Prayer Letter: November 2024

As we enter November, we find ourselves at a meaningful time for reflection and preparation. With the term in full swing, our students are considering the themes they’ve engaged with so far, discerning how these ideas might inspire their final papers and projects. We ask you to join us in prayer that these moments of reflection would bring about creativity and insight as students look forward to sharing their work with others.

Monday, November 4 - Friday, November 8

This week marks the launch of regrowth, a series of monthly reflections by President Ron Kuipers, now available at medium.com/regrowth. In regrowth, Ron searches for healing and renewal in all things. One of the neat things about Medium is that users that have a free account (you can still read the articles without one) can publicly highlight their favourite passages and comment on them, allowing productive discussion and community-building. We hope that regrowth allows the ICS community to celebrate the insights that Ron has offered to us over the years and spark important conversations among ICS folk and beyond. You can sign up for free and follow regrowth here.

Additionally, on November 4, we will gather for our Fall Scripture of Faith and Scholarship symposium (zoom link). Entitled “What is ‘Christian’ about Christian Education? Formation and Learning,” Dr. Edith van der Boom, will present a vision of Christian education as concerning the whole person. According to van der Boom, Christian education necessarily emphasizes the importance of love, knowledge, and embodied learning spaces. These spaces nurture a deep connection with Christ, personal growth, and formation. Please join us in praying that Edith’s presentation offers educators of all stripes an opportunity to come together and discuss practices that enrich their shared learning journeys.

On November 5, from 6-9PM, Dr. Jim Olthuis will open The Radical Theopoetics of John D. Caputo to guests (RSVP). We hope this unique event will inspire reflection on the intersections between theology, philosophy, and poetry, and the work of John Caputo. Please pray for Jim and all who attend.

Monday, November 11 - Friday, November 15

This week we begin distributing the Advent Appeal, ICS’s annual financial appeal. We invite you to pray with us that our community of supporters will come together generously, enabling our students and faculty to continue the meaningful work of spreading the good news of God’s renewal. It’s a time of great need, and we are profoundly grateful for the faithful support that allows us to carry out our mission.

Also, we begin ramping up our promotional efforts for courses in our upcoming winter term. These include:

• Material Spirituality: Rethinking Religion (with Dr. Neal DeRoo) - Explore how religion shapes our experience of the world, rather than being just one type of experience among others. Using insights from religious studies, phenomenology, secularism, and Continental philosophy, examine how religion is influenced by historical and material contexts while also shaping them. 
• Rhetoric as Philosophy from Isocrates to the Age of Abelard and Heloise (with Dr. Bob Sweetman) - Explore the ancient and medieval study of rhetoric, focusing on its claim to be a philosophical discourse, via texts by Isocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Augustine, Abelard, and Heloise. In the process, consider whether historical philosophies should be viewed as speculative sciences, arts of living, or something else entirely.
• God in Flesh and Blood: Revolutions in Christology (with Dr. Nik Ansell) - Examine Christology from the perspective of biblical theology, focusing on how the New Testament relates to themes from the Hebrew Bible. While traditional theologians often explore systematic questions about Christ’s nature and atonement, this course will emphasize how Old Testament concepts like exile and return inform our understanding of Jesus’ birth and crucifixion. Explore questions such as: How do early followers’ worship of Jesus before the Resurrection shape our view of his humanity and divinity? What implications arise from Mary’s encounter with Gabriel? How does Elizabeth’s greeting to Mary connect to figures like Jael and Judith? Guiding this exploration of contemporary Christological issues will be works by James Dunn, Jane Schaberg, and NT Wright.

On November 13, from 6-8PM, Dr. Nik Ansell welcomes guests into Biblical Foundations (RSVP). Please pray that students and visitors alike will find new perspectives and encouragement as they explore how, after so many years, Scripture still speaks anew.

Finally, we invite you to join us in prayer for those attending the Board meeting on November 15. May God grant them wisdom and discernment as they make important decisions for ICS.

Monday, November 18 - Friday, November 22

This week, we relaunch Ground Motive, a dialogue forum that features opinions from the larger ICS community. It concerns the crossroads of philosophy, religion, and social ethics (medium.com/ground-motive). We pray that Ground Motive will foster vital conversations on topics that matter deeply to our community and beyond.

On November 21 at 7PM, prospective students are invited to join us for an information night on Art in Orvieto, our summer program with Dr. Rebekah Smick in Orvieto, Italy (RSVP). This three-week residency invites participants to explore the intersection of art, religion, and theology. Please pray that prospective students find the inspiration and direction they need as they consider this transformative opportunity.

On November 19, from 2-5PM, Dr. Neal DeRoo welcomes guests into Religion, Life, and Society (RSVP). Consider attending to get a taste of our Newest Senior Member’s take on the Reformational tradition. Please keep him and those attending in your prayers as they dive into questions of reformational philosophy in the context of today’s social landscape.

Monday, November 25 - Friday, November 29

As we enter the last week of November, we invite you to pray with us for our American friends celebrating Thanksgiving. Many of our new cohort of students come from the United States, and we pray that this holiday offers a time of fellowship, gratitude, and respite as they head into the final weeks of their semester.

We also look forward to sharing the fall issue of Perspective, which will be available in a new digital format at medium.com/perspective-ics. This issue, titled Building Up in Love, introduces our new students and invites readers to reflect and discuss what it means to “Build Up in Love” in today’s world. We pray that this message spreads widely, encouraging all who read it.

On November 28, from 2-5PM, Dr. Ron Kuipers welcomes guests into his class Philosophy at the Limit: Richard Kearney (RSVP). This session will explore the boundaries of philosophical inquiry, asking us to consider how our understanding shifts at the edge of intellectual knowledge. Please consider attending and pray for Ron, along with all those participating.

As we close the month and look towards the start of Advent on December 1, we pray for new life and direction in our world and hearts. May this season of anticipation bring renewed hope, guiding each of us to deeper purpose and commitment.

Thank you for your prayers and ongoing support. It is through your faithfulness that we’re to continue our work with strength and hope.

Take the Help

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. 

—Hebrews 4:15-16

What kind of season are we living in, friends? In a time when our society is fracturing along growing fissures of frozen identity, in a time when anxious people of all political stripes are retreating into the presumed safety of their echo chambers, in a time when otherwise democratic nations are openly flirting with fascism, well, such time is, to say the least, eukairon—a time of need.

What we need more than ever in these times, I submit, are imaginations inspired by our Redeemer’s shalom way, revealed to us in scripture. Cultivating such an imagination will encourage us to build fellowship and solidarity with those people we are all too often tempted to write off, enabling us to peer into any and every human face and see there disclosed our Maker’s very image.

For almost six decades now, ICS has striven to help people from all walks of life answer God’s invitation to enter the promised kingdom of shalom, where everyone and everything is enfolded in the loving embrace of God’s justice and peace, divine arms that reach out to us in this very moment to—as the inspiring hymn goes— “gather us in”:

Not in the dark of buildings confining
Not in some heaven light years away
But here in this place the new light is shining
Now is the kingdom, now is the day

What an alter call this is! Jesus our Redeemer has been where we are, knows how we suffer, and has withstood the test. He is eager for us to bathe ourselves in his Father’s grace, just as he did. “Approach the throne with boldness!,” proclaims the writer of Hebrews, or in The Message’s translation: “So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.”

Thank you, friends, for the role you play in helping ICS impart this hopeful and empowering message to everyone we serve. I believe God created ICS precisely for such a time as this—a time of need, yes, but also a time to be rescued and retrieved, liberated to serve God’s healing and renewing work.

Shalom!

Ron Kuipers

(you can find this article, as well as others, at medium.com/regrowth)

Building Upon Love, In Love

Then we will no longer be like children, tossed around here and there upon ocean waves, picked up by every gust of religious teaching spoken by liars or swindlers or deceivers. Instead, by truth spoken in love, we are to grow in every way into Him—the Anointed One, the head. He joins and holds together the whole body with its ligaments providing the support needed so each part works to its proper design to form a healthy, growing, and mature body that builds itself up in love.

 

—Ephesians 4:14-16 (The Voice)

 

Back in my college years, I spent many summer days installing eavestroughs. Working from the roof, my partner and I would start in on the noisy work of hammering off the old paint-peeling galvanized metal to make way for the new, baked-on-enamel steel rolling off the machine at the back of our truck. On more than one occasion, the clatter would bring a child out of his or her home to ask us what we were doing. With a gleam in his eye, my partner would invariably respond, “Your house is broken, we’re taking it apart so that we can bring it into the shop for repairs.” I clearly remember one panic-stricken youngster’s fearful reaction: “But where will I live?!”

While moments like this brought some levity to our otherwise monotonous days, something in my heart could not let these children persist in their anxiety for very long. My partner always teased me about how quickly I cracked, as I rushed to assure them that their house was not going anywhere, and we were just doing some small restorations around the edges.

There is something both beautiful and fearful about the trustfulness of a child. We would be very different creatures if such trust were not our starting place. But because this trust can be abused, we learn as we grow older that we can’t believe everything we hear, and that we need to develop and practice the art of discernment. We call “gullible” those adults who seem to have failed to learn this lesson, and “suspicious” those who have learned it all too well.

It seems to me that Paul wanted to help the church in Ephesus chart a course between these two extremes. As an educator, I find it intriguing, and not a little terrifying, that in so doing he warns these parishioners against being seduced or misled—literally being “wave tossed” or “wind blown”—by the “religious teaching” or “doctrine” (didaskalia) put forth by deceitful schemers. Even otherwise authoritative teaching, it seems, can be put to destructive purposes if it is not spoken in love.

But there’s the rub: what does it mean to speak the truth in love? How do we know that we are doing so? What does “in love” add to “speaking the truth”? When I told that little kid that her house wasn’t going anywhere, was I doing anything more than simply correcting factually inaccurate information? I like to think so. I was also trying to assure her and thereby hoping to relieve her anxiety. My heart went out to her the moment I saw the fear well up in her eyes, and I listened to my heart by responding as I did.

By “speaking the truth in love,” Paul says, we grow “in every way” into the shalom of our Messiah, our Pathfinder who encourages us to follow him and comes to our aid when we falter. When we follow Christ’s example, we contribute to the vitality of a body that is built up in love. We know we are speaking the truth in love, then, when we see our teaching edify the students in our charge, when we offer them and help them assume a confident basis from which to make their own unique contribution to our shared life on this healing path.

Alas, there is no formula, rule, algorithm, or GPS that will guarantee in advance that we will always speak the truth in love. It’s more of an art than a science. What we can be assured of, however, is that there will be signs along the way to tell us how we are doing, and the perduring presence of the Holy Spirit to infuse in us the desire to make whole what has been shattered, to bring peace where there is fear and anxiety, and to create a world where the human instinct to trust one another is affirmed rather than abused.

Shalom friends,

Ron Kuipers

Prayer Letter: October 2024

Monday, September 30 - Friday, October 4:

As the month of October begins, we are reminded of the ongoing natural disasters affecting communities around the world. Most recently, Hurricane Helene has left devastation in its wake, and we humbly ask for your prayers for all those impacted by this tragedy. Please pray for the families displaced, those who have lost loved ones, and the many whose livelihoods have been disrupted. May they find peace and hope in the midst of their suffering, and may relief efforts swiftly bring the help that is so desperately needed.

At ICS, October marks the start of conference season, a time when our faculty, students, and staff are deeply engaged in academic events across the globe. These conferences are not just professional obligations but opportunities to connect, reflect, and collaborate with others in the field. We ask for your prayers for all involved in these conferences — for those presenting papers, those attending, and those working behind the scenes to make these events possible.

