Reflections (and Photos) from the Archabbey
Over spring break, we brought a group of Hope College students to Saint Meinrad Archabbey in southern Indiana. There, the students entered into the Benedictine rhythm of prayer and work. Afterward, we asked two students to share their reflections from the archabbey. We also have photos from the immersion trip to share.
Ana Wong’s Reflection
“What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8). At Saint Meinrad Archabbey over spring break, I encountered the loving, tender, and attentive care of God. Immersed in the quiet and simple life of Benedictine monks, we spent a few hours in silence and prayer each day. We joined the monks for Liturgy of the Hours and prayed the psalms, day and night. Away from the busyness of my senior year at Hope, I was able to quiet my soul and encounter new things in my heart that needed to be brought to the Lord in prayer. Looking ahead in life, everything seems uncertain. It all seems so big, and I feel so small in comparison. On this retreat, I was vulnerable with the Lord and so was he with me. As I shared my heart with him, he shared his heart with me. He made me see just how precious I am in his sight. At the archabbey, I faced the reality of my lowly estate through solitude and silence. Yet, I am not discouraged. Rather, I find solace knowing I am in the constant care of the Most High King.
Zach (left) and Ana (right) working in the archabbey gardens
Zach Pape’s Reflection
Prayer, reading, and a little gardening were almost all that occupied me during my week at Saint Meinrad. Far from producing restlessness, the rhythms of prayer and work I entered into there generated a calm in which I was left alone with God. The space and time to confront myself before God, while terrifying, was a truly beautiful grace. Following the initial days of conviction and abandonment, healing gradually became evident. Through hours of chanting Psalms, heart-rending prayer, and rest before the Blessed Sacrament, my soul found ever-deeper peace. Not unlike the gardens we weeded on the trip, my heart was being painfully cleared of deeply-rooted insecurity, anxiety, and sin to become the far more beautiful and calm creation God intended. God works in silence, and such work is difficult to articulate, but the monastery was a place where such work was joyfully received. Upon returning, those close to me commented repeatedly on the evident increase in peace and joy they saw in me following just one week. Such change is the result not only of God's work but more specifically the ways he filled me with himself at Saint Meinrad, washed out brokenness, and taught me to surrender to his love whether in or out of the monastery.
Religious Vocations: What's That All About?
Friday, March 22, 7 p.m., Graves Hall
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to pursue a religious vocation? Could God be calling you? How would you know? Join us for two simultaneous talks, one for women and one for men, in which you’ll hear Catholic religious share their personal stories of discerning and entering their vocations. There will be time for Q&A after the talks.
Fr. Eugene Batungbacal is a priest of the Diocese of Grand Rapids. He was ordained in 2010. He currently serves as the Assistant Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Hispanic Ministry of the diocese. He is in residence at St. Alphonsus Parish in Grand Rapids.
Sr. Josetta Rose entered the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration in 2020 after serving as a FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) missionary at Ball State University. She is originally from Minnesota. After professing her first vows in August 2023, she joined the community’s vocation team and is pursuing an MA in catechetics and evangelization online at the Franciscan University of Steubenville. She likes rollerblading, art, being outside, and sharing Jesus with people.
Sr. Fiat joined the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration in 2016 after graduating college. Before entering the convent, she served as a NET (National Evangelization Teams) missionary ,where she discovered her love of evangelization. As a sister, she has taught middle school and now serves on the vocations team for her community. In this role, she is honored to help women discover their vocations, preach the gospel to many, and watch those she serves fall more deeply in love with Jesus! She is passionate about facilitating encounters with Jesus' kindness for others!
Was Jesus an Only Child?
A Biblical and Philosophical Exploration
April 17, 7 p.m., Winants Auditorium, Graves Hall
In this talk, Dr. Jack Mulder will discuss biblical, traditional, and philosophical ways to think of Jesus' nuclear family. Did Jesus have siblings? Was Mary a virgin throughout her life? Why do those questions matter for us? Join us to learn about and discuss these questions.
