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

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.

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).

Prayer Letter: April 2025

Monday, April 7 - Friday, April 11: As we approach the end of the term, ICS students are wrapping up their coursework. Please pray that they may finish strong, with clarity and confidence in their learning. This is also a season of discernment for many prospective students. MA and PhD applicants are making decisions about where to continue their studies. We ask for your prayers that those who are seeking a community of deep, faithful inquiry will find their way to ICS. We also say goodbye to Brenna Wehrle, our Recruitment Coordinator and Assistant Registrar, as she moves on to pursue further studies in Film. We give thanks for her work and pray for her continued growth and joy in this next chapter. Please also pray for the hiring of her successor—someone with the gifts needed to carry this important work forward. The deadline for applications is April 9. View the job posting. Monday, April 14 - Friday, April 18: As Holy Week unfolds, we invite you to join us in prayer that students, faculty, and staff may find space to reflect on the death and resurrection of Christ—and how this mystery speaks into our present moment with a message of love, hope, and renewal. This week, ICS's program review committees are also meeting. Please pray for our program directors—Dr. Neal DeRoo (MA-PhD), Héctor Acero Ferrer (MWS), and Dr. Edith van der Boom (MA-EL)—as they seek wisdom and discernment in their work. May they be guided as they shape programs that form Christian leaders ready to embody the Gospel in a complex world. Monday, April 21- Friday, April 25: Please pray for Héctor Acero Ferrer and Dr. Ron Kuipers of the CPRSE as they ramp up preparations for this summer's Our Whole Society conference. This biennial event brings together voices from across Canada to reflect on the role of hope in responding to the challenges of our time—challenges like climate change, political polarization, and social division. The conference will take place June 15–17, 2025, at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg. Highlights include a keynote by international law expert Payam Akhavan, reflections on climate hope by researcher and author Elin Kelsey, and a presentation by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Lloyd Axworthy. Music by the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra will open the conference on June 15. Please pray that this event fosters meaningful dialogue, shared vision, and lasting partnerships for the good of our communities. Much of the conference is available online. Follow this link to sign up and for more information. Monday, April 28 - Friday, May 2: Looking ahead, we invite you to join us on Saturday, May 3 at 7PM for a special online event: Free to Be Faithful. This will be a personal and timely conversation between Nick Wolterstorff and Kristin Du Mez on the state of the Reformed tradition and the broader North American church—where we've been, where we are now, and where we might go from here. Whether you find yourself in a place of deep connection, questioning, or transition, this event is an opportunity to reflect together on the role of faith in shaping a more just and hopeful future. RSVP and learn more at: events.icscanada.edu/freetobefaithful   May this month bring renewed perspective, meaningful conversations, and enduring hope. Thank you for keeping ICS in your prayers!

Free to be Faithful

“For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”   —   Galatians 5:1 Are you a progressive or a conservative?   I’m not a fan of this question—and the false distinction informing it. It conceals wide swaths of shared values, the very foundation upon which we could build the solidarity our polarized society so desperately needs.   And what a terrible choice it demands: To embrace progressivism you must understand the past as nothing more than a shackle to be cast off, naively assuming—despite mounting evidence to the contrary—that doing so will inevitably lead to progress. To embrace conservatism, you must reject the future—God’s new thing a-coming—and instead romanticize an image of the past that never truly existed, freezing both present and future in its rigid, nostalgic grip.   Are these our only choices? I certainly hope not, for I cannot align myself with either the modern myth of progress or an enervating conservatism that refuses to embrace the rich dynamism of God’s good creation. Surely there is a way to be faithful to Christ’s calling in our time that moves beyond these twin yokes of slavery!   Caught in a similar dilemma, Paul speaks of a freedom in Christ that exists for its own sake. He proclaims a grace that cannot be earned, a grace that yet liberates us from our anxious pursuit of our own security. And in that liberation, we are freed—by faith—to reach out to one another in love. Paul’s words are full of tension: he describes a freedom that, through love, paradoxically leads us to “become slaves to one another” (Galatians 5:13b).   What kind of freedom is this, where love binds us in service to each other? Again and again, the gospel insists that the path of selfless service is the path to true liberation—the way of shalom. If we set our hearts on this way, if we embrace our freedom to be faithful, then no law can stand against us (Galatians 5:23b). Or, as St. Augustine once preached in a sermon on the first epistle of John: “Love, and do what you will.”   You will be hearing us use the phrase “free to be faithful” often in the coming weeks and months. Under this banner, we hope to gather a diverse Christian community to discern what faithfulness demands in the present age. Each generation faces new challenges for which our inherited religious tradition provides no simple, pre-packaged answers. Yet, at its most vital, the reformational spiritual tradition the ICS community claims offers profound wisdom and inspiration for our shared task of seeking redemptive responses to life’s contemporary trials. We want you to come alongside us as we embark on this effort. Your support and participation will help ICS become a vibrant gathering space for all sorts of Christians committed to exploring how their ancient faith can actively engage with the pressing issues of our time. Join us in embracing our freedom to be faithful! Shalom friends, Ron Kuipers More information is available below on our May 3rd Free to Be Faithful hybrid event, a conversation in Grand Rapids with Kristin Du Mez and Nicholas Wolterstorff. Read and interact with this reflection on Substack.

