For the Christian, a calling to the world of academia can be discouraging. Desiring to be salt and light on a decaying or dark campus can raise doubts. At times, the so-called “marketplace of ideas” seems anything but that. We need all the encouragement we can find.
Kelly Monroe Kullberg’s recent book, Finding God Beyond Harvard: The Quest for Veritas, can serve as that shot in the arm. Obviously a sequel to her earlier work, Finding God at Harvard: Spiritual Journeys of Thinking Christians, this book retells the story of Veritas Forums springing up around the country in an engaging way. Kelly’s writing is smooth, peppered with thoughtful reflections about God and his ways.
The fact that I chose to call her “Kelly” (instead of “Ms. Kullberg”) gives you an idea of her personal style. I felt like I got to know a new friend in just the first few pages. By her own admission, the book is part history of the Veritas movement, part investigation of Veritas Forum content, and part personal memoir. Perhaps any one of those components would have been an interesting read. Woven together, they make for a delightful yet stimulating and challenging experience.
For example, in the prologue (entitled, “A Sense of Wonder”), she tells us, “I love beauty. So much that it aches. I want in. Inside of things. Put conversely, and bluntly, the secular world bores me to tears. Its sky is low and thick with clouds, blocking the sun. There is no Author and no great story of conquest against forces of darkness, advancing a kingdom of light, love and glory. All is relativized. Ideas are minimal. Eyes closed to revelation, the cynic sees no glory, no intrinsic value to human beings; thus man is laid low. Truth is dead, and so people grapple for power. Goodness is analyzed and dismissed by the skeptic’s small heart and mind. Romance, imagination and enchantment fade, needing the transcendent to break in” (p. 14).
It makes sense that this combination of doxology and chutzpah emboldened her to take on a place like Harvard to be true to its watchword, “Veritas.” When you relive the moments when God opened doors, softened hearts, and drew crowds, you share that “sense of wonder” and find encouragement to seek the advance of God’s kingdom in your corner of academia. A silent “Amen” may emerge when you read, “…the gospel belongs in the middle, not the margins, of the most secular incubators of cultural leadership – the universities” (p. 80).
Hopefully, many readers will also add, “me too!” to her confession, “I am stubborn enough to believe that God hasn’t given up on these universities that were founded in faith. Maybe those seeds beneath the surface aren’t dead, only dormant – and potentially full of life” (p. 160).
Reviewed by: Randy Newman
