Dangerous Memories - Ron Kuipers

O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me! For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery… —Micah 6:3-4 (NRSV) The Book of Micah is set in the late-8th century BCE, a time of political turmoil, social injustice, and spiritual corruption in both the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah. Chapter 6 begins like a courtroom drama in which God, through the prophet, issues a challenge: Bring your case against me, as I will plead my case before you. Testify! What have I done to make you so weary of me? Have you forgotten that I freed you from slavery in Egypt? And yet now, your wealthy are themselves full of violence and deceit (6:12). Instead of walking humbly in my shalom way (6:8), your bloated leaders speak their oppressive desires into existence, and the corrupt clerks with their fingers on the scales rush to ensure their unjust wishes are fulfilled (7:3). Jahweh’s courtroom challenge evokes what theologian Johann Baptist Metz called “dangerous memory,” the memory of liberation from slavery. This is not the nostalgic memory of the victors who sanitize history, but the subversive memory of the victims, a memory that refuses to disappear into the holes of oblivion the oppressors create for it. Walter Benjamin described this memory as one that “flashes up at a moment of danger,” providing a reminder of who we are truly responsible to in a state of emergency. And who are we responsible to? Not the billionaires who buy politicians and toy with the conditions of life on our planet. Not the flag, the markets, or the Constitution. Not our tribe, our religion, or our nation. God points us instead toward the widow, the orphan, and the stranger. God points us to the millions of people discarded in what Canadian musician, activist, and former Member of Parliament Charlie Angus calls “Operation Break the Working Class,” as decades of neoliberal economic policies hollowed out livelihoods and dignity. God points us to the refugees displaced by wars waged for oil, land, and profit. To Palestinians broken and killed in a state-sponsored genocide. To Indigenous children, now grown, who were torn from their family, language, and culture, forced into abusive residential schools run by clergy who were supposed to recognize the face of Christ in every person. Remembering all “the least of these” is dangerous because it tears the mask off empire. It exposes the idolatry of our age: billionaires like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel promising salvation through technology while profiting from exploitation; governments paying lip service to freedom and democracy while serving corporate power; religious leaders blessing the machinery of domination and war instead of standing with the crucified of history. But this memory is also dangerous for another reason: it calls to mind the resilience and resistance of the oppressed, a capacity we all possess. It reminds us that such resistance is never futile, because history has known moments when genuine faith, hope, and love kicked open the door to liberation. This memory is dangerous to the power of the oppressor. Angus offers a testament to this faith, hope, and love in his recent book, Dangerous Memory: Coming of Age in the Decade of Greed. Drawing inspiration from Dorothy Day, Dom Hélder Câmara, Desmond Tutu, Óscar Romero, and Martin Luther King Jr., Angus speaks about the power of dangerous memory to inspire action for redemptive social change. Yet the book is also a lament. Angus, a Roman Catholic, does not look away from the church’s complicity in abuse and oppression, nor from the dearth of religious leaders today who dare to confront systemic injustice. Commenting on this sad situation, he writes: This, to me, is the greatest scandal and tragedy. Faith should be the source of dangerous memories providing comfort, healing, and resistance. It can offer hope when hope seems impossible to imagine. It reminds us of a sense of a greater duty to those who would otherwise feel defeated and demoralized. It tells us that the world can still produce miracles. (p. 215) Micah lamented this scandal as well: “The faithful have disappeared from the land, and there is no one left who is upright” (7:2). Or is there? Oppressive political regimes often justify their criminal actions by claiming that the existing society is completely rotten and irredeemable and must be overthrown or remade. Moments ago, I witnessed a video of a nighttime ICE raid in Chicago where agents rapelled from helicopters, and citizens were detained without warrant, and their children were bound with zip ties. Those in power can only do this if we allow them to claim the mendacious ideological cover they invoke to justify such terror. Micah responds to the absence of faith he witnessed differently. Rather than using it as ideological fuel to add to a political fire, he recalls the God of liberation, the God who does not abandon people, as we all too often do: “God does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in showing mercy. He will again have compassion upon us….” (7:18–19) Let us then, friends, image this God and become agents of divine compassion ourselves, doing the justice and loving the kindness that delights the God whose shalom way is the only path to true liberation. I know things seem overwhelming and out of control right now. Yet if we but look around each of us will find right in front of us something to do that we can do. Something small, maybe, but also something whose expanding ripples we cannot predict. Do that thing and find others who are willing to join you. Get organized. Never forget that you are always free to be faithful. Shalom, Ron Kuipers

Prayer Letter: October 2025

Monday, October 6 – Friday, October 10

As we approach Thanksgiving in Canada (Monday, October 13), we invite you to pause with us in gratitude for God’s steady care of our community. Please pray that the Lord would cultivate in us thankful hearts, and remember especially students and others who may feel lonely at this time. May they experience companionship, welcome, and peace.

Monday, October 13 – Friday, October 17

We ask your prayers for Reenchanting the World: Philosophy, Spirituality, Ecology, Arts (Oct 16–18) at Toronto Metropolitan University, co-hosted by TMU and ICS. Local organizers include John Caruana (TMU) and our own Neal DeRoo, with an organizing committee that also features Héctor Acero Ferrer and Ron Kuipers. Featured voices include Richard Kearney, Mark I. Wallace, Michelangelo Frammartino, and Patricia June Vickers. Please pray for fruitful conversations, for hospitable collaboration among organizers, and for all who travel to attend. If you'd like to attend, please register here.

Monday, October 20 – Sunday, October 26

As classes press on and mid-semester work intensifies, please pray for stamina and clarity of mind for our students and instructors. Pray, too, for ICS staff who are preparing a cluster of late-October learning opportunities—may their planning be marked by creativity, kindness, and attention to detail.

Monday, October 27 – Sunday, November 2

This week, the MA-PhD program has its Fall Reading Week. Please pray for respite and restoration for students and faculty alike, that they would find rest, renewed energy, and quiet space to reflect. Pray also for inspiration and focus as students begin to work on their papers.

On Monday, Oct 27, Matt Bonzo is teaching a new Free to be Faithful course entitled Liquid Promises: The Spiritual and Cultural Crisis of Rural America. Please pray that this exploration of Appalachia’s story will help participants listen well to rural communities, discern the “liquid promises” of modernity, and imagine faithful forms of neighbor-love. Find more information and register here.

On Wednesday, Oct 29, Karen Swallow Prior is teaching a new Free to be Faithful course entitled The Good, The True, The Beautiful: Reading Literature to Restore the Soul. Pray that participants would discover fresh courage, empathy, and spiritual resilience through attentive reading—and that beauty would do its quiet work in all of us. Find more information and register here.

On Oct 30–31, Ontario Christian educators gather at Redeemer University for the Edvance Annual Gathering. Please pray for Edith van der Boom as she facilitates her interactive workshop, “Cultivating an Inclusion Mindset,” inviting educators to practice hospitality, reciprocity, and belonging in their classrooms. Pray for all presenters and attendees to leave encouraged and equipped for joyful, just, and inclusive learning communities.

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In Memoriam: Calvin Seerveld by Rebekah Smick

In Memoriam: Calvin Seerveld by Rebekah Smick On August 5, 2025, I received the unwelcome news from Peter Enneson, another one-time student and long-time associate of Calvin Seerveld, that Cal had passed on from this life very much at peace just a few days shy of his 95th birthday. As Cal had just received the proofs for a fourth volume of his Tough Stuff from the Bible: Tendered Gently, a newly published collection of his meditations on scripture, I knew that that peace was born not only of his readiness to be at home with his Lord, but of his strong desire to bring to fruition several projects he had been pursuing over the last years, especially since the death of his beloved wife Inès in 2021. He had been steadily working, despite declining health and several stays in hospital, on donating his art collection to Trinity Christian College in Chicago, and his library to Redeemer University in Ancaster, Ontario, and on preparing the final manuscripts for the publication of his collected meditations on scripture. As Peter and others who were closely involved with those projects know, Cal was very upfront about his hope to be able to complete them before, in his words, “final earth issues” prevented him from doing so. How heartened we all are that he was able to bring them to completion and how blessed that his legacy as one of the most vibrant voices in reformational Christian thought has been increased in these ways in these last months and days. Like so much of Cal’s orientation to his work as a professor of aesthetic theory at the Institute for Christian Studies (ICS) from 1972 to 1995, his drive to complete these projects bears the signature of the reformational philosophy that nurtured his scholarship throughout his life from his earliest days as a student in the 1950s at Calvin College in Michigan under H. Evan Runner and then at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam under Dirk Vollenhoven for his Ph.D. in Philosophy and Comparative Literature. What this drive especially reflects is the historical dimension of the reforming practice that is at the heart of reformational thinking, the idea that Christians need to be continuously engaged in all areas of life and study for the purpose of actively inflecting them in a Christian direction. Because this ongoing work of reformation requires deep involvement with the efforts of those who have gone before, it sustains, as Chris Cuthill has recently and so eloquently put it, a view of education as a “sacred trust.” Knowledge for Cal was “something to be shared, cultivated and passed on.” Thus, the completion of these projects was a vital passing of the torch for him “to the next generation of scholars, artists and students” for their continued work of re-formation. Cal’s earliest formulation of his own understanding of the aesthetic as a dimension of God’s created order that calls out for “joyful finishing,” as he says, took shape in a series of lectures while he was Professor of Philosophy and German at Trinity. First published in 1968 as A Christian Critique of Art and Literature, these lectures introduced his key concept of “allusivity” as the core meaning of the aesthetic as well as his conviction that aesthetic “nuancefulness” is as relevant to everyday living as it is to the practicing artist. His later Rainbows for the Fallen World of 1980, undertaken during his years at ICS, extended these themes in a robust chapter on philosophical aesthetics while also examining the biblical foundation for artistic activity and the various roles of the aesthetic within schooling and biblical interpretation. These were life-altering insights for many in Cal’s own Reformed community as well as in conservative Protestant circles at large especially among those struggling to square their Christian faith with their vocation as artists. The exceptional impact of these books over the years, however, would likely have been less without Cal’s very singular and extraordinary gift of being able to translate into familiar, accessible, and often breath-taking words the complexities of the philosophical tradition that he knew held such promise for the work of artists who professed the Christian faith. Cal was the poet of the reformational tradition whose faithful commitment to its biblically founded “all of life” message literally radiated from every page. For those equally engaged by the challenge of shaping affecting truths from the materials at hand, his was both a compelling and cognizant voice full of that familiar yearning for expressive integrity that accompanies the gift of human creativity. It was also a voice that very much coincided with who he was as a person – infinitely energetic, resourceful, imaginative, dedicated, faithful, and caring to name just a few. Not only did he endlessly prepare scholarly lectures, popular talks, and publications on the role and place of the aesthetic in Christian life, he had the energy to turn his passion for interpreting and translating scripture into several publications and even audio recordings. Ever resourcefully and imaginatively exercising his own aesthetic muscles, he even turned his 1966 translation of the biblical Song of Songs into an oratorio and his translation of Ecclesiastes into a staged performance. Few stones were left unturned in his efforts to make the biblical calling of an “obedient aesthetic life” a reality in his own life and in the lives of those he beckoned to the “joyful finishing” of God’s creation. Similarly, no occasion to extend his care to friends, students, acquaintances, and the many artists whose art and faith were revivified by his wise words and counsel was left un-extended. An email from Cal was as filled with verve, grace, and compassion as any of his writings. His desire to give his all was not limited to his professional life. It was his way of being. Invariably, those around him experienced him as a kind, generous, and extraordinarily gifted person. Thanks be to God for the life of Calvin Seerveld. As he would hope, may future generations continue to build upon his faithful legacy. Join us for Cal’s Celebration of Life (in person or via livestream). When: Saturday, September 13, 2025 — doors open at 11:00 a.m. (ET); service begins at 11:30 a.m. (ET). Where: Willowdale CRC, 70 Hilda Ave, North York, ON M2M 1V5, Canada. Livestream: will go live around 11:15 a.m. (ET) at https://YouTube.com/user/ChristianStudies/live. Share a testimony to honour Cal’s memory. We welcome you to submit a brief testimony of your experience with Cal — these will be curated by Judy Jordet (former student of Cal’s at Trinity Christian College) and posted online in Cal’s memory. Submit via this Google Form. Read and interact with this reflection on Substack. 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The Cape - Ron Kuipers

