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RPC releases Fideles
This October, a dream was realized, as Redeemer Pacific College published the first edition of Fideles, an ecumenical academic journal of theology and philosophy, in collaboration with Trinity Western University.
Dr. Christopher Morrissey, who is featured in this first edition, described Fideles as an academic journal “with a twist.”
“Professors contribute articles, but students also contribute poetry and artwork, like photographs,” he explained.
The purpose of the journal, according to Morrissey, is to foster “better understanding and cooperation in the Body of Christ.”
“Fideles is a forum for us to share the best of our thinking on the issues that people on campus, students and professors, are deliberating about,” he said.
Morrissey hopes that the source of many of the journals articles will be students’ questions.
“Students are really good at asking tough questions for which there is not enough class time to cover the answers. And the answers, moreover, are controversial and need to be debated,” he said. Consequently, he hopes that Fideles will give professors an opportunity to share their views on difficult topics, being spurred on by their students’ probing questions.
The genesis of the journal began last year as a result of ongoing informal dialogue between RPC and TWU faculty. Morrissey said the journal gave faculty the chance to engage in discussion more effectively, despite the constraint of their busy schedules.
“Sometimes it is helpful to keep an ongoing discussion going by saying, ‘Here’s what I think about that; I have written it up here in a short article,’” he added.
Taking to heart Jesus’ prayer that his disciples would be one, RPC decided the journal was to be intentionally ecumenical. This should come as no surprise since, as Morrissey said, “TWU and RPC have a world-class ecumenical partnership that is totally unique in the world.” In the future, Morrissey hopes to see Fideles recognized as a northern version of First Things, an inter-religious journal of religion, culture, and public life based out of New York. Currently, there are plans to publish Fideles every year.
Tom Hamel, President of RPC, supports this academic endeavour, saying the cooperative nature of the journal is reflective of the relationship between TWU and RPC.
“The Lord has called the TWU/RPC relationship to be an example of how committed Protestants and Catholics can work together in harmony for the Kingdom,” he explained, “despite our historic differences and without ‘watering them down,’ as so often has happened in ecumenical dialogue in the past.” He believes that Fideles is an excellent way to creative effective exchange and dialogue.
“With the journal Fideles,” said Morrissey, “we now have a wonderful forum for everyone on campus to contribute their talents to the most interesting conversations that we can collectively think of.”
The first issue of Fideles is available in the library or for $20 at the TWU Bookstore, and features four articles by professors—two from RPC and two from TWU: “Intellectual Vision” by Dr. Phillip Wiebe, “The Mysticism of C.S. Lewis” by Dr. Robert Stackpole, “Metaphysics Defined, Justified, and Exemplified” by Dr. Christopher Morrissey, and “Eberhard Jüngel’s Quest for God’s Speakability: An Evaluagtive Exposition of his Critique of Analogia Entis and his Counter-proposal” by Dr. Archie Spencer.
You should be aware that Fideles has received free advertisement in the March ’07 issue of First Things. In the same issue, Fr. R.J. Neuhaus penned a review of Mark Noll’s presidential address to the American Society of Church History titled “Whatever Happened to Christian Canada?”. The title of the review tells on the answer explored: “Europe to the North of Us”… (which suggestiveness is a little too strong. Forces in the EU are attempting to engineer historical amnesia. In Canada, forces there have been bent on identifying and teaching a history impervious to any memories but our own.)