February 2004
Back Issues

Contents

• Matney to end 20 years of service to Emmanuel
• Automatic payments mean no more checks in the mail!
• Meditation: Bloom where God plants you
• Book Review: The Enticement of Religion
• Clipnotes
• Financial Update
• Dinners held to benefit Western Scholarships
• If we don’t have your email address, you’re missing some Clipboards!
• Faculty News
• Emmanuel on the Road

It is with sadness that President Wetzel and the Emmanuel Trustees received the resignation of Randall Matney as Emmanuel’s Chief Financial Officer. Matney has directed Emmanuel’s business affairs since 1984. His work not only included guiding Emmanuel through the financial obligations of our yearly operations, but also through the School’s growing endowment investing, as well as the expansion of the campus in the Emmanuel Village. In addition, he led the school through two decades of technological development, from the days of a single computer on the entire campus to the present day, where state of the art computer technology is found in every staff and faculty office and throughout the school’s library facility.

Matney’s final day of service at Emmanuel will be March 26; however, he has offered to provide consultative services for the School during this time of transition.

Automatic payments mean no more checks in the mail!

By Kees W. Bolle
Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2002

Reviewed by Frederick W. Norris,
Professor of World Christianity

Over the years Kees Bolle has been a friend of Emmanuel: a guest lecturer here and the contact at UCLA that Robert Fife needed. As a Professor Emeritus from UCLA, he has taken much of his life's work and nestled it within one volume.

In crisp, animated language, Bolle divides his book into two parts: one about the facts of religion and the other a survey of Western intellectual approaches to religion. He mentions many world religions; he selects his examples judiciously. Western technical terms for religion often miss the mark. Sadly the “analyses and mental gymnastics” invented by professional students of religions tend to become unquestionable “solemnities.” Their theories meant to explain them too often make them unintelligible. Yet the “stuff” of religion is serious. “Countless religious materials show how people are liberated-in fact, even saved-from the dreary mental prisons they build for themselves” (Preface, xi).

Most educated people, even specialists, however, are astonishingly ignorant of religion. Both beginners and professors need an introduction like this. The quest for religion concerns data but also must incorporate wisdom; each is difficult to acquire. Submersing oneself in the languages and cultures of various religions is the first step.

Furthermore, learning about religion involves methodological and epistological inquiry. Bringing a closed mind meshed with an understanding of only one faith results in harmful conclusions. But being apparently non-religious has also produced too few insights. Jacques Maquet, to whom Bolle dedicates his book, a wise man about African traditional religions, is himself a practicing Buddhist. Joachim Wach, a committed Christian, wrote brilliantly about Islam (308).

Bolle contends that religion exists everywhere in very ordinary modes. It informs how people live and speak. Some do not recognize it because as modern people they tend to ignore symbols, myths, even poetry. Neither prophets nor historians speak to them. Yet science and other disciplines that claim objective and conclusive studies do not always reach those goals. They depend on large paradigms that they accept without vigorous investigation.

Bolle entitles his final chapter “Farewell to Too Much of a System,” a goodbye that many historians of religions and particularly theologians cannot stomach.

For me there is no better introduction to the study of religion than this. Both Bolle’s volume and religion are enticing.

You may purchase a copy of this book in the Emmanuel Bookstore. Contact 423-461-1545 or email bookstore@esr.edu.

In an effort to reduce costs, last June we began sending some Clipboard newsletters via email only. The electronic Clipboards have been favorably received, but many of you did not receive these newsletters because we don’t have your email address.

We publish the Clipboard every month. The March, April, and June issues will only be published electronically. Our next printed issue will be published in May 2004.

Please send your email address to us at AlumniNews@esr.edu so you don’t miss a single issue!

	JACK B. HOLLAND continues to teach a six-week parenting seminar, Communicating Faith to Your Children, at First Christian Church, Johnson City, Tenn., January 7-February 11. He will teach two sessions on Acts for the Sunday morning Bible class at Boones Creek Christian Church in Gray, Tenn., February 8 and 15. He will attend the Milligan College Colloquium on Ministry on February 18. Dr. Holland preaches twice monthly at Sonlight Christian Church in Greeneville, Tenn.
	THOMAS F. JONES JR. participated in and helped lead a staff retreat for Journey Christian Church in New Orleans, La., January 30-February 1, where Dr. Rick Grover (MDiv ’93, DMin ’98) serves as founding pastor. He participated in an ordination service at Journey Christian Church on February 1, and will attend a management team meeting for Journey Christian Church in New Orleans February 20-22. Dr. Jones will host a church planting assessment center at Emmanuel February 24-26. He will attend the Stadia National Staff retreat in St. John, Ind., March 30; Dr. Jones continues to serve as Southeast Stadia’s Director of Recruitment and Assessment and serves on a continuing basis as a church planting coach for church plants in New Orleans, Lexington, Charlotte, Hilton Head, and Cherokee Co., Ga. He will attend the National New Church Conference in St. John, Ind., March 31-April 1, where The Dirt on Church Planting, a book edited by Dr. Jones, will be released.
	FREDERICK W. NORRIS will preach February 8 at Brookline (Mass.) Church of Christ. He will be one of three respondents to Philip Jenkins’ (of Penn State University) William Belden Noble Lectures at Harvard University Memorial Church, February 9-11. The other respondents are Harvey Cox of Harvard and Nicholas Rowe of Gordon College.
	ROLLIN A. RAMSARAN will present a lecture/presentation on Roman Law and the Death of Christ, March 10 at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Johnson City, Tenn.
	CHRISTOPHER A. ROLLSTON began a series of ten lectures on Archaeology and the Old Testament at Boones Creek Christian Church, Gray, Tenn., on January 28. He will deliver a lecture at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Johnson City, Tenn., on March 3, focusing on Jewish Law and the Crucifixion of Jesus. Dr. Rollston continues to fill the pulpit at West Side Christian Church, Morristown, Tenn. He presented a paper at the 2003 annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) and a paper at a special session of the 2003 annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL). He chaired the session on epigraphy at the ASOR meeting. He continues to serve on the steering committee for the Palaeograpy Session of the annual SBL meeting. In addition, he continues to serve on the editorial board for Stone-Campbell Journal. Dr. Rollston has recently published reviews in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Catholic Biblical Quarterly, and Old Testament Abstracts. He published a lengthy article in MAARAV 10 (2003), focusing on inscriptions that appear on the antiquities market.
	BRUCE E. SHIELDS will present a paper, “An Oral Reading of Romans 8:31-34,” at the Kolloquium für Graduierte, Tübingen, Germany, February 6-10. He will teach evangelists in Madurai, India, February 13-18; will preach at Imphal Christian Church, Manipur, India, February 22; will lecture at Trulock Christian Seminary, Imphal, India, February 23-26; and will preach at Kuki Christian Church Assembly in Imphal, India, February 27-29. Dr. Shields will teach at Lanna Christian College, Chiang Mai, Thailand, March 3-5; will lead workshops for American military chaplains in Korea, March 11-12; and will lecture for faculty and graduate students at Seoul Christian University, March 15. Dr. Shields is on sabbatical for the 2004 calendar year.