"So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” —Mark 11:24  At the ICS office, I’ve earned a reputation as something of a pragmatic realist. In meetings, one of my stock (however archaic) phrases is, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” It’s my way of reminding us not to count as ours what is still only an unrealized possibility. While this realism has its place, by itself it risks keeping us from reaching beyond what seems immediately possible. To move toward what is not yet realized—to dare something extraordinary—we need more than realism. We need hope and faith. We need the courage to believe that the ideals we long for, however distant, can truly come to life. Aware of this need, I try to keep my realism from collapsing into pessimism, and instead to encourage our team to imagine what can be done, rather than dwell on what can’t. Of course, my colleagues will tell you I don’t always succeed. When I spend too long listing the obstacles before us, someone will inevitably nudge me toward a more hopeful view, reminding me that what we’re striving for may be closer and more achievable than I, with my habitually sober approach, can see. Perhaps this difficulty explains why I’m especially drawn to Scripture passages that challenge our sense of what is possible. The verse from Mark above strikes me as one such passage. I’ve always struggled with it, especially the part about believing you have already received what you have asked for. Is Jesus telling his disciples to pretend they have received something they clearly don’t yet have? Or is more going on? In the teeth of this question, I remember the advice of my late mentor, Henk Hart: wherever the New Testament says “believe,” try reading “trust.” That shift changes everything. Instead of convincing myself I already possess something I don’t, the passage now asks me to lean forward in trustful expectation, confident that such a posture can have a real, material effect on the world around me: Whatever you ask for in prayer, whatever you hopefully expect, trust that it can come to be, and it will. The philosopher William James put it this way in his essay Is Life Worth Living?: Suppose, for instance, that you are climbing a mountain, and have worked yourself into a position from which the only escape is by a terrible leap. Have faith that you can successfully make it, and your feet are nerved to its accomplishment. But mistrust yourself… and you will hesitate so long that, at last, all unstrung and trembling, and launching yourself in a moment of despair, you roll in the abyss. (59) For James, faith is more than wishful thinking. It connects us to an enabling grace, the Spirit waiting to fill our wings if we let it. As he says, “You make one or the other of two possible universes true by your trust or mistrust.” This way of considering faith came to mind recently when Guy Clark’s song The Cape came through my headphones. It tells of someone who knows “life is just a leap of faith.” As a child, wearing only a flour sack cape, he jumps off the garage roof believing he can fly. He carries that childlike faith into adulthood, and even when he’s old and gray he’s still jumping off the garage. While people may chastise him for “acting like a kid,” one simple truth remains: “he did not know he could not fly, so he did.” How far is the distance, I wonder, between “He did not know he could not” and “He knew he could”? There is a slight yet important difference, for the former speaks of faith and even a certain naivety, whereas the latter invokes a certainty we only enjoy after the fact. But perhaps the more important contrast is between “He did not know he could not” and “He knew he could not.” For the former stance keeps the space of possibility open, whereas the latter forecloses on it pessimistically and fatalistically. Jesus spoke these words about prayer right after his disciples saw the withered fig tree and marvelled. The whole scene takes place in the shadow of Jerusalem under Roman occupation, with Jesus overturning tables and confronting corruption, fully aware of the world’s darkness yet unwilling to concede that it is beyond redemption. Today, too, we hear many voices—from Gaza to Ukraine to right here in North America—telling us that “resistance is futile.” If we trust that refrain, it will be. But let’s not presume to know that it is impossible to fight against the world’s injustice and corruption, and for its healing and restoration. If we do not know we cannot, then perhaps we will. Shalom, friends! Ron Kuipers Read and interact with this reflection on Substack.

