Rider University - Shadow Yearbook (Lawrenceville, NJ)

Page 159 text:

lege can, as it were, flee from the reality of the reli- gious wars which lie beneath the surface of modern life andfor disregard them as irrelevant to their own search for truth. But the faith which the student professes must be em- bodied in significant human service, because love of God entails love of neighbor and vice versa. This love takes on a transcendent quality when united with the complete act of love-the love of God for man. Hence, the importance of liturgy. In liturgy alone is this Iife-giv- ing love celebrated adequately and completely, and only here is this love proclaimed totally as an existential reality of the here and now. Religious counseling too is vital to the educational process. It aims to bring together emotion and intellect, to deepen and enlarge the perspective from which problems are viewed. Hundreds of human problems arise which deal either directly with faith or which have as their underlying concern a conflict on basic issues. First, there is the conflict aroused with old forms of reli- gious faith by newly acquired knowledge. Second, the situation caused by negative influences: death in the family, the breaking off of an engagement, etc. Third, the problems of vocation, both in the economic sense and in the moral sense. Fourth, there are the many moral problems which plainly relate to religion. And fi- nally, there are the basic questions of meaning and of meaninglessness. Both the religious community and the college commu- nity must, it would appear, seek a union between the sacred and the secular. The result of segregation for the religous community is irrelevanceg for the college community, value-neutrality or some form of idolatrous faith.

Page 158 text:

Students Seek Relevancy Of Religion On Campus by the Rev. Jeremiah J. Cullinane Religion on campus strives to come to grips with the student's growing confusion over what is truly ultimate in his experience and therefore worthy of his complete commitment. It tries to meet his desire for wholeness of thought and of action. It is sensitive to the unique cli- mate of college life, to the presence of doubt in the process of understanding, and to the particular period of independence through which its students are pas- sing. lt seeks to avoid religion's becoming a habit de- void of meaning through emphasizing the religious sig- nificane of sacrament, creed and practice. The Campus Ministry acknowledges that if God is of any importance He must be relevant to the whole of life. It rejects the dualism which often marks the modern world, of sacred and secular, of theoretical and prac- ticalg and instead affirms that they belong together working toward the perfection of the whole person. It recognizes that basic values have come to matter to man in a critical way and that it shares with the college the obligation of bridging the gap between the commu- nity of faith and the community of learning. The Campus Ministry, as the College itself, must be committed to its students and to their freedom to iearn. lt asserts that most of its students are religiously dedi- cated, or, to state it more concretely, they believe in God-whether they be Protestants, Catholics, Jews. Provisions must be made for them to explore the full in- tellectual dimensions of the religious faith to which they are committed. Neither the Campus Ministry or the col-

Page 160 text:

i Outside The Fied Brick Gates The walls are now closing in and squeezing their inhabitants out. After four years of enveloped liv- ing with near automatic provisions for food, shel- ter, and clothing, from within the self-sustained walls of Rider College we must now depart into the great unexperlenced. Excepting an occasional march or Gino Giant there has been no necessity 0 for venturing from here to there. Old Mother Flider has courageously and untiringly fought off the good, the bad and the ugly, in order to provide an environment capable of aclimatizing her young. In moving from the unknown, human nature pro- vides us with a cold and hollow voice that shouts out, But you're not ready. But you don't know. lt's T, X f X ,, V . U i U 1 f O' - 'A f' tlxzhk :W H it ex fbfl SQA' ' ,L -fa' -- ,, -fl' W 7 , F 'f,, 1' 7, ' 1? 'A .- ' 1 ., - ' ' V' 4 p51,,,,.-- ' .QW ' V 5 P. K 1 fir ' 'L -'Q ' u ' ,f I. V f -l O . i t ' 'ff y 'W' , 1 .4 I YW Will? L .af i J' If 7 I at W W i f 'Vw Ci as 51x E-5 1: 1 'V I E' 'Z v 4 ' fr.. I V h , xxx ' - 4 ' 'Rig' . A wg, , 2 .J V A i my jg I - .M X X lg S V I ' V 1 5 A O my A 1- , fa , f . l I fkff K: I f - Qt ' ,. M gl i 'Q Q, . i x i 2 X L all a game. What's the difference, pollution or the bomb' will get us in the end. lt's awfully ugly out there. The politicians ruined it. Feel guilty, people are starving and you are not. But you are going to die anyway. Courage people, it's a big and beautiful world, and it's there to be seen and experienced. Fear not ugliness for the imperfections are what make our stay worthwhileg Utopia is a stifling bore which only signals that it is time to move on.