This event is co-sponsored by the Hope College departments of Religion and Philosophy and the Center for Ministry Studies.
Dr. Jack Mulder is the assistant director and co-founder of the Saint Benedict Institute. He is a native of Grand Rapids and a Hope College alumnus. Dr. Mulder studied philosophy and religion at Hope College before pursuing an MA and PhD in philosophy at Purdue University, where he wrote his dissertation on Kierkegaard. He was received into the Catholic Church while at graduate school. Dr. Mulder is the author of several books, including Kierkegaard and the Catholic Tradition, What Does it Mean to Be Catholic? (Eerdmans, 2015), and Civil Dialogue on Abortion (Routledge, 2018). Currently, he is a professor of philosophy and the chair of the Philosophy Department at Hope College. Dr. Mulder is happily married to Melissa, an Associate Professor of Spanish Instruction at Hope, and he is the father of two children, Lucas and Maria.
Meet the FOCUS Missionaries
Beginning in the 2023-2024 academic year, the Saint Benedict Institute is partnering with the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) to bring a group of young missionaries to the campus of Hope College. These recent college graduates minister to students through Bible studies and other initiatives. We asked the four missionaries to answer two simple questions at the beginning of the fall 2023 semester, and we present their answers below. You can read their full bios on our staff page.
Lauren DiIulio
How did you discern becoming a FOCUS missionary?
I was originally set on doing the Echo Program at the University of Notre Dame, where I would have pursued a M.A. in Theology for no cost. It sounded like the best option on paper, so I applied for FOCUS as a backup plan. However, as my period of discernment proceeded, I felt more and more drawn to FOCUS. I knew that I desired greater intimacy with the Lord over anything else, and I felt in my heart that what FOCUS had to offer would lead me in deeper spiritual formation and closer to sainthood. I wanted to choose the path that would help me become the kind of person and disciple that would best prepare me to love and serve God well in my vocation after FOCUS. Nothing brings me more fulfillment and joy than sharing my passion for Jesus and the Catholic faith with others, so I can't wait to do that at Hope!
What are you looking forward to about serving at Hope College?
I am so excited to live in Holland and explore all the city has to offer with the students I encounter. The Lord was very attentive to my desires in my placement, as tulips are my favorite flower, and I love nature and the beach! Above all, I can't wait to meet new people and be a part of the Hope College community. I can already tell the Lord is doing amazing things within the Catholic campus ministry, so it is an honor to be invited as an extension of the great things already happening here!
Ben Lahart
How did you discern becoming a FOCUS missionary?
I became a FOCUS missionary because while I was in college, the missionaries had such a huge impact on both my spiritual and “normal” life and I felt that if I could do the same for someone else I should. I also saw it as an excellent chance to grow closer to the Lord individually as well.
What are you looking forward to about serving at Hope College?
I’m looking forward to just meeting students, getting to know them and where they’re at in life, and then begin walking with them and sharing life with them!
Gabby Hancock
How did you discern becoming a FOCUS missionary?
I had a deep thirst to become more formed in the faith and to share it with others. I am very convicted that the battle lies amidst college campuses, and I wanted to be a part of it and teach young women about their worth and dignity in Christ. I know that this role is preparing me to be a better nurse and maybe one day a better wife and mother.
What are you looking forward to about serving at Hope College?
I am looking forward to witnessing the Christian community in general and to just learn! I am very excited to meet the students and become a part of the beauty of this robust community. I am also excited to just be able to hang out and explore the area—hopefully pick some fruit and go hiking in some nature!
Nathan Lindholm
How did you discern becoming a FOCUS missionary?
I discerned becoming a FOCUS missionary by asking the Lord what he wanted for my life. He had been calling me to go on a mission with him in some capacity, but I wasn't sure what. My idea of fulfilling this would have been on my own terms, part-time, in addition to a cushy tech job. Really what the Lord wanted from me was to surrender my life to him and go on mission full time. I felt an indescribable peace when I surrendered to the Lord rather than try to grasp control of my future. Jesus is faithful and I can attest that he is never outdone in generosity.
What are you looking forward to about serving at Hope College?
I'm excited about a lot of things at Hope this year. The most exciting thing so far has been how much of an adventure it is here. This is Hope College's first year with a FOCUS team, so it has been fun to figure out where we fit into the mix and how God wants to move on campus this year.
Date Like a Christian
On January 26, 2024, the Saint Benedict Institute hosted an evening of discussion and discernment that we called Date Like a Christian. Hope students, both men and women, gathered for cookies, hot chocolate, and a conversation with Joseph and Crystal Gruber of Our Outpost.
“I appreciated the opportunity to hear about how to build faithful relationships from two people who were clearly in love with each other and their vocation,” said one student. “Everything they said held more value because it seemed to be thoroughly integrated into their own experiences.”
2024 Spring Break Immersion Trip: Saint Meinrad Archabbey
March 8-17, 2024
The life of the monks at Saint Meinrad Archabbey revolves around prayer and work for the love of God and neighbor. Located in the hills of rural southern Indiana, the monastery offers visitors a chance to experience a rhythm of life very different from our own. This immersion trip, sponsored by the Saint Benedict Institute, allows Hope students to enter into the rhythms of monastic life for a week, beginning with vigil prayers at 5:30 a.m. in the abbey church. The prayer is beautiful, the setting is tranquil, and the people are joyful. Please pray for the students who will attend this trip, including several who are going for the second time!
Transformed by Beauty: Student Curators Reflect on Catholic Art
Fr. Nick Monco views Veronica’s Veil, a favorite artwork for several of the student curators
Can beauty bring you closer to God? The answer is a resounding “Yes!” according to William Cooke, William Hurley, Karlie Platz, Molly Leonard, and Gabrielle Nelson, the student curators behind Transforming Matter: Incarnation, Sacraments, and Saints in Catholic Art and Devotion.
This exhibition features 25 artworks that reflect different aspects of Catholic theology and religious practice. All of the artworks in the exhibition belong to the Kruizenga Art Museum’s permanent collection and were chosen for display by the five students under the direction of Dr. Jared Ortiz, executive director of the Saint Benedict Institute. You can see the exhibition through May 18, 2024. The KAM is located at 271 Columbia Avenue, between 10th and 13th streets. Public visiting hours are Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission to the museum is always free.
We met up with William, William, Karlie, Molly, and Gabrielle at the KAM to talk about Catholic art, the curation process, and why people should come see the exhibition. These interviews have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Dr. Jared Ortiz in conversation at the exhibition
Why are you interested in Catholic art?
William Cooke: Well, we’re Catholic! We [William and William] are both theology majors. I love Catholic philosophy and theology, and it’s really beautiful seeing it expressed in artistic form.
William Hurley: I think that God created beauty as a reality and I think expressing theology and the truths that he taught us through beauty is a way we can learn about him. I think especially through some of the physical relics it also connects Christians nowadays to Christians previously—through relics of the saints, through the physical reminders of the sacraments—and it shows a lot of the faith of the people through things like “Veronica’s Veil” and a lot of the other things we have here. So I think it’s a beautiful expression of Christian truth through beauty.
Karlie Platz: It’s interesting for me because I’m a biochemistry major, so art is not my natural habitat necessarily. I’m also a religion major, so I’ve spent some time learning about the history and theology of the Church, and art has a big role to play in that. It’s a very tangible representation of that and how the Church has been evolving over time.
Molly Leonard: I’m a math major and a religion major, so art’s not one of my natural inclinations either, but I think it’s one of the really cool ways that God reaches us. Especially in the Catholic tradition we see that God can work through different people’s gifts to show a lot of different skills and beauty. I think we’re able to draw on that and learn a lot from different cultures.
Gabrielle Nelson: I’m an art education major here at Hope, so Dr. Ortiz asked me to be a part of this show because of that and because I’m Catholic. Growing up, I have been immersed in the beauty of Catholic art. My mom’s an iconographer, so I’ve always had this deep appreciation for the beauty that the Catholic Church presents. I was really excited to be invited by Dr. Ortiz to be a part of this show because I think that’s one of the most important parts of our faith—the beauty that we can depict, along with our faith that we all share.
William Cooke with an Ethiopian icon of the Last Judgement
What was it like working with your fellow curators, Dr. Ortiz, and the Kruizenga Art Museum team?
William Hurley: It was great. It took a while, but that’s just how this stuff works out. I think it was really great especially because Dr. Ortiz could check all of our stuff and make sure it all flows together. We developed seven different ideas and were able to synthesize it all into this one journey. I think it was really nice, and of course Dr. Ortiz and the other Catholics were really great to work with, and they brought a lot of theological and artistic knowledge to the table.
William Cooke: And the museum staff were really great to work with too. A lot of us were dropping by here and looking at stuff and rearranging and toying around with it for a while. It was really cool seeing it emerge from nothing, everyone throwing out ideas and tweaking it, and it becoming something really coherent that we’re all really proud of.
Karlie Platz: Dr. Ortiz was an excellent organizer. We started way back in the spring just perusing the museum and looking at these things. The thing that struck me the most was that I was so surprised that all this art was here. In the basement of this museum we had these relics and these beautiful crucifixes and monstrances and things. That was exciting and surprising. Then once we actually started working together and figuring out what was going to go where, it was really beautiful that this story emerged, working from the Incarnation to the Resurrection.
Molly Leonard: It was really cool to get to tell a story. Dr. Ortiz did a really good job organizing it and making it so it wasn’t super logistically hard for us to do. We still got to do a lot of the fun stuff of picking out different pieces and trying to draw out what was really cool and beautiful about them artistically and also theologically. In writing about them we got to play to our strengths and also get to work together and make a really cool project out of it.
Gabrielle Nelson: We had a couple meetings to decide what we were picking out. Charles Mason has a ton of pieces here that are Catholic, and some were Catholic art but not made by Catholic artists. We decided to go with a strictly Catholic artists show. We deliberated and we talked about the pieces. The KAM has a website where we could decide on a gallery that we could add each piece to. We wrote down our favorites and prayed about it and then came together. The museum did the rest. Dr. Ortiz had us write about each section and research.
William Hurley with the monstrance, ciborium, processional crucifix, Defenders of the Eucharist, and Veronica’s Veil
What’s your favorite work of art in the exhibition and why?
William Hurley: I’d have to pick the ones that I wrote about. I love the ciborium a lot, and the processional crucifix, and of course the monstrance. Those are the three that are my favorite. They’re so awesome because they’re sacred objects which are used in the liturgy of the Church, the divine worship that’s due towards God. That’s one of the things I love the most as an altar server: to be that close to God when these things are happening. These things are reminders of that. Veronica’s Veil is the other one that was really impressive that I did not write about.
William Cooke: I wrote about the Asian, Ethiopian, and Mexican sections. It’s really hard to choose. If I had to choose one outside of my section, it would probably be Defenders of the Eucharist. I also really love the relics. They’re really beautiful and there’s the added level of sacredness—having actual sacred objects that we get to show.
Karlie Platz: The section that I wrote the descriptions for was the Incarnation section. Naturally they have a special place in my heart because I spent so much time thinking about them. The one that sticks out to me the most is the etching of Veronica’s Veil. There’s something about when you look at it, it’s so powerful, the face of Christ, it looks like he’s weeping a little bit. It really strikes you to the heart. It’s also from an artistic point of view very interesting. I didn’t realize this at first when I first saw it—I just thought it was this beautiful drawing. It’s actually a single line that starts in his nose and spirals out to make this beautiful image. You wouldn’t even realize it until you look at it. It’s almost like this double symbolism. Of course the symbolism of Veronica’s Veil is that this veil—this matter—is transformed into this holy object. But then for the artist it’s even something as simple as a line can be transformed into this beautiful picture. I thought that one was really powerful.
