Look around the whole place. What meets the visitors’ eyes? Will they feel invited into our ministry in the larger world?
The pictures on the wall, for instance. At my home church, 13 of the 17 framed photos hanging in the vestibule and the hallways and the fellowship room are of the building or sanctuary at one point or other in our history. The message here could be, not that we worship in this space, but that we worship the space!
The dominant picture in our fellowship hall is an oversize version of Warner Sallman’s well-coiffed and placid Head of Christ (1940), a living-room-style portrait loved by many a white congregation of yesteryear. Because so many grew up with this now out-dated image, its popularity forbids replacement by something more representative of Jesus as we have come to know him, “as if for the first time,” in the gospels.
What else meets the eye of the visitor? Ah, the bulletin board. Often overcrowded with dog-eared notices, maybe you have someone who keeps close watch over it and keeps it tidy and up to date, so that our work in the world beckons to others.
And signage? I see that we are doing much better these days on posting clear identifiers of space and directions to other spaces. Nothing worse for a visitor than to be lost in a strange place, unless it’s also to get the impression that anyway the members here are familiar with their private club.
Look around with the eyes of a non-member, and see what message you get.
Dear Dr. Chrisman,
I am writing to you in hope of getting some information on Walter Kaufmann. I’ve been studying his works for sometime and admire him greatly. I wanted to learn where his place of burial is. No one that I have contacted thus far knows the answer to that. Perhaps his remains were cremated, but I haven’t learned that either. Some few years ago I made a memorial for him on the web site Find A Grave, so it would be helpful if I could give some definitive information on his final resting place.
I’m familiar with the Walter Kaufman Web Site Project and have referenced it in my memorial. In a visit just the other day to that site, I discovered the information about the memorial stone you arranged to have installed for Prof. Kaufmann at Princeton University Chapel. What a superb and beautiful way to honor his memory. I thought perhaps because of your involvement in that effort, you might have some information regarding his interment.
I contacted Andrew Spear at Grand Rapids some months ago. He kindly responded but did not have any information on the professor’s burial. I don’t know whether Prof. Kaufmann’s brother Felix could be of help and whether he survives. In any case, I could not find a way to contact him or Prof. Kaufmann’s two children David and Dinah.
This comment space was the only way I could discover to contact you via the web. I am delighted to see your wonderful post encouraging chaplains to get out and meet their congregants! I admire your mission. Warm regards,
Terry Ellen Ferl
Saint Louis, Missori
Dear Terry,
Thanks so much for your message and your interest in Walter Kaufmann. I took two courses from him when I was a student at Princeton and audited another. Even so, I didn’t appreciate him as fully as I came to once I had been to divinity school (for which he wrote me a recommendation!). One student of his once quipped that Kaufmann gave him permission to leave the church. In my case, it was the opposite–he gave me permission to stay in the church: on the condition of honesty as scrupulous as his.
In fact, though, I do not know anything about his interment, despite many inquiries. His daughter has died, and his son lives in Florida. When I urged Princeton University Press to re-issue Faith of a Heretic, they had to get the rights from Doubleday which also required David’s permission, which they got. So it has been out some two years now in a beautiful paperback edition.
And, yes, I made my memorial to him with that carving in the University Chapel. It meant a lot to me. And, surprisingly, there was very little objection because, as you know, he was a self-declared atheist and some people thought that he himself would have objected. But you know, his last book was “Four Dmensions of Religion,” in which he demonstrated his appreciation of religion. Perhaps, about his atheism he “protested too much.”
Tell me about yourself and what you do. And how did you come to read Kaufmann and become such a fan?
Every blessing, and thanks again for contacting me,
Rick Chrisman