Prayer Letter: September 2025

Monday, September 1 - Friday, September 5: Fall Retreat This past week students from around North America joined us for our ICS Fall Retreat (Sept. 5–7) at Crieff Hills Retreat Centre. At the start of every academic year, Senior Members, Junior Members, and staff set aside time to pray, worship, share stories, and set the tone for the months ahead. Please pray a prayer of thanksgiving for joyous laughter and new bonds. Monday, September 8 – Friday, September 12: As classes begin, pray for our instructors as they lead, and for students—new and returning—as they find their rhythm, courage, and curiosity. Free to be Faithful courses: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible (begins Sept. 9, Dr. Sylvia Keesmaat) — Engages how Scripture has been used in church and culture in conversations about gender and sexuality, with special attention to the CRCNA Human Sexuality Report. Pray for wise hermeneutics, generous hospitality, and fruitful dialogue. To register: https://f2bf.icscanada.edu/#page-m Twentieth Century Authoritarianism (begins Sept. 11, Dr. Bruce Berglund) — Through case studies from modern European and Russian history, students consider how ordinary people—including Christians—responded to authoritarian rule, weighing complicity and resistance. Pray for moral clarity and courage. To register: https://f2bf.icscanada.edu/#page-m MA/PhD courses: Pray that conversations spark new ideas and that anxieties are eased as new students begin their ICS journey. Course list: https://links.icscanada.edu/ma-phd-courses Biblical Foundations: Narrative, Wisdom, and the Art of Interpretation (Dr. Nik Ansell) — Reads Scripture as the living story of God and creation, exploring hermeneutical approaches that link biblical wisdom to today’s perplexing questions. Beauty: Theology, Ethics, or Aesthetics? (Dr. Rebekah Smick) — Surveys classic and modern accounts of beauty (e.g., Plato, Augustine, Aquinas, Kant, Weil, Barth, Balthasar) and their implications for the arts and worship. Religion, Life, and Society: Reformational Philosophy (Dr. Neal DeRoo) — Introduces key reformational insights on faith, culture, and public life, probing how Scripture-informed philosophy can shape contemporary social imagination. The Divine (at) Risk: Open Theism, Classical Theism, and Beyond (Dr. Nik Ansell) — Explores divine sovereignty, freedom, love, and the problem of evil through debates around Open Theism and its critics. MA-EL courses: Pray that educators juggling classrooms, families, and study will experience stamina and joy as they begin. Course list: https://links.icscanada.edu/ma-el-courses Cultivating Learning Communities of Belonging (Dr. Edith van der Boom) — Considers school and classroom cultures with attention to social and cultural contexts, racial justice, Indigenous perspectives, human sexuality, and restorative practices—asking how leaders can nurture belonging and link learning to community change. The Craft of Reflective Practice (Dr. Gideon Strauss) — Explores story-shaped, critically reflective practice: zooming in on an ordinary workday and out to career, community, and God’s world; developing qualitative research skills, an introduction to phenomenology, and a praxis for theory-informed, morally oriented professional life. Saturday, Sept 13: Cal Seerveld’s Celebration of Life Join us in giving thanks for the life and witness of Calvin Seerveld, beloved teacher, colleague, and friend. Pray comfort for the Seerveld family and for the extended ICS community. Willowdale CRC (70 Hilda Ave, North York) • Doors: 11:00am • Service: 11:30am Livestream (goes live ~11:15am): https://youtube.com/user/ChristianStudies/live Monday, September 15 – Friday, September 19: First Academic Council (Sept. 15) Pray for wisdom and clarity as Academic Council tends to courses, policies, and the shape of our common life in learning. Ask for imagination and patience as we steward ICS’s mission across programs and time zones. Continue in prayer for all our fall courses—especially for new students as they settle into routines, manage workloads, and begin to find their research voices. Pray for our Registrar and Academic Office as they keep many moving pieces running smoothly. Fall Big Read — Free to be Faithful (Sept. 17, 8:00pm ET) Pray that participants in our Fall Big Read with Kristin Du Mez and Hanna Reichel will find spiritual grounding, hopeful imagination, and courage for faithful action. In this year's Fall Big Read, featuring Reichel drawing from their new book, For Such a Time as This: An Emergency Devotional. In a moment of polarization, eroding democratic norms, and rising authoritarianism, Reichel offers a framework for Christian discernment rooted in Scripture, historical wisdom (including the Confessing Church’s witness), and core commitments of faith—guiding believers toward integrity in turbulent times. (Details & RSVP on our Free to be Faithful page: https://f2bf.icscanada.edu/#fall-big-read) Monday, September 22 – Friday, September 26: As seminars deepen and assignments loom, pray for focus and good health for students and instructors alike. Ask that discussions remain generous, that reading and writing be marked by clarity and wonder, and that Zoom rooms feel like hospitable spaces of genuine community. Please also remember our Advancement and Finance teams as they support the day-to-day life of ICS behind the scenes. Give thanks for the faithfulness of our supporters, and pray for provision as we look toward the rest of the academic year.

Dr. Joshua Harris elected as Senate Chair and ICS Chancellor

Joshua Harris is Associate Professor of Philosophy at The King’s University in Edmonton, Alberta, and has served on the ICS Senate since 2023. Joshua’s research concerns questions in metaphysics, the philosophy of science, and the philosophy of religion. Currently he is working on a project on alternatives to ‘naturalism’ as guiding principles for scientific explanation. Dr. Harris is a native Californian and a grateful alumnus of several post-secondary Christian institutions, including California Baptist University (BA), Trinity Western University (MA), and ICS (the combined ICS/VU Amsterdam PhD).