[Alumni-chat] Fwd: letter to community from Al Denman

[Jonny]

Despite its flaws as a university commissioned 'study', the Lawlor
Group report to the renewal commision released in late June of 2004
reveals a (not so) surprising level of interest in generally spiritual
topics across the board among potential prospectives. The (not so)
refers to the fact that there is a much studied, decade-long upswing
among those reaching college age in this area. The surprising refers
to us being surprised by that.

Ironically, in the same study, where n=85, in qualitative, open-ended
responses Antioch College is percieved as a religious school as often
as it is seen as a school with a co-op program. Even when limited by
the small sample size, It is nonetheless significant that a message we
have been trying to saturate the marketplace with is doing just as
well as a message our detractors have been trying to discount, despite
the fact that we have done little to impact it one way or the other.

New approaches to shaping marketability suggest that a message
highlighting the authenticity of our educational experience as a
competitive offering might be most effectively communicated through an
equally satirical emphasis on the irony presented by our own case of
mistaken identity, leaving enough room open for unanswered questions
to flourish and thus directly impacting response rates & level of
interest among prospective students. Plus, the question stands on its
own, since authentic living sometimes requires one to grapple with
these questions whether such grappling involves wrestling with <diety>
or not.

But this is not the point of my reply. As Duffy no doubt knows, I have
a freind in the Cedarville College Department of Bible. He happens to
be sperm-providing half of the equation that provides the basis for me
sitting here typing this email, actually. Since he is well versed in
Hebrew as a foundation for scholarship & since he spends much of his
in-classroom time trying to get people thinking about how it is that
religion interfaces with culture, my guess is that this would interest
him greatly and I'll let him know about it - more importantly, despite
the advesarial history as per the cedarvillian-antiocriminal narrative
one now finds that most people turn out to be human in the end, so for
my part I've a tendancy to disregard such artificial constructs and
focus instead on the mutual benefits derived from simply listening to
and engaging one another. I would offer that it might not be a bad
idea to communicate this to Cedarville students who are in classes
studying the exact same texts (yes, i think even evengelicals at least
acknowlege the apocryphal books as historically significant, and are
most likely familiar enough with Hebrew to understand what is being
discussed) - this is especially important given the tension
surrounding muslim-christian relations in light of current global
realities, and really especially in light of what might NOT be
discussed in a Cedarville classroom despite the overlap in subject
matter.

If that sounds good to anyone, forward this to the primary event
coordinators and have them send me an email, which I'll forward to
Cedarville's bible dept. to see if there is an event coordinator there
that has interest in communicating this to students there. I should
warn everyone that my guess is that this event would generate a high
level of interest among cedarville students. This along with the fact
that everyone in cedarville is (presumably and quite understandably)
looking for any excuse to get the hell out of that horribly dreary
town for an evening might result in a considerable crowd of folks.
That said, I don't think it would be a 'let's go preach at antioch
students' type of thing.

On a side note: there was an Antioch Pastor? *sigh* Will you never
cease with the surprises, Antioch?

jonny

On 11/26/07, Steven Duffy <duffy at antioch-college.edu> wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> 		Monday, November 26, 2007 10:06:42 AM
> Announcements
> From:		Kathleen Carr
> Donna and Al Denman <adenman at yellowsprings.com>
> Subject:	 letter to community from Al Denman
> To:		faculty
> College Staff
> emeritus
> Announcements
> Fall 07 adjuncts
>
>
> Dear Community,
>
> I would like to invite interested persons to a quite extraordinary
> event at the Antioch Inn, Monday, December 3, 7:00.
>
> This semester, 17 Antioch College students have been reading the
> entire Bible - including the books Protestants normally leave out,
> the Apocrypha - and the entire Qur'an.
>
> That's almost one out of ten Antioch students, buried in the
> study of the inspired sources of Judaism, Christianity and Islam for
> three months.  That doesn't quite fit the prevailing image of Antioch
> students.
>
> Coming from highly varied backgrounds, they have various reasons for
> doing this study.  One thing they have in common.  They want to come
> to their own understanding of these two sacred scriptures that have
> been - and doubtless will continue to be - profoundly influential to
> countless millions,  personally, religiously and politically, for
> centuries.
>
> Two devout Muslims and a committed Jew, who have been locked in
> dialogue for nearly three years, using Arabic and Hebrew texts, will
> draw us, and you, our invited guests, into a discussion of what they
> now understand to be the most important religious issues for the 21
> Century.
>
> Dialogue initiators will be Ramzieh and Wa'el Azmeh, both physicians
> in Dayton and founding members of the new mosque in Miamisburg, and
> Eric Friedland, Professor of Judaic Studies, emeritus, in the area
> universities, including Antioch College.
>
> Please join us.
>
> Al Denman,
> Antioch College Pastor (1965-73), and Professor of
> Philosophy of Law and Religion, emeritus.
>
> _______________________________________________
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> Alumni-chat at w3.antioch.edu
> http://w3.antioch.edu/mailman/listinfo/alumni-chat
> Visit http://www.Antioch-College.edu today!
>


-- 
Jonny Estes
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