Prayer Letter: March 2025

Monday, March 3 - Friday, March 7: On February 18, ICS announced its decision to discontinue its denominationally-related status within the Christian Reformed Church in North America. This decision was made in response to the adoption and enforcement of the Human Sexuality Report (2021), and it reflects our ongoing commitment to creating safe spaces where past and present CRCNA parishioners can engage in conversations that truly matter. We are deeply grateful for the words of support we have received from so many. Thank you for your prayers and for standing with us during this time. As part of our commitment to fostering meaningful dialogue, ICS will offer a new course in Fall 2025: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible, led by Dr. Sylvia Keesmaat. This course will explore the use of the Bible in contemporary debates on gender and sexuality, inviting students into thoughtful and informed conversations. We encourage those who are interested to join us in this important exploration. More information is available at letter.icscanada.edu/keesmaat. Monday, March 10 - Friday, March 14: We're excited to announce that ICS is hosting a four-day intensive workshop for Christian educators at London Christian High from August 11 to 14, 2025. Led by Dr. Edith van der Boom, Cultivating Christ-Centered Education will explore how faith shapes classroom practices and student formation. Please pray the teachers who attend this event will find themselves and their teaching practice reinvigorated as they prepare to head into a new school year. The deadline for applying to the MA-EL is fast approaching (April 1). We pray that those seeking to deepen their leadership skills and enrich their teaching will find their way to this program. This summer, ICS is offering three courses in educational leadership: What's Christian About Christian Education? (Dr. Neal DeRoo) – This course explores how Christian education engages with cultural influences and offers a distinctive vision for learning. Students will reflect on how their faith shapes both their teaching and school environments. Called to Teach: Formation and Learning (Dr. Edith van der Boom) – Designed for K-12 educators, this course examines teaching as a calling, exploring how faith and spiritual formation influence pedagogy and student engagement. Lead From Where You Are (Dr. Gideon Strauss) – This course challenges traditional notions of leadership, equipping educators to lead effectively in their schools and communities, regardless of their formal position. We ask for your prayers that these courses will provide meaningful learning experiences and that those who would benefit most will be guided to them. Monday, March 17 - Friday, March 21: As families and teachers take time for travel and rest, we pray for safe journeys and moments of renewal. May teachers returning from this break find a sense of clarity and creativity in their work, and may this time offer respite for those who need it most. On Saturday, March 22, we invite you to join us (either in-person or online) for the Winter 2025 Scripture, Faith, and Scholarship Symposium at First Christian Reformed Church in Toronto. This free event, Finding Blessing in the Process: A Conversation about Faith, Deconstruction, and Blessed Are the Undone, will feature guest speakers Angela Reitsma Bick and Peter Schuurman, co-authors of Blessed Are the Undone: Testimonies of the Quiet Deconstruction of Faith in Canada. Please pray that this event will provide a productive space for us to wrestle with the questions that our contemporary world poses to people of faith. Likewise, please pray that the fellowship of this event will edify all those who join. To RSVP, please visit sfs.icscanada.edu. Monday, March 24 - Friday, March 28: As the month draws to a close, we invite you to join us for Philosophy Pub Night on Friday, March 28, at The Saint Luke's Mission in Hamilton (454 John Street South). This evening will feature ICS PhD candidate Julia DeBoer, who will give a short presentation, entitled "How to (Actually) Do Things With Words: Sense and Expression Reconsidered." After her presentation, we will walk around the corner to the pub for discussion. Please pray that through this event, ICS folk can spark important conversations and share the spirit of reformational philosophy with folks, both familiar and unfamiliar. To RSVP, email ics-communications@icscanada.edu. May this month be filled with moments of renewal as we strive to flourish together. Thank you for keeping ICS in your prayers! View as Webpage

Leaning into Love

"Love will never invoke fear. Perfect love expels fear, particularly the fear of punishment. The one who fears punishment has not been completed through love."   —1 John 4:18 (The Voice) While researching and writing my PhD dissertation in the late 1990s, I finally got around to reading Rudolf Otto's 1923 classic The Idea of the Holy. In this book, Otto explores the human experience of the "numinous"—the "non-rational" side of religious experience that cannot be adequately captured in words yet seeks expression through religious ritual and symbol.   Otto describes the numinous with the Latin word mysterium, adding two adjectives: tremendum and fascinans. It is a mystery that excites both fear and fascination in the human heart, a simultaneous mixture of repulsion and attraction. On the tremendum side, one might think of a passage like Proverbs 9:10: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," or Moses hiding his face before the burning bush, "afraid to look at God" (Exodus 3:6).   However, as my colleague Nik Ansell often reminds me, Proverbs 9:10 does not say fear of the Lord is the end of wisdom—only the beginning. What kind of beginning? Nik suggests reading it as: "Facing the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Think of Moses again: Though afraid, he still approached the burning bush to receive God's liberating revelation. He did not flee this tremendous divine manifestation—this "strange sight" of a bush aflame that was yet not consumed. No, when God called to him from out of the bush he simply answered, "here I am" (Exodus 3:4).   Here, Otto's fascinans makes its entrance—the attraction that accompanies the fear. With this attraction in mind, we can read Proverbs 9:10 as inviting us to travel a special kind of path, a path toward knowing and eventually even befriending God. It is a path that takes us from the fear we quite appropriately experienced at the beginning of our sojourn—when we first met God as a terrifying, fascinating stranger—to something more fulfilled and complete.   This fascination or attraction encourages us to face our initial fears, rather than turn away from them. Through the fascinans, we discern a divine call leading us toward agape—a love that, in its fullness (teleia agape), leaves no room for fear (1 John 4:18). This is how I have come to hear the powerful message of 1 John 4: Leaning into the God who is love (1 John 4:8), we find our fears dissipating. How? By loving one another. "If we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us" (1 John 4:12).   Alas, friends, my fears all too often gnaw and persist despite my desire to travel this path, which tells me that God's love is not yet perfected in me. We all have fears. We are human, how could we not? The question is: what do we do with them? Do we face them, even befriend them, transforming our relationship to them? Or do we flee them, allowing them to continue to pursue us?   When faced with a dilemma like this, the Gospel's message is clear: lean into love. Loving one another simply is how we confront fear. It is how we embrace the uncertainty in which, as Peter Gabriel sings in That Voice Again, "we are naked and alive." It requires vulnerability. It calls us to respond with compassion, to offer a cup of cold water to the thirsty. Let this instinct, this desire to love, finally, speak louder than all the fears that constantly surround it.   Shalom,   Ronald A. Kuipers

Prayer Letter: February 2025

Monday, February 3 - Friday, February 7:

This month, Trinity Christian College will host a full-month showing of the Cal and Ines Seerveld Art Collection, donated to the college by Dr. Cal Seerveld, a founding member of ICS. This remarkable collection includes over 60 artworks, featuring pieces by Krijger, works from young Patmos artists, and valuable art inherited from Ines' family, including works from her grandfather, Max Huber. ICS Junior Member Peter Enneson (M.Phil) has been instrumental in advancing this bequest and providing background research on the various artworks.

We give thanks for this generous gift, which will enrich Trinity’s community and all those who engage with these pieces. Please pray that this exhibition will serve as a source of inspiration and reflection, and that many will come to appreciate the beauty and depth of this collection.

Monday, February 10 - Friday, February 14:

On February 13, ICS will host a virtual open house for our MA (Phil) in Educational Leadership (MA-EL) program. This program is designed for Christian educators and administrators seeking to reinvigorate their teaching and leadership.

Please join us in praying that those who would most benefit from this program will find their way to this opportunity and that financial and logistical barriers will not stand in the way of their participation. May this open house be a time of meaningful connection and discernment for prospective students.

Monday, February 17 - Friday, February 21:

ICS enters Reading Week starting February 17. This is an important time of rest and reflection for both students and faculty. We ask for your prayers that this break will be restorative, allowing all in our community to return to their studies and teaching with renewed energy and passion.

From February 21 to 23, ICS faculty members Dr. Neal DeRoo and Dr. Gideon Strauss will attend the Jubilee Conference, with Dr. DeRoo delivering a lecture titled "How Philosophy Can Change the World." We pray that ICS’s presence at this conference will help equip the next generation of leaders and thinkers.

Please pray for Dr. DeRoo as he presents his lecture, that his words may be challenging and compelling. Pray for ICS faculty as they engage with students and participants, fostering meaningful conversations about faith and philosophy. Pray for the conference attendees, that they may encounter new ideas and leave encouraged in their vocations.

Monday, February 24 - Friday, February 28:

Applications for the ART in Orvieto program are due by February 28, which provides an opportunity for artists and scholars to explore the intersection between their art and their faith.

Please pray that this opportunity finds those who would thrive in it, especially in our difficult financial times. May this initiative continue to be a place where deep learning and creative expression come together in ways that honor God and inspire all who attend.

May this month be filled with moments of renewal as we seek wisdom together. Thank you for keeping ICS in your prayers!

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A Hope that Stays

“…and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”   —Romans 5:5 “Don’t climb too far up the hope tree, because when that branch snaps….”   I can’t exactly recall the first time I heard this colourful counsel, warning me to prepare myself for the likelihood of disappointment that all too often follows raised expectations. I think it might have come from the mouth of Henk Hart after I finally received my PhD, and we were discussing my career prospects in a shrinking academic job market. Better always to stay low to the ground, he advised, so you can more easily pick yourself up after the inevitability of disappointment.   However colourful and pithy this phrasing might be, something about it is off. In Romans 5 Paul tells us that true hope does not disappoint us, so by that logic we should fearlessly climb as high as we possibly can into its outermost branches. In that light, perhaps Henk was really advising me not to invest my hope in any specific expectation or particular outcome, but rather to remain tethered to a deeper hope that can help me weather such disappointment and give me the wherewithal to pick myself up and dust myself off when optimistic expectations are dashed, as they so often can be.   That way of understanding hope, I think, gets us closer to what Paul is talking about in Romans 5, and is also wonderfully developed in a new book by the Korean-German philosopher Byung-Chul Han in his brief volume The Spirit of Hope. There Han describes hope as an attuning mood that we can spiritually cultivate—together and within ourselves—and thus use to orient us in any situation (p. 24). Hope in this sense is not attached to any particular outcome but is rather a way of tuning into life such that, whatever befalls us—as when our best and worst laid plans lie in ruins all around—we still find the capacity to say, “and yet…” (p. 39ff.).   In our day, says Han, hope has a powerful enemy: fear. So long as our culture is ruled by fear, as it so often seems to be, it cannot inspire hope. We must therefore fight tooth and nail against our culture of fear because, whereas hope unites us, fear isolates us. And this is where God’s love enters the picture. Hope does not disappoint us, says Paul, because “God’s love has been poured into our hearts….” Hope is thus the tuning that keeps us locked into the channel of divine love and the redemptive possibility such love presents. In Han’s words:   Fear and love are mutually exclusive. Hope, by contrast, includes love. Hope does not isolate. It reconciles, unites, and forms bonds. Fear agrees with neither trust nor community, with neither closeness nor touch. (11)   We know we are attuned to real hope, then, when we survey a broken world and nevertheless understand that it is not forever frozen into what it has become, that its wounds and scars can be thawed and healed by the renewing power of our Messiah’s love—love we are called to emulate.   Such hope, then, does not ask, ‘How might I best survive amidst these ruins?’ Rather it asks, ‘How can we build a new community of love and blessing from these scattered shards?’ Hope, then, sees possibility where fear sees only futility, and hope understands that this possibility is always available to us no matter how bad things get. As John Steinbeck put it in The Grapes of Wrath:   I have a little food’ plus ‘I have none’. If from this problem the sum is ‘We have a little food’, the thing is on its way, the movement has direction…. This is the beginning—from ‘I’ to ‘we’.   There is finally something audacious and intrepid about hope, this movement from ‘I’ to ‘We’. Han describes it as “a searching movement”:   It is an attempt to find a firm footing and a sense of direction. By going beyond the events of the past, beyond what already exists, it also enters into the unknown, goes down untrodden paths, and ventures into the open, into what-is-not-yet. It is headed for what is still unborn. It sets off toward the new, the altogether other, the unprecedented. (5)   In these dark times, friends, I pray that God’s love infuses us with the hope that does not disappoint us, but rather stays with us, so that we can find each other, escape our isolation, and be inspired to build the community of solidarity, justice, and peace that God’s shalom way gives us the power to imagine.   Shalom, friends!   Ron Kuipers

Everything Old is New Again (even this title)

“And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new’.” —Revelation 21:5 “O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.” —Psalm 96:1 A curious thing happened to me between Christmas and New Year’s Eve: My nephew in Edmonton drew my attention to an LP that recently came into his possession called When in Our Music God is Glorified: A Recording of Congregational Singing. The back of the record sleeve lists ICS as one of its two institutional sponsors. Upon seeing this connection, my nephew asked me if I knew anything about the project. I had to confess I did not, as it predates my institutional memory (I first came to ICS in 1992 as a master’s student, and after making a few inquiries my best guess is that this recording was made in the early to mid 1980s). The album jacket says that the record was directed by Bert Polman, a hymnologist then working at Ontario Bible College. A quick Google search revealed that he would later teach at Redeemer University and then Calvin University, where he served as the Chair of the Music Department until 2013 when his life was tragically cut short by cancer. Now fully absorbed in this detective story, I next searched for Bert Polman’s name in ICS’s Institutional Repository and was greeted with three hits in the digitized archive of ICS’s Perspective magazine. One article, from 1976 (penned by none other than Lambert Zuidervaart when he was still an ICS student or ‘Junior Member’), reports on a talk Polman delivered as part of ICS’s Discovery lecture series called “Celebrating the Word-and-Sacrament.” In the article, Zuidervaart relays Polman’s conviction that the elements of Christian worship must be rooted in “an historical appreciation of Christian traditions.” Such appreciation, argues Polman, “reveals both that the Word and the Sacraments must enjoy a strong balance in our public celebrations, and that the Reformational principle, ‘Ecclesia reformata semper reformanda est’ means the Spirit makes all things new, not all new things.” This last phrase gave me pause, spurring me to think more about the distinction Polman here makes between renewal and novelty. What is the difference, I wondered, between ‘making all things new’ (Revelation 21:5) and ‘making all new things’? My first thought turned to the act of repairing a broken yet cherished possession, or maybe a neglected and dishevelled thrift store find in which we nevertheless spy good potential, so that it comes out ‘just like new’. The converse attitude, all too common in our consumer-industrial age, would be to dispose of the mounting pile of busted and unrepairable stuff we own (often designed with ‘built-in obsolescence’) and replace it with entirely new things, starting the vicious cycle all over again. Revelation 21, however, speaks of a Maker who so cherishes the fruits of that making that he throws nothing away, and instead busies himself lovingly restoring all that has been broken, desiring nothing more than to bring out the potential for blessing housed within every good thing he created. Yet, just as I start to understand Polman’s distinction in this way, I am also struck by the fact that one of the creatures God made, we humans, are uniquely capable of inaugurating new projects and initiating unanticipated trajectories, sometimes for good and very often for ill. Indeed, not only are we capable of making new things, but we are also called several times in the Psalms and even once in Isaiah to “sing a new song” and not simply to “make an old song new.” The Bible’s long-arc story of God making the broken world new and good again tells us that our part in addressing the wounds of a groaning creation will often require innovation, the imaginative development of new responses that somehow yet remain faithful to God’s original promise of renewal. God thus calls us to harness our imagination and creativity, our capacity for inaugurating new and surprising developments and trajectories, to this task. For remember, in “making all things new” God is also “about to do a new thing” (Isaiah 43:19).