Exhibit:

African art represents the wide range of people, societies and civilizations that identify with their own visual culture. The Goshen College Music Center’s Hershberger Art Gallery will be showcasing that variety in an exhibit titled “Indigenous Arts of Africa.” The exhibit runs from June 2 to Sept. 22. There will be a reception on the last day of the exhibit – Sept. 22 – from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., with a lecture following.

This exhibition of 21^st-century African art is a sampling of the extensive collection of Ann and Keith Graber Miller, owners of Found, an international art gallery in downtown Goshen. Collected from the Graber Millers’ travels in Kenya and Ethiopia, as well as their acquisition of the West African collections of several others, the exhibition includes: a beaded chieftan’s coat from Nigeria, antique woven vegetal and leather baskets from the Orono people of Ethiopia, fabrics from Ghana and Congo, bronze statues from Cameroon and Benin, large ceremonial masks from the Bobo people of Burkina Faso, stone Shona sculptures from Zimbabwe and Ethiopian Orthodox icons.

“Our collecting is what led us to open our store Found,” says Graber Miller. “We mainly travel and collect art from Asia, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe, but this is our first show from one specific continent.” The Graber Millers have been collecting art since they were married in 1987.

The collection is a combination of ceremonial objects as well as artifacts from daily life. Many of the pieces were inspired by high religious feeling and linked to ancestor worship. For the viewer, the exhibit will inspire a sense of spirituality, curiosity and mystery.

After seeing the diverse collection of African art at Found, Goshen College Assistant Professor of Art Kristi Glick invited the Graber Millers to exhibit in the Hershberger Art Gallery. Their African collection originated when the couple planned to travel to Kenya and Ethiopia two years ago. In preparation for their trip they began visiting African art galleries in Chicago, Indianapolis and New Orleans to get a sense of what might be available. They purchased a number of pieces prior to and then after traveling to Africa, including a warehouse of African art in Indianapolis that had been part of three separate collections. Many of those works are included in the current show.

Keith is Professor of Religion in Goshen College’s Bible and Religion Department and Ann is an interior design consultant.

The Hershberger Art Gallery is located in the Music Center and is open during the summer from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on weekends and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays. The building is accessible to people using wheelchairs and others with physical limitations.

– By Lexi Kantz

Living Faith

Goshen College Professor of Bible, Religion and Philosophy Keith Graber Miller’s new book Living Faith: Embracing God’s Callings (Cascadia Publishing House LLC, Dec. 2012) explains why the primary Christian calling is to be a follower of Jesus Christ and what this entails for vocational life. Written from an Anabaptist perspective but relevant for any denominational group, the book is perfect for intergenerational settings and ideal for both group and individual study of vocation. It offers both historical and contemporary insights for discerning passions and pursuing callings.

Boston University Professor of Sociology of Religion Nancy T. Ammerman said, “Graber Miller calls all Christians to discern their passions, to be followers of Christ in vocations that matter. With the charm of a master story-teller, the vision of a teacher, and the insight of a seasoned scholar, he ranges from Mennonite history to today’s urban and professional Mennonite culture in a way that will inform and challenge lay readers and theologians alike.”

Living Faith can be purchased online for $12.95. It is also available in the Goshen College Bookstore.

North American volume in Mennonite Global History series

Goshen College Professor of History Steven M. Nolt and co-author Royden Loewen, professor of history at the University of Winnipeg in Manitoba, wrote Seeking Places of Peace (Good Books & Pandora Press, Oct. 2012) as the fifth and final volume of the “Mennonite Global History” series sponsored by Mennonite World Conference.

Seeking Places of Peace strives to create a comprehensive history of Mennonites in North America with a focus on people and places. It is one of the first to treat U.S. and Canadian Mennonite history as an integrated whole and explores how various people worked and lived in North America to express their religious devotion. Nolt and Loewen investigate the everyday lives of Mennonite men and women to illustrate their way of life.

The authors are “both masters of the North American story, and they have charted a fresh journey through remarkably diverse experiences,” said John A. Lapp and C. Arnold Snyder, who have overseen the Mennonite Global History series. “They both bring the insights of social history, which means that they focus on people in many geographical environments rather than on institutional development and theological controversy.

Together, they describe their task as writers of this inclusive and sweeping history as “seeking to answer a single question: How did Mennonite men and women live out their distinctive religious calling to follow Christ in North America? The answer is that they did so as ordinary people, in everyday life. In their lives they often aimed for holiness, neatness and orderliness, but the fact is that life is not always neat, it is never sin-less and indeed it is often messy. There have been joys and tears, moments of achievement and times of failure.”

In addition to teaching history, Nolt is an internationally-recognized expert on the Old Order Amish. He is the author or coauthor of nine other books, including The Amish Way: Patient Faith in a Perilous World (2010), Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy (2007), Mennonites, Amish and the American Civil War (2007) and A History of the Amish (2003).

Seeking Places of Peace, a 400-page book, can be purchased online. It is also available in the Goshen College Bookstore.

Pastor and Professor

Retired Goshen College Professor of Bible Don Blosser authored the new book Pastor and Professor: A Public Faith (Wipf and Stock Publishers, Aug. 2012). The book is one pastor’s story of a rich life filled with experiences that tested his faith and demanded growth that was both exhilarating and painful. It is the personal story of moving from faith as right doctrinal belief to faith as a liberating response to a loving God — a God who is always present, continually drawing followers into the future. This dynamic understanding of faith is based on the belief that the kingdom of God is a present reality where followers of Jesus are to be pastoral in spirit while prophetic in living.

Blosser weaves personal experience with public expression of an emerging faith that wrestles candidly with the realities of life and deals with the pastor/professor tension of integrating academic scholarship in the classroom with pastoral proclamation in the pulpit. Pastor and Professor invites the reader to share a journey where faith is often challenged, sometimes doubted, yet lived with enthusiasm as it is shared from the pulpit and in the college classroom. It invites the reader to find fresh insights in the Scriptures, and to live with new hope, to embrace life more fully, and to share more gently one’s own story with others.

Blosser, who received his doctorate from St. Andrews University in Scotland, is an ordained Mennonite minister who pastored congregations in Freeport, Ill. and Akron, Pa. He is the author of Dictionary of the Literature of the Bible (1993), and contributor to Jesus: His Life and Times (1998). He taught at Goshen College from 1979 to 2001.

Pastor and Professor can be purchased online for $22.40. It is also available in the Goshen College Bookstore.

The Classical Theory of Fields: Electromagnetism

Professor Emeritus of Physics Carl Helrich wrote the new graduate text in physics, The Classical Theory of Fields: Electromagnetism (Jan. 2012), published by Springer, a leader in scientific literature. It is based on a class that he taught at Goshen College and gives a thorough and logical exposition of the theory of electromagnetism, enriched with historical details. Some other features include high quality diagrams, end of chapter questions and a separate complete solutions manual.

“The study of classical electromagnetic fields is an adventure. The theory is complete mathematically and we are able to present it as an example of classical Newtonian experimental and mathematical philosophy. There is a set of foundational experiments, on which most of the theory is constructed. And then there is the bold theoretical proposal of a field-field interaction from James Clerk Maxwell,” writes Helrich. “This textbook presents the theory of classical fields as a mathematical structure based solidly on laboratory experiments. The student is introduced to the beauty of classical field theory as a gem of theoretical physics.”

This book can be purchased online for $81.49.

Adoption chapter in interfaith book

Professor of Bible, Religion and Philosophy Keith Graber Miller also recently had a chapter on adoption published in the just-released book Children, Adults, and Shared Responsibilities: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, Nov. 2012). The book is edited by Marcia J. Bunge and Graber Miller’s chapter in this interfaith book is titled “Orphans and Adoption: Biblical Themes, Christian Initiatives, and Contemporary Ethical Concerns.”

Motivation and critique chapter in art education book

Professor Emeritus of Art Marvin Bartel contributed a chapter on motivation and critique for an anthology on choice-based art education. The book, titled The Learner-Directed Classroom: Developing Creative Thinking Skills Through Art (Teachers College Press, Sept. 2012) is edited by Diane Jaquith and Nan Hathaway.

Intercultural chapter in Christian higher education leadership book

The new book Thriving in Leadership: Strategies for Making a Difference in Christian Higher Education (ACU Press, Aug. 2012), edited by Karen A. Longman, includes contributions by 16 other senior leaders in Christian higher education across North America, including Goshen College Associate Dean for Intercultural Development & Educational Partnerships Rebecca Hernandez. Her chapter is titled “Beyond ‘hospitality’: Moving out of the host-guest metaphor into an intercultural ‘World House.’”

This compilation represents an engaging introduction to leadership approaches and strategies in Christian higher education, designed to strengthen the leaders of today and inspire the leaders of tomorrow.
 

