Advent is a time of preparation as people worldwide begin to prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ. Since 2001, Goshen College students, staff and faculty are being offered an online spiritual resource to help prepare our hearts and minds for this season. Daily Advent devotions, a collaboration between Campus Ministries and the Public Relations office, are being offered online at www.goshen.edu/devotions, by daily e-mail or via an RSS feed. The theme, “Floods of Mercy,” is taken from Mennonite Church USA worship resources found in Leader Magazine. “It’s an opportunity for us to engage in the season itself, a time...

By Tamara Carrington • November 29, 2012 • News

The Midwest Religion and Science Society chapter at Goshen College will attempt to create dialogue about the relationship between religion and science this year at the twelfth annual Science and Religion Conference. MRSS hosts two conferences a year, one at Goshen College in March and the other at Andrews University in October. The March conference will be held this weekend from Friday to Sunday. Celia Deane-Drummond, the featured speaker at the conference this weekend, is a professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame. Her educational career began at Cambridge University, where she earned a degree in natural sciences,...

By Quinn Brenneke • March 21, 2012 • News

Thanks to a generous gift, the Mennonite Historical Library added an unusual edition of the Koran to its collection. The edition, the first Dutch translation, was completed by a Mennonite and published in 1658.  Timothy and Ruth Stoltzfus Jost, of Harrisonburg, Va., made it possible for MHL to purchase the book from a Dutch bookseller. Aside from the text of the Koran itself, the book “includes a detailed description of Muslim theology…and a fairly lengthy biography of Muhammad,” said Professor John D. Roth, director of the Mennonite Historical Library and head of the history department. In 1657, Mennonite scholar Jan...

By Serena Townsend • October 5, 2011 • Features

Any Goshen College student can testify: hitting the books is an essential part of getting a good grade, though reading about something and experiencing it are entirely different. Just ask Emma Ruth, a first-year sociology major who thought she knew all about Hutterites until she became one for a week. Ruth’s interest in Hutterite culture was sparked as a child when she read a book about a young Hutterite girl. “I was especially intrigued by the homemade ice cream that they made in the story… it looked so good,” said Ruth. She remembers staying home from school sick and evading...

By Maddie Ruth • February 17, 2011 • Features

Two Franciscan brothers, Richard Goodin and Joshua van Clees, from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago visited the Goshen College campus last Friday to inform students about their more than 300-mile trek from Roanoke, Va. to Washington D.C. These two men, as well as four other brothers from the Catholic Theological Union, decided to search for God in an untypical way and set out on their journey without money or food – wearing just the clothes they had on their backs. Goodin explained the true challenge for this journey. “We’re men," he said. "It’s not easy for us to not...

By Sarah Noah • April 1, 2010 • News

People from across the country will be meeting at Goshen College this weekend to discuss “rethinking humanity and ethics in light of the science-religion partnership” in the 10th annual Religion and Science Conference. This year’s lecturer, Philip Clayton, is the professor of religion and philosophy at Claremont Graduate University. He wrote in summarizing his presentations that his three lectures will “use evolutionary theory, together with insights from the religious traditions, in order to better understand what humanity is and how we should act in the world.” His opening lecture, Friday at 7:30 p.m., is entitled “Starting with the Big Picture:...

By Marlys Weaver • March 18, 2010 • News

Amy Showalter browsed through possible Lenten themes for her online devotion. Bypassing "Wisdom and Utter Foolishness," "Exposure to Light" and "What is in Store," she finally settled on "Waiting Paired with Practice," which included the scripture passage of Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16. According to Showalter, a senior, "It was a good spiritual discipline to see how my story might align to the text and allow people to understand their own faith journeys." Goshen College faculty, staff and students contribute devotions every weekday during the 40 days of Lent. These personal accounts – each linked to a daily theme – are used...

By Hannah Groff • April 15, 2009 • News

Shane Claiborne invited Goshen College to “love God, love people and follow Jesus” in a special chapel on Wednesday. Claiborne is one of the founding members of The Simple Way, an intentional faith community in Philadelphia. Through his message "The Scandal of Grace," Claiborne stressed that people should not only believe in Jesus, but follow Jesus in their lives. As Claiborne reminded his audience, Jesus had an awesome imagination and did cool things like pulling coins out of fish mouths – and that’s something worth following. “Jesus came for the people that are broken, not for the people that have...

By Annalisa Harder • March 18, 2009 • News

Shane Claiborne, a self-declared “ordinary radical,” writer and social activist is coming to Goshen College next week. He is speaking at an extra chapel on Wednesday titled “The Scandal of Grace,” and during regular chapel on Friday titled “Another Way of Doing Life.” Claiborne is also speaking on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Downtown 808 Goshen Theater and has a special question and answer session for students at 9:30 p.m. in Recreation-Fitness Center room 104. Claiborne has written two books, "The Irresistible Revolution" (Zondervan, 2006) and "Jesus for President" (Zondervan, 2008). He lives in a community in Philadelphia called...

By Elizabeth Speigle • March 11, 2009 • News