University of Denver - Kynewisbok Yearbook (Denver, CO)

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the univeusity

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Religion at the University. What is that? A sometime thing? An opiate? A glossy respectability rubbed on to the organization man who wants to Ik well-rounded, accepted, and secure? Is it positive thinking for people who have to hurry to get things done in a world that can blow up at any moment? A retreat from tough thinking and penetrating questions tossed by the Divisions of Humanities, Economics, and Social Studies? A rebellious release from traditional hometown manners and conformity mores? None of these, I hope. Religion at the University is distinct. It has its own flair. It lias its own tlirust- The clue to its way is critical concern. At the University we arc interested in a critical (thinking) approach which is primarily interested in the inner meaning of modem ways and modern events. Religious tradition and popular religious behavior arc not rejected - but they arc tested here. When hypocrisies arc found, they are rejected. When inconsistencies appear, they are shown up. But if God be God, if religious truth be truly true, the University test is a compliment to religion, not a threat. God and the faith of His people can withstand lionest intellectual exploration. The University way in religion begins with doubt. We doubt everything (not all at once — we'd go crazy 1). We make some decisions. That is the beginning of true faith. Then we build, entering into a mature faith. One comes toward the knowledge of God ... it is painful, but it is necessary for the genuinely educated religious man. And it is glorious in the end. This takes time. It takes energy . . . pain . . . patience . . . talk. It takes action. It takes mistakes ami kindness. It takes friends. It takes brains. Most of all, it takes integrity — integrity as a scholar, integrity as a human person. Religion at the University, in my opinion, is the painful, laborious, often informal, many times lonely reconstruction by each person for himself of the deepest, broadest, richest meaning of existence. It is putting first tilings first. It is deciding ultimately what is of highest value. For some, after all this searching, status, pleasure, and power will come first. For others ideas will be of first rank. Many will put society, our culture, our nation, and peace as absolutely first. I have found that the Love and Will of the Living God along with the life and traditions of established religious IkkUcs will not l e absent at the outcome of the University experience in religion. “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me” becomes a brand new tiling — existentially, tliat is. William E. Rhodes Chaplain 14

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