pigments made of prismatic minerals in multiple layers. One of the paintings he spoke of is titled “Prodigal God”, based on the story of the two sons in Luke 15. The title is based off a book by the same title written by Fujimura’s pastor, Timothy Keller. I read this book over the summer, and it was very challenging. In speaking of the book and his painting, Fujimura explained that in the days of Shakespeare, the word prodigal had a good connotation and meant spend-thrift, or spending everything for a cause. We often label the younger son as prodigal, but the real prodigal, by the Shakespearean definition, is the Father. Keller stresses this in his book as well. Both of the sons are wayward in their own ways. The younger son runs after worldly pleasure. The older son gets caught up in legalism, and despite both of the sons’ mistakes, the father spends all on them. He runs to meet his youngest, something which was not seen as respectable for elders to do. For his older son, he leaves the banquet, a great disgrace, to speak to his son and bring reconciliation. Our Father does this too. He sent His only son, Jesus, to be disgraced for our sake, which is an incredible picture of extravagant grace.

Makoto Fujimura leaves the viewer to imagine their own meaning out of his “Prodigal God” painting, but there are several little clues he gives to demonstrate this extraordinary grace. First of all, Fujimura used oyster shell pigments, the only opaque, transparent white pigment, to provide a vision of grace, which provides a stark contrast to the other side of the painting. And speaking of two sides, Fujimura informs his audience that splitting the picture is not recommended in the art world, but he intentionally employed this split to create a problem that humans cannot solve, which illustrates that grace does not equal doing stuff for God, but rather accepting His free gift.

I highly recommend reading Prodigal God (found at this call number in the library: BT378.P8 K25 2008) and meditating on its challenge to be a real prodigal who spends all they have to seek those who are lost in their sin. This is the challenge Fujimura is also trying to convey, and I believe it is crucial to embrace this grace and live it out.

~Allison Beyer

Beauty in Tears

 Today’s speaker in chapel was Makoto Fujimura, whose artwork has been featured in the PBU
library for a few years now. It was one of the most beautiful messages I have heard and it seemed a lot of people found it to be really encouraging for where they are at and have been feeling. Although his artwork is most definitely fabulous, what touched me the most was the fact that he was able to make the message he shared this morning an art in and of itself.

He spoke on John 11. He focused on verse 11, pointing out that Jesus’ tears in this passage can aid our understanding of the arts and culture. He described three of the people present at the scene including Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. Each of these individuals had very different personalities, mannerisms, desires, thoughts etc. throughout the chapter. Because each of them was so different, the approach that Jesus Christ had to take to reach them individually had to be unique. Fuijimura reminded us that in our suffering and crises Jesus is the ultimate master of helping us uniquely in difficult situations. When life is filled with chaos, we need to be reminded that Jesus wept. He stated that a day will come when our sufferings will not be worth it anymore because we will be reclining with Jesus. Our reaction to this is to be that of love, prioritizing our lives, and truly living in Christ’s freedom. Fujimura challenged us to face the world by creating and showing beauty, truth, and goodness. All of this should be done in confidence for God’s glory.

Makoto Fujimura’s message displayed such reverence for the Lord, while also pointing out so many aspects of John 11 that I have never noticed. Take some time and check out the passage in light of Fujimura’s thoughts. Also, take some time and stop by the library to check out some of his artwork!

~Christa Joy Ciotta

Library Items by Makoto Fujimura

Makoto Fujimura’s website

Image: Fujimura, Makoto. Aijo (Compassionate Love). Digital image. Makoto Fujimua. 1987. Web. 27 Oct. 2011. .