Molly Leonard: I wrote the saints and relics section so those are my favorite pieces. It’s hard to pick a favorite. I like the St. Anne relic because we have the St. Anne Oratory here. And I didn’t really realize how intricate it was until yesterday when I was looking closer at the relic, because I don’t think I had seen the reliquary up close. There are little angel heads around the relic, which is really cool. And just the fact that we have the reliquary here and the significance that it holds to Hope’s Catholic community is really special.
Gabrielle Nelson: I just love the Last Supper piece... I go back and forth! All the pieces look different, too, now that they’re hung up. I think probably the St. Nicholas icon, just because he’s my patron, so I have a super close connection to St. Nicholas. Also, since it is an icon, I see my mom every time I go home she’s making icons and painting, so it’s really cool to see a different application of that medium as well as to see the history behind it that I don’t really see with my mom painting brand new ones at home.
Karlie Platz with several images of the crucified Christ
What did you learn while curating the exhibition? How has it affected you academically and spiritually?
William Cooke: Through doing this, I got a better sense of the breadth of the Catholic artistic tradition. Seeing all the different art movements and cultures through which the faith is expressed has been really enlightening. There’s a lot of history you connect with looking at this.
William Hurley: I’m used to a lot of statuary and metalwork, that kind of stuff, and to see, especially the Asian art that I’m not really in contact with living in the West, that was really inspiring. Things like Veronica’s Veil—before this I actually hadn’t heard about the specific way of that drawing. I see that as a little miracle in and of itself.
Karlie Platz: I’ve always known that the word “catholic” means “universal,” this idea of the Universal Church, but seeing this art from all the different cultures and the different ways even within one culture that different individuals represent their faith, really visibly and tangibly made the reality of the universality of the Church present to me. I think that was my biggest takeaway.
Molly Leonard: It was really cool to reflect on the Catholic faith as a really distinctly incarnational one and the different ways that plays out: the saints and the sacraments, the relics and things like the Last Judgement. It was really cool to see how it is displayed in so many different themes throughout the exhibit, the way we were able to bring that story to life.
Gabrielle Nelson: I think I came in knowing a decent amount about the curation process, but I definitely learned a lot more through working with Charles. I had no idea the KAM had so many Catholic art pieces! It was really cool to see that, even though Hope is obviously not a Catholic school. But then I also feel like my personal faith grew a lot because I was moved to really look into the images that we selected, particularly for the Last Things section, that I had to do the research on the artwork itself. I do that in my art classes, but I don’t always get to experience that with Catholic art. Really diving into the truth of the Catholic faith through that and using all three transcendentals of truth, beauty, and goodness and working from each within the pieces and my own faith growing. Even things that I already knew were reiterated.
Molly Leonard with the reliquaries on display at the exhibition
Why should people come see this exhibition?
William Hurley: I think that it takes you on almost a whole journey of Christ and how he is trying to reach us and the world. It’s an excellent summary, kind of a mini-catechism, and done in a very reachable, beautiful way. It’s not some stuffy theological document that’s hard to read. It’s a thing that’s expressed through emotion and beauty. Specifically, Defenders of the Eucharist was another thing that I really like as well, that shows in a beautiful way people’s love for the real transformation of matter that we have.
William Cooke: God is beauty, and experiencing him through art—this is a way to God. It’s a unique way of experiencing God, and this is our shared heritage, so this is also a way of being close with all the Christians who have come before us.
Molly Leonard: Especially because we’re on a Protestant campus, a lot of people just don’t know a ton about the history of the Catholic Church and the deep faith tradition that we have. We tried to give a pretty cohesive view of what we believe as Catholics. There’s a lot that we’re trying to show. Also, I think we have some really cool art, and we just had the opportunity to show it. Otherwise, it’s just going to sit in the basement.
Karlie Platz: I think about the story of the Catholic tradition that can be learned. Also, there is something divine in all of the matter around us, and I think coming to look at this art and reflect upon that can help awaken our senses to that reality.
Gabrielle Nelson: A lot of people have misconceptions about Catholic art. Just entering this space they’ll see the beauty and how it draws you into something deeper. Even if there are no misconceptions, we’re made to see beautiful things and walking through this gallery can grow you closer to God and show you more of God through beauty.
Gabrielle Nelson with artworks in the Last Things section of the exhibition
Ice Mass 2024
The ice altar has returned! William Hurley (’25) and Andrew Hoeksema (’25) constructed an elaborate altar and other liturgical furnishings so that Fr. Nick could once again celebrate Mass in the frozen Pine Grove. See photos below and read more about the ice altar in an article from The Anchor, Hope College’s student newspaper.
Catholic Art Exhibition at the Kruizenga Art Museum
A new exhibition, Transforming Matter: Incarnation, Sacraments, and Saints in Catholic Art and Devotion, opened at the Hope College Kruizenga Art Museum on January 12 and runs through May 18. The exhibition is free and all are welcome.
Transforming Matter was curated by five students from the Hope Catholics student organization working under the supervision of Professor of Religion and SBI Executive Director Jared Ortiz. The exhibition features 25 artworks that reflect different aspects of Catholic theology and religious practice. Artworks in the exhibition include paintings, prints, sculptures, and liturgical objects that range in date from the late fifteenth to the early twenty-first centuries. All of the artworks in the exhibition belong to the Kruizenga Art Museum’s permanent collection.
“The Christian religion is gritty,” explains Professor Ortiz. “God became flesh and appeared as a baby born in a barn in a forgotten corner of the Roman empire. He lived through every stage of human existence—from a little tiny embryo to a full-grown adult—in order to restore every stage of human life back to communion with God. He was killed on a cross and buried in a stone tomb, but he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. God did this to save us, that is, to redeem us from sin and death so that we might be healed and made “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). This is the great mystery of Christianity: God became what we are so that we can become what he is. The exhibition curated by my students explores the many ways that God enters into created reality to transform it for our salvation.”
The exhibition is divided into five thematic sections: Incarnation, Sacraments, Saints, End Times, and the Global Church. Each section contains a selection of artworks that illustrate different aspects of the section’s theme. The artworks were chosen by the five student curators both for their relevance to the themes and for their aesthetic qualities and how they look displayed together. "As a student curator, I was surprised and delighted by how much Catholic artwork was available for us to choose from,” said Karlie Platz. “The pieces we considered came from all over the world and were varied in their artistic style, reminding me of the universality and diversity of the Catholic Church. I think the artwork we chose reflects visibly the often invisible reality of a God who has entered and always continues to enter into our human condition. It was a pleasure and an honor to be part of this exhibition, and I hope visitors are as moved when viewing it as I was when selecting it."
Among the highlights of the exhibition is an astonishing engraving created by French artist Claude Mellan in 1649. It depicts the Veil of Veronica, a cloth that is said to have had the face of Jesus Christ divinely imprinted on it after it was used by a kindly woman to wipe Christ’s face as he was carrying the cross to Golgotha. The entire image of the cloth with the holy face is depicted using a single line that spirals outward from the tip of Christ’s nose, a remarkable feat of printmaking that has to be seen in person to be fully appreciated. Another notable artwork in the exhibition is a splendid silver monstrance—a vessel used to display the Eucharistic host—that was created by artists in the Philippines in the late eighteenth century. This exhibition marks the first time this monstrance, and several other artworks, have been made available for public viewing.
The Kruizenga Art Museum is located at 271 Columbia Avenue, between 10th and 13th streets. Public visiting hours are Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission to the museum is always free.
The Kruizenga Art Museum functions as an educational resource for Hope College and the greater West Michigan community. The museum features two public galleries as well as a study room and climate-controlled storage space for its 7,000-object permanent collection. It is named in honor of a leadership gift from the late Dr. Richard and Margaret Kruizenga of Holland, both of whom graduated from Hope in 1952.
Stephen Barr: Student Reflection, Photos, & Video
Reflection by Andrew Silagi
I grew up going to a handful of different American evangelical megachurches, which unknowingly led me to the belief that evolution and the Big Bang Theory were incompatible with Christianity. I don’t remember exactly where I got this idea, but I’m pretty sure it came mostly from my parents and was not explicitly challenged by any of the churches I attended. I remember an interaction with someone at my public middle school when I plainly stated something about my disbelief in evolution. He reacted with disgust at what to him was utter ignorance. Throughout high school and into college, I only thought about the intense tension I felt between Young Earth Creationism and theistic evolutionary theories every so often, hearing the voices from both sides of the argument that said I was either grievously misguided or patently unbiblical. Because of my desire to avoid conflict and my status as a non-science major, I tried the best I could to stay away from the issue on account of its charged nature. Eventually, my college ministries group back home started a series on controversial questions, one of which was creation. In our breakout group, two friends of mine in STEM talked about their adoption of theistic evolution beliefs, which brought the topic once again to the forefront of my mind.
When I saw that the Saint Benedict Institute had invited Dr. Stephen Barr to give a lecture entitled “The Big Bang, the Beginning, and Creation,” I knew I had to attend. Barr, the president of the Society of Catholic Scientists and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Delaware, was given the opportunity to defend the compatibility of modern science with the Christian faith. He opened by distinguishing two often conflated terms, “beginning” and “creation,” clarifying that “beginning” refers to the temporal starting point of the universe, whereas “creation” refers to the notion that God is the one on whom the existence of the universe depends. Barr disputes the connection between these two terms, asserting instead that while the creation of the universe can be philosophically proven, its beginning is only known by divine revelation.
Admittedly, I was only somewhat following Barr’s argument when he entered a domain that I am much more familiar with: literature. A Secondary English Education major myself, I was delighted to hear Barr use the analogy of a novel and its author to help the audience better understand God’s role in the creation of the universe. To illustrate this point, Barr compared the Big Bang to the beginning of a novel. The Big Bang is not the cause for the universe’s existence any more than the first sentences of the novel are the cause of its existence. The creator, just like a novelist, is the origin of this body of work. The author of a work is the one who brings it into existence; he is not its beginning.
Throughout the rest of the lecture, Barr discussed many convincing arguments for the congruence between faith and science, including the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states that an infinitely regressing world would lack any sense of decay, and how God used the laws of physics to create the world rather than some unscientific miracle. He even emphasized the significance of the Belgian Roman Catholic priest Georges Lemaître, who was the first to propose the Big Bang Theory.
While I still have a good deal of prayer and reflection to do on where I stand on this issue, I greatly appreciate Barr’s expertise on this topic. It is clear that many people who have a deep commitment to the historic Christian faith still believe in the theories of modern science. As a non-scientist, I am grateful that the Saint Benedict Institute and Barr recognize the relevance of these questions and the importance of having these conversations on college campuses.
Andrew Silagi is a senior from Arlington Heights, IL. He is majoring in Secondary English Education.
Stephen Barr’s lecture was part of our fall series, Creation, Evolution, and Our Place in the Cosmos.
#GivingTuesday 2023
November 28 is #GivingTuesday! Please consider making a gift to support our ministry at Hope College.
We share stories from our current students every year during October and November. When you give to the Saint Benedict Institute, your generosity will foster many new stories in the lives of students at Hope College in the years to come.
Check out our featured students below!
Molly Leonard on Daily Mass
“Regularly attending daily Mass has been the single most important part of my life at Hope.”
Altar Servers
“What team could be better than serving the Lord with your bros?”
Julia Suss on Freshman Year
“The Catholic life on campus has helped bring me back to what really matters.
Drew Hoeksema on Seeking the Truth
“Even when I don't fully recognize it, I am so grateful to have access to the remarkable ministry of the Saint Benedict Institute.”