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EVENTS, UPDATES, & ACTIVITIES
FALL 2004.
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YERXA-GIBERSON MEET WITH LEADING ROMAN CATHOLIC SCHOLARS IN SCIENCE AND RELIGION
This summer ENC professors Donald Yerxa and Karl Giberson met with two leading Catholic scholars ito discuss possible collaboration. Mariano Arigas, professor of philosophy at University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain, is the author of thirteen books, most recently Galileo in Rome (Oxford University Press, 2004) with William Shea. His colleague, Rafael Martinez, is professor of philosophy of science at the Pontifical  University of the Holy Cross, Rome. He is author and editor of several books. As a result of the meeting, Giberson and Artigas will co-author a book. Yerxa met Artigas and Martinez three years ago at a conference at the Vatican Observatory in Castelgandolfo, Italy. 
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JAMES & FRANCES SWARTZ ENDOW HOLOCAUST STUDIES
History professors Randall Stephens and Carla Lovett flank James (ENC class of '61) and Frances Swartz, who were in chapel in November to be recognized for their support of the college's Holocaust studies courses.  In the past the Swartzes made significant donations of Holocaust literature to the Nease Library.  Recently they established a History department endowment for the study of the Holocaust and genocide. On November 22nd Eastern Nazarene College honored the Swartzes with the presentation of a plaque, recognizing their service to the academic community. 

Professor Lovett, speaking on behalf of the History Department, thanked them for their very generous gift and the possibilities opened by the endowment.  Lovett noted: "Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel once said, 'I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.' We know and appreciate deeply that you have devoted your lives to following Wiesel's advice. Thank you for your perceptive sensitivity to the overwhelming need for genocide studies. We are highly honored that you would entrust the History Department at ENC with the task of making it happen. We commit ourselves today to continuing your legacy in order than none ever forget." [Text adapted from the Christian Scholar.] 
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DR. STEPHENS ELECTED TO PHI BETA KAPA 
The University of Florida recently elected Randall Stephens, Assistant Professor of History, to membership in Phi Beta Kappa.  The organization, founded in 1776 by undergraduates at the College of William and Mary, is the oldest college letter society in the U.S.  Some of the more famous past inductees include six of the current Supreme Court justices, presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush Sr., Francis Ford Coppola, Stephen Sondheim, and Jonas Salk.  Phi Beta Kappa derives its name from the initial letters of its motto, Philosophia biou kubernetes ("Philosophy is the guide of life").  The society exists to honor achievement in the liberal arts and sciences and to promote academic, social, and community-based programs.  Each year the University of Florida inducts a limted number of undergraduates and the top 10 percent of graduate students into the society. 
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ENC HISTORY DEPARTMENT FACULTY ATTENDS CONFERENCE 
ON FAITH AND HISTORY 
All of the ENC History Department faculty members--Carla Lovett, Randall Stephens, James Cameron, and Donald Yerxa--attended the biennial meeting of the Conference on Faith and History held October 14-16 at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. The Conference on Faith and History, founded in 1967, is a professional organization composed of Christian historians concerned with relating their faith to the issues of historical study. "Christian Faith and the Historian's Vocation" was the theme of the meeting attended by over 200 scholars. Yerxa chaired a session on "The Search for a Christian Interpretation of History." 
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ENC HISTORY DEPARTMENT LECTURE SERIES: 
ANDREW F. WALLS 
The ENC History Department was honored to present a public lecture by Andrew F. Walls on October 5, 2004 entitled "Christians as Historians."  The esteemed professor presented his life experience and research expertise to a combined audience of faculty and students.  Walls discussed his career as an academic in both Scotland and Africa, and highlighted the significant differences in theological and historical understanding found in each culture.  Christianity, Walls contended, is no more bound to western modes of interpretation--the Enlightenment, rationlist discourse, and scientific epistemologies--than it is to an African worldview, which stresses kinship, the importance of ancestors, and the centrality of the supernatural.  In addition, Dr. Walls suggested that we may learn a great deal about the culture of relatively recent converts to Christianity--in this case Africans--by examining the history and conversion literature of ealier eras: the Norse sagas and Bede's Ecclesiastical History for instance. Following the lecture, Professor Walls participated in a lively and insightful discussion with the audience.  Walls's lecture on October 5th was co-sponsored by The Historical Society. 

Andrew F. Walls has been called the "greatest living historian of the missionary dimension of Christian history." He is the leading authority on Christianity in its cross-cultural and global context. Prominent religious historian Mark Noll maintains that "no one has written with greater wisdom about what it means for the Western Christian religion to become the global Christian religion than Andrew F. Walls." 

Professor Walls served as a missionary to Sierre Leone and Nigeria and taught for many years at the University of Aberdeen. He is founder and director emeritus of the Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Christian World at the University of Edinburgh and founding editor of the Journal of Religion in Africa. He has been a guest professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and Harvard Divinity School, and is professor emeritus at the University of Edinburgh. 

Professor Walls's two most recent books are The Missionary Movement in Christian History (Orbis, 1996) and The Cross Cultural Process in Christian History (Orbis, 2002). 
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Because of the generosity of alumni and foundations, the History Department at Eastern Nazarene College hosts a distinguished lecture series that brings prominent scholars and practitioners to campus to give public lectures in congenial settings. 

Past ENC History Department Lectures