Faith mentoring chapter in spiritual formation for college students book

Campus Pastor Bob Yoder had a chapter published in a recent book titled Building a Culture of Faith: University-Wide Partnerships for Spiritual Formation (Abilene Christian University Press, Aug. 2012). The title of his chapter is “Strengthening a Christian College as a Faith-Mentoring Environment through Knowing-Being-Doing.” The book is a collection of 14 different essays on the influences of various parts of the university on student spiritual formation. Yoder’s chapter shares some of the findings of a two-year study he recently conducted.

Dale Brown Book Award

In 2012, Professor of Bible, Religion and Philosophy Keith Graber Miller received the Dale Brown Book Award for the text he edited titled Prophetic Peacemaking: Selected Writings of J.R. Burkholder (Institute for Mennonite Studies, 2010). The award is given for a new book that is “judged to advance significantly the scholarship in Anabaptist and Pietist studies,” and is given annually by Elizabethtown College’s Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies. Burkholder was a long-time religion, ethics and peace studies professor at Goshen College, and a mentor for Graber Miller during and since his seminary studies. Prophetic Peacemaking was chosen from a pool of 25 nominated books this year.

View a video of Graber Miller delivering the Dale Brown Book Award Lecture in October at the Young Center, and Burkholder offering a response.

Thessaloniki, Greece

GOSHEN, Ind. – Goshen College Campus Pastor Bob Yoder remembers how his life was significantly changed by a semester spent in the Middle East during college, when the “Bible came alive” for him. He hopes the same will be true for his students as he helps lead one of two classes spending 20 days during May term traveling together through Greece and Rome, tracing the footsteps of the Apostle Paul. Both classes will be engaging the same material and going to the same places, but have different objectives.

One group is a Bible class of 33 students led by Yoder and Professor of Bible, Religion and Philosophy Keith Graber Miller. Their focus is following Paul’s second missionary journey in Greece as described in Acts 16-18 and exploring the issues of the various religious communities he influenced and the various books of the Bible associated with those churches. They will conclude in Rome where Paul spent his final earthly days and the study of the book of Romans.

Students also will engage three very different ways of expressing Christian faith, though all are descendents of Paul’s work: Eastern Greek Orthodox Church, Roman Catholicism and the Evangelical church movement, Yoder said. The students will have the opportunity to visit Thessaloniki, Philippi, Berea, Vergina, Mt. Olympus, Meteora, Delphi, Athens, Corinth, Florence and Rome.

“One of my hopes is that we learn lessons about how to cross boundaries in our faith setting, like Paul was engaged in,” Yoder said. “That’s one of the reasons Paul is a hero for me.”

Thessaloniki, Greece

Group times will include worship, reflection and sharing insights from various small group projects and assignments. There will also be times throughout the course where students will be encouraged to individually reflect, pray, read and journal.

“Gaining insight into the faith, spirituality and mission of the Apostle Paul will hopefully strengthen students’ individual faith journeys,” Yoder said. “Another hope is that the Scriptures will come alive for students as they experience the various historical places in Greece and Rome.”

The second group traveling is a broadcasting class of nine students led by Assistant Professor of Communication Seth Conley and Assistant Professor of Communication Kyle Hufford. They are working on producing a documentary examining the ways one of the most influential figures in the Christian Church dealt with cultural, religious, physical and personal boundaries, and how he “bridged the gap.” They are providing the writing, photos and videos on the blog (http://blog.goshen.edu/journeysofpaul).

The crew is traveling with 128-plus pounds of video equipment, including three cameras. “The classes will be taking different approaches in digesting the material and experiences,” Conley said. “We will be asking, ‘how do we tell a great story?’ We will be ingesting the experience and then sharing it with people who can’t be with us.”

The class films an interview with tour guide David Sparks.

Students will be rotating between different roles to gain experience in producing, directing, filming, lighting and audio engineering.

“Along the way, our team will be chronicling not only what we learn about history but also about what Christ is teaching us personally during this journey,” said Conley. “Students don’t always make the connection between broadcasting and their faith, so when this opportunity arose, I wanted to take advantage of it.”

Yoder is pleased that the trip includes both classes with different objectives, and believes that they will enhance each others’ learning. “I see this as an example of the kind of interdisciplinary learning we focus on here at Goshen College,” he said.

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College Assistant Director of Public Relations Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

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Goshen College, established in 1894, is a residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college’s Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron’s Best Buys in Education, “Colleges of Distinction,” “Making a Difference College Guide” and U.S. News & World Report’s ”America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu.