Covenant College Philosophy Club
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~~
Savory definitions for the hopelessly analytic at heart. ~~
Here are the current sesquipedalian obfuscations found in our site, made eminently clear for your fine-tooth combing pleasure. Pick a word, any word.
Pillar
of Salt
ccphc
Genius
Pedestal
Base
Relief
Covenant
College
Reformed
The “Pillar of Salt” section is now beginning to represent the attempts by the Philosophy Club’s consciousness to comprehend itself by including reflections upon and tasty morsels from our past events (dare we look back?) as well as upcoming activities.
For the moment, please refer to our calendar of events at our eGroups site. Perhaps someday that calendar will be displayed directly on this page.
At some point we hope this page can spin off a section which will contain an archive of the best content (in text or audio format) from our Philosophy Club meetings and activities.
The title for this section may change, but the idea which the present title represents is that:
1) we in the Philosophy Club serve to discern and promote God’s truth in the world, and have a warranted and hopeful outlook on this endeavor due to God’s promises and His grace,
2) but we also recognize the damaging and limiting effects which sin has on our endeavors.
For this reason, we trust that because we are part of God’s church, we fulfill part of the church’s function as “the pillar and ground of truth” and “salt and light” in the world.
However, we reflect on our mistakes with chagrin and admit that we have not fully escaped from them, and so appropriately we admit that we often are no better than Lot’s wife, who longed to be united with her sinful past, looked back at, and was turned into a pillar of salt.
If you can forgive us for the morbid imagery, we hope to show the glory of God in our Club’s history, and to recognize fully that His goodness only originates from Him, and not from us.
Non
nobis, Domine ...
The “ccphc” is the Covenant College Philosophy Club! Pretty simple, but I can see how the acronym could fool you.
Our club exists to serve the students at Covenant College by giving them a place to learn to think about philosophy in a Christian and Reformed manner, by holding lectures, discussions, going places like the Wheaton Philosophy Conference, and by encouraging the rest of the campus either to be involved in our activities or to make their own Philosophy-Club-analogues within their own disciplines. We hope that this will further strengthen the tradition of intellectualism at Covenant, and as the Philosophy Department profs claim, it seems to be working.
The Genius Pedestal is where we post the top five papers submitted from various philosophical folk around the college. Once more than five papers are actually submitted (keep ‘em coming, philosophical folks!!), we will keep an accessible backlog of the popular or noteworthy papers which have been bumped off the top of the pedestal. (There is no mystery about how many papers can dance on the top of the Genius Pedestal. Just five.) There is a catch to the Pedestal, though. There will be no Simon the Stylite here, mind you. Your paper might be good, but it will not remain on the pedestal for more than two years, no matter how good it is. That way we will guarantee some variety to our hero worship.
This is the humor section of our site. Here you will find the tongue in cheek adventures of the Integrator, who is the summation of all the wonderful (psuedo?) intellectual themes of life at Covenant, as well as the dark and furtive working of the Integrator’s arch rival, the Cognitive Dissonantegrator.
The connotations intended by the name “Base Relief” are legion. For one thing, we admit that the humor might be a bit banal at points. So it is “base.” But sometimes banality is what you need after attempting to be analytic with a continental like Kierkegaard. So it is “relief.” And so to put things in perspective, this site is dedicated to keeping a lighthearted joviality as a helpful backdrop behind its more serious attempts at making some kind of productive contribution to philosophy. Base Relief.
According to the College’s Statement of Purpose, “Covenant College is a Christ-centered institution of higher education emphasizing liberal arts. It is operated by a board of trustees elected by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America. It exists to provide post-secondary educational services to that denomination and the wider public.”
From there on out we like to confuse ourselves about whether or not we really know how to define the words used in that initial definition. I suppose that penchant for self-stultification is part of what we are as well. But to be honest, while we do face some identity conundrums at this point, it is only because we are thinking about the issue of what a Reformed institution of higher learning really ought to be. I don’t intend to glorify an institution, but I must say to those who appreciate the faithfulness to God and scripture that can be found in the Reformed denominations, that you will find that same faithfulness here like you won’t find in many other colleges around the world. The debates here go deeper into understanding and refining reformed distinctives--and we think that means going deeper into the truth--than what can be expected at a school with less of an adherence to the Reformed tradition. That is why I came, and why I have stayed two years past graduation to continue studying here. (If you will allow a personal note.)
Ecclesia reformata semper reformanda est!
By “Reformed,” we mean the kind of Christian perspective that is: (primarily) marked by faithfulness to God’s inscripturated word, and (secondarily) in the tradition of the leaders of the Protestant Reformation which is well-expressed in the Westminster Confession of Faith. Check out the article, “What is the Reformed Faith?” for more introductory information.