Specifically, we ask for your prayers for the New Leaf Conference, taking place on October 4th and 5th in Waterloo. This year’s theme, "Blessed are the Undone: Leading in the Era of Quiet Deconstruction," is inspired by Angela Reitsma and Peter Schuurman’s new book, Blessed are the Undone: Testimonies of the Quiet Deconstruction of Faith in Canada. As Christian communities across Canada are grappling with the complexities of deconstruction and the re-evaluation of faith, this conference comes at a pivotal moment. Neal DeRoo will be leading a workshop entitled "As the Kids Say: Viewing Deconstruction Through the Eyes of Christian University Students," which will explore how younger generations are engaging with faith, doubt, and belief. We ask that you pray for Neal and all the participants, that this conference will lead to healing conversations, new insights, and a renewed sense of purpose for leaders in the church.

Monday, October 7 - Friday, October 11:

As we move into the second week of October, please continue to pray for the many faculty and staff who will be attending the Kuyers Conference at Calvin University from October 10th to 12th. This conference is an important gathering for those committed to the integration of faith and learning, particularly in the context of higher education. The theme of this year’s conference is "Integrated Education in a Reductionist Age."

We ask for specific prayers for Edith van der Boom, who will be presenting her paper, "What is 'Christian' about Christian Education?: Formation and Learning." We also ask for prayers for Traver Carlson, who will be presenting his paper, "Cultivating Human Creativity: Artificial Intelligence and the Incarnation." Finally, Gideon Strauss and Kevin Otter (MA-EL) will present a paper entitled, "The Narrative Integration of Reflective Practice."

During this week, please also pray for the Friends of ICS (FICS) gathering, which will take place on October 12 in Grand Rapids. This gathering is an important time for reconnecting with friends and supporters of ICS, and for sharing the lively conversations currently gripping the Institute. Please pray for Ron Kuipers, Traver Carlson, and Kevin Otter as they speak at this event, that their words will be a source of encouragement and inspiration for all who attend.

Additionally, we ask for prayers for those contributing to Perspective, as their drafts are due this week. Pray that God will guide each contributor as they seek to engage with the questions that matter most. May their words reveal pathways to the truth, beauty, and love that are integral to God’s creation.

Monday, October 14 - Friday, October 18:

This week, we ask for your prayers as we hire a new Research Assistant to co-host the next season of Critical Faith. We ask for your prayers for those involved in the hiring process, that they may have wisdom, discernment, and fairness in their decisions. We also pray that the right candidate will be chosen, someone who brings both passion and insight to the work of engaging with these important conversations.

Additionally, pray that Jesus's message of healing and renewal breaks through to listeners of CBC Ideas on October 16 at 8PM EST, which will feature former ICS Senator and Christian commentator, Kristin Kobes Du Mez. This episode is an edited version of the lecture that Du Mez gave at the "Beyond Culture Wars" conference, which ICS hosted in conjunction with Martin Luther University College and Vision Ministries in April. Entitled "Jesus and John Wayne," du Mez details the relationship between American masculinity and evangelical Christianity, tracing its development and its effects on contemporary evangelical culture.

Monday, October 21 - Friday, October 25:

As the month comes to a close, we ask for prayers for those traveling to Chicago for the 18th Annual gathering of The Society for Ricoeur Studies (October 24-27). This year’s theme is "Imagination and Metaphor: Paul Ricoeur at Chicago, 50th Anniversary," and we are excited to have several ICS-affiliated scholars presenting at this prestigious event. Ron Kuipers is giving a paper entitled, "The Subversive Force of the Imaginary: Christianity as Radical Possibility in the Thought of Paul Ricoeur." Likewise, Héctor Acero Ferrer is giving a paper entitled, "Imagining Futures beyond Violence: Historical Memory and Social Imagination in Post-Conflict Colombia." Other ICS and ICS-adjacent participants include Andrew Tebbutt (sessional instructor), Theoren Tolsma (MA 2022), and Stephanie Arel (Board of Trustees as of January 2025).

At the same time, please pray for those attending the Edvance Annual Gathering at Redeemer University on October 24. The theme of this year’s conference is "Pursuing Joy," and we pray that the teachers and administrators who attend will leave with a renewed sense of purpose and a deeper commitment to the joyful work of education.

Likewise, pray for Board of Trustees Chair, Dan Bereens, as he attends the Christian Educators Association Convention on October 24 and 25, centered on the theme "Faithful."

Monday, October 28 - Friday, November 1:

Finally, as ICS enters its reading week starting on October 28, we ask for your prayers for our students and faculty. This is a time for rest and reflection, and we pray that all will find the rejuvenation they need to continue their work with energy and passion.

Moreover, pray for Neal DeRoo as he spends this time in Pittsburgh at the exploratory workshop for the Society for the Phenomenology of Religious Experience. The theme for this workshop is, "Experience and Non-Objects: Towards a Phenomenology of Indiscernibility."

Thank you for your continued prayers and support as we navigate this busy season. We are grateful for the ways that your prayers sustain and encourage us in our work.

Prayer Letter: September 2024

Monday, September 2 - Friday, September 6:

September marks the beginning of the 2024-25 academic year, and a continuation of distributive learning at ICS. This year, Senior Members will continue to offer virtual seminars, sessions, and guided readings to our Junior Members residing both in Toronto and elsewhere in the world. Our Junior Members are all at various stages of their programs, and as well as starting up classes once again, are also starting or continuing to work on their respective research and projects. Please pray for all our instructors and students, both new and returning, as they begin this new academic year at ICS.

We are looking forward to welcoming a number of new Junior Members this fall in our different programs! 

• Four new MA students: Clinton Stockwell, Tyler May-Gruthusen, Chris Christiansen, and Alayna Erickson.

• Four new MA-EL program students: Amanda Breimer, Keeler Kauffeldt, Danyse Nywening, and Brooklyn Sinclair.

• And one PhD student: Benjamin Strachan.

Please pray along with us that these JMs will have a successful start to their studies at ICS!

Monday, September 9 - Friday, September 13:

This is the first week of classes at ICS! Please especially pray for each Senior Member as they continue to find creative ways to teach course material virtually, dive deep into important and complex topics, and provide experiences that enhance a sense of community in their classrooms. Pray also for the students participating in each class that, despite the differences in time and place, it will be an inspiring and interactive learning experience for all! These are the courses to keep in your prayers this week and throughout the semester:

• Biblical Foundations: Narrative, Wisdom, and the Art of Interpretation with Dr. Nik Ansell (Wednesdays, 6:00-9:00pm ET). This course will explore the Bible as the ongoing story of and for God and all God’s creatures, paying special attention to the way in which humanity’s attempt to find its way is interwoven with the story of the Divine presence and with the wisdom and promise of creation-new creation. In asking whether and how the biblical story may find its future in our ongoing narratives, we will attempt to identify which hermeneutical methods and sensitivities might help us discern its significance for present day life, including the academic enterprise.

• Cultivating Learning Communities of Belonging with Dr. Edith van der Boom (Blended Online Synchronous/Asynchronous). This is a course for instructional leaders and administrators considering school and classroom cultures. Course content will include attention to social and cultural contexts, racial justice, Indigenous perspectives, human sexuality, restorative practices, and how these topics impact and form school and classroom cultures. 

• Facing the Darkness: The (Human) Nature of Evil with Dr. Nik Ansell (Tuesdays, 10:00am-1:00pm ET). This interdisciplinary theology seminar shall probe the origin and nature of evil by engaging key biblical, philosophical, psychological, and anthropological resources. Central to the class discussions will be a sapiential (wisdom-oriented) re-reading of the Fall narrative of Genesis 3–4, set against the backdrop of the good, yet largely wild, creation of Genesis 1–2. In addition to surveying a variety of contemporary theodicies read up against the challenge offered by both “protest atheism” and the biblical lament literature (especially the book of Job), students shall also pay special attention to the correlation between victim and agent in the ongoing dynamics to “original sin” and to the concomitant role of fear in the construction of culture. 

• Philosophy at the Limit: Richard Kearney with Dr. Ronald A. Kuipers (Thursdays, 2:00-5:00pm ET). This course is a study of Kearney’s trilogy Philosophy at the Limit as well as his book Anatheism, focusing on his exploration of that “frontier zone where narratives flourish and abound.” Participants will examine Kearney’s attempt to sketch a narrative eschatology that draws on the work of Heidegger, Levinas, Derrida, and Ricoeur.

• Religion, Life, and Society: Reformational Philosophy with Dr. Neal DeRoo (Tuesdays, 2:00-5:00pm ET). The course tests the relevance of this tradition for recent developments in Western philosophy. Special attention is given to critiques of foundationalism, metaphysics, and modernity within reformational philosophy and in other schools of thought.

• The Aesthetics of Compassion with Dr. Rebekah Smick (Thursdays, 10:00am-1:00pm ET). Looking to such writers as Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Augustine, Dante, Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, Friedrich Nietzsche and Simone Weil, this course will investigate the place of compassion in Western philosophy and theology and the roles that art and imagination have played in the stimulation of compassionate response. 

• The Craft of Reflective Practice with Dr. Gideon Strauss (Blended Online Synchronous/Asynchronous). In this course we will learn how to do critical reflective practice, primarily by telling stories about our everyday professional lives. We will zoom in on the story of an ordinary day at work, and then zoom out to the story of our career to date, zoom out further to the story of our work community, and zoom out even further to the overarching story of God’s world. In the process we will learn qualitative research skills, receive an introduction to phenomenology (the philosophical study of lived experience), develop our own approach to praxis (that is, the craft of morally-oriented, theoretically-informed, and theory-generating critically reflective practice), and, most significantly, come to terms with who we are in what we do.

• The Radical Theopoetics of John D. Caputo with Dr. James Olthuis (Tuesdays, 6:00-9:00pm ET). This seminar will explore John D. Caputo’s Theopoetics, a "weak theology" of narratives, prayers and praise in response to the call of God in contrast to a "strong" theology of predicative claims about the existence and nature of God. 

Please continue to pray for our Senior Members, Junior Members, and students in these courses during this term. Pray that they might experience a close, communal learning environment as much as possible via Zoom and across various time zones.

Monday, September 16 - Friday, September 20:

We share the sad news that ICS Board Trustee and Former Board Chair Marci Frederick passed away on August 25, after a battle with cancer that spread aggressively to her brain in June. Marci was an ICS alum (M.Phil.F. 1992) and ICS Director of Library and Information Services (1992-98), and was a great friend to ICS throughout the years. Marci was a person of fierce intelligence and abiding faith, a keen advocate for social justice, and an engaging interpreter and preacher of the Word. We ask you to join us in prayer as we mourn her passing and celebrate her life and herculean contribution to our community. A memorial service for Marci has been planned at Immanuel Mennonite Church, and will be livestreamed on Tuesday, September 17th at 6:00pm EDT. (Follow this link for the memorial service livestream: https://www.facebook.com/events/s/memorial-service-for-marci-fre/1016575846616517/)

We would appreciate prayers for the Leadership Team as it continues to work out the ICS strategic plan, which is geared to enhancing our academic programming and increasing our tuition revenue and institutional longevity. We pray also for the ICS Academic Council as it resumes the work of academic governance during this month. The council will focus on ICS's academic policies with regard to the assessment of student work during this term. Pray for clarity and wisdom in our thinking as we develop, and continue to implement, ways that will enable us to keep pursuing our goal of offering truly distinct educational opportunities to the students who come our way.

Please pray for those involved in preparing and contributing to our upcoming fall issue of Perspective as authors, editors, organizers, designers, and printers. This issue will highlight some of the voices and stories of our incoming Junior Members (among others) and should offer an exciting glimpse into their work. We ask our Lord to grant all contributors creativity and insight as we aim to send this issue to our supporters in the coming months.

Monday, September 23 - Friday, September 27:

We ask for your prayers for Director of Finance Harley Dekker as he prepares for the auditors and the preparation of the year-end statements this month. This is always a very detailed and lengthy process, so please pray for strength and clarity of mind for Harley as he seeks to complete this task as quickly as possible in the midst of the many other aspects of administration in which he is involved.

During the month of September, the CPRSE team will be planning its annual cycle of research projects, publications, and public outreach events. This year, many of our events and publications will focus on questions surrounding the notion of tradition, particularly as our institution seeks to carry forward the rich tradition of inquiry and scholarship that animates the work and lives of our Senior and Junior Members. Please pray that the CPRSE’s work will be fruitful and responsible, and that the programming offered can serve as a space for transformative reflection for our community and beyond.

We pray for the families and households, friends and faith communities of the members of our ICS scholarly community. We are grateful for their company and encouragement, aware of their sacrifices, and prayerful for their flourishing. As summer shifts into fall, we pray for the adjustments in our schedules and in our priorities to go well, and for our hearts to beat along with the seasonal rhythms of our lives. For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven (Ecclesiastes 3, NRSV).

Wild God

The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire. 

The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;

the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

 

The voice of the Lord causes the oaks to whirl,
and strips the forest bare;

and in his temple all say, “Glory!”

 

—Psalm 29:7-9

 

Mere days after wildfires ravaged Jasper, Alberta, my family and I were getting ready to attend a Kuipers family reunion at my sister’s cottage near Golden, BC. Golden was under an evacuation alert at that time too. Fortunately, the winds changed, the temperature cooled, and we were able to go ahead with our much-anticipated visit.
 
At a bookstore in Golden, on a hazy day choked by smoke from the surrounding fires, I chanced upon a book by the musician Nick Cave, a long form interview with his friend Seán O’Hagen entitled Faith, Hope, and Carnage. What an apt title, I thought, and bought the book. While this book is many things, it is also a moving testimony to Cave’s Christian faith, a hard-won faith, born of suffering, in a God who, hovering over the roiling and dangerous possibilities of the fathomless deep, yet considered it well worth the risk to plunge into that abyss and transform its sheer possibility into a liveable cosmos, a wild world for God to love and for all God’s creatures to frolic.
 
But the history of this cosmos of proliferating possibility is also a history of carnage. In this world, taking up the joyful gift of life also means accepting the inevitability of suffering and grief. It’s part of the deal. The wild God blew a hole through Nick Cave’s life when he lost his teenage son Arthur in 2015. Instead of turning inward, however, Cave decided to work through his grief publicly, through his music and writing, in the hope that sharing his story might help others enduring similar pain.
 
Surprisingly, in the bowels of his pain and suffering, Cave discovered in himself and other grievers an emerging zeal, “an audacity in the face of things, a kind of reckless refusal to submit to the condition of this world.” (159). Simply sharing his grief, he noticed, also created the possibility for people to show him their care, offering small, loving touches and gestures that helped carry him and his wife Susie through their grief, leading him to draw the following incredible conclusion:
 

…I came to the conclusion that the world wasn’t bad, at all—in fact, what we think of as bad, or as sin, is actually suffering. And that the world is not animated by evil, as we are so often told, but by love, and that, despite the suffering of the world, or maybe in defiance of it, people mostly just cared. Susie and I instinctively understood that we needed to move towards this loving force, or perish. (170)

There is a deep message in Cave’s journey through the work of mourning—a journey from carnage to, dare I say, glory. His moving story of opening himself up to receiving a loving, albeit wild force amid his suffering, indeed a force that carried him through his suffering, will stay with me for a long time. It is a message well worth pondering at the start of a new school year, as we help students engage the pieces of our Maker’s wild, broken creation, and encourage them to discern the different, surprising ways these scattered shards can be put back together again.
 
Shalom, friends
Ron Kuipers