Position Paper

 

Larry Yoder

 

       

1.      This piece will be the less consisting of the analytical and the more personal and confessional.  The mission of Lenoir-Rhyne College is not only congenial to my commitment to teaching and learning.  It is also deep within my understanding of vocatio, my theological and ethical training and discipline – even deep within my heritage.  As a child, I played on campus with my brother, as my mother visited at my grandparents' home just across 8th avenue from Highland and Fritz Hall (Conrad was yet to be).  As a student (L-R, '65) I was involved in the wholeness of the campus life.....Lenoir-Rhynean, Playmakers, A Cappella Choir, SGA, intramurals, student assistant – the whole nine yards.  From a country background in western Lincoln County, I was at Lenoir-Rhyne engaged by the liberating arts to new horizons and deeper understanding.  The atmosphere was a combination of nurture and character building.  But it was one in which it was clearly understood that the responsibility to learn and to grow was much more the student's task than the college's.  The college provided the opportunity and the setting; it was up to the student to drift or to work.

 

2.             As a professor of theology and ethics dedicated to wholeness of life and purpose, what I do is, I think, at the heart of the college's mission.  I teach the capstone course in Christianity and culture, which addresses both how one lives in the world and what informs as to the source and content of the Good.   Of particular concern is how Christian moral philosophy takes its norms from God’s revealed Word, and from natural law, as understood from the Christian perspective.  We examine what it means to study morals and ethics from a metaphysics as in Iris Murdoch’s Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals and as in Pope John Paul II’s excellent Veritatis Splendor—as well as what it means to construct moral philosophy and ethics with no metaphysics informing the source, warrant, or content for the Good.

 

We explore Christian anthropology, and how that understanding of humanity compares with regnant secular understandings. I teach courses in the history of theology, in science and religion, in the Lutheran confessions--all these are central to that part of the mission that both recalls and lives its nature as a college of the church. 

 

The 1891 state charter, filed in behalf of Lenoir College, states, among other things, that "the college shall teach the scriptures and the (Lutheran) confessions, even if the synod does not!"  What was a fading controversy in the early 1890s has become once again a lively debate, on both confessional and ethical grounds—different issues but similar grounds. 

 

         It is possible, of course, to teach religion and ethics courses from a scholarly distance to the faith.  It is also possible to teach from the point of view of sectarian inculcation.  I attempt neither.  I let my classes, whether core or major, know that I am a committed evangelical catholic Christian, an ordained Lutheran pastor.  I am also a scholar, and, accordingly, perspectives that are purely partisan are not the aim of the course.   From within the framework of the Christian faith, and commitment to that faith, I attempt to lead the students to knowledge of the basics, understanding of the nuances, and insight into the crucial questions at each turn in the discussion.

 

3.             Among my assignments is to direct the Center for Theology.  This center has as its mission:

 

·               To foster the orthodox theology of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, centered upon the evangelical dogma of justification by grace through faith alone;

·               To strengthen the proclamation of the Gospel; and

·               To assist in the provision of enlightened leadership that will shape the future of the Church in faithfulness to the Word of God.

 

We sponsor weekly pericope (scripture lessons) studies for pastors, mount monthly colloquia on theological and ethical issues, and host the annual Aquinas/Luther Conference, a colloquy for national and international scholars to discuss the Catholic and Lutheran traditions from the perspectives of two of their signal theologians. 

 

4.             Another assignment is to direct the Lineberger Center for Cultural and Educational Renewal, which  has as its mission to:

 

·               Affirm the existence of a moral order and the renewal of that sensitivity in ourselves and our society;

·               Promote the study of values and their importance to us and our society;

·               Develop a capacity for making well-ordered, ethical judgments;

·               Instill the means of making critical choices through patterns of inquiry and habits of thought;

·               Stimulate and promote challenge, the courage to meet it, and the skills to deal with it creatively.

 

 For 21 years we have sponsored bi-weekly seminars in the Great Books program, for honors students and for community members.  We have sponsored faculty research, performance in the arts, and special series on key topics in the culture.

 

5.             My role at Lenoir-Rhyne is such that if I do not live and advance the cause of the college as a college of the church, I am not doing my job!

 

JLY 05.07.02