A letter from President Phipps

I believe a Messiah College education—one rooted in the love of God and neighbor—prepares our students for lives of service, leadership and reconciliation at this very turbulent moment in time. We need to educate our students for civic engagement built on the premise of God’s love as the essential foundation for knowledge.

Timothy K. Eatman, a dean at Rutgers University, argues that education must be grounded in human connectedness—fortified by five senses of civic engagement: hope, history, passion, empathy and planning—which he compares to our five physical senses in an afterward titled “Reflections on the Center of the Civic.” When empowered by love-based knowledge, these five senses can inform the work of Messiah College students, educators, staff and alumni to promote human flourishing in our communities and world.

Eatman’s Five Senses of Civic Engagement

The Sense of Hope

Our students and alumni will be wise leaders, advancing the common good, only if they are educated to practice love imbued with the sense of hope.

The Sense of History

Along with hope, the sense of history provides students with a more robust and nuanced consideration of past events and people who can illuminate their present and future understanding of themselves, others and the world.

The Sense of Passion

Informed by a sense of history, the sense of passion “allows life’s penetrating questions to penetrate one’s work,” according to Eatman. At Messiah College, the sense of passion refers to the channeling of our talents, abilities and resources for the furthering of God’s kingdom.

The Sense of Empathy

Our sense of passion naturally inspires us to a deeper sense of empathy, the capacity to understand another’s perspective with personal feeling. Eatman emphasizes that empathy helps us realize “we’re all connected.”

The Sense of Planning

Finally, as a community, we need to engage in the sense of planning. Eatman defines planning as “traction for steps toward progress.” Careful and deliberate planning for our institution’s future is essential to making the pursuit of transformative knowledge grounded in love possible. We are committed to envisioning and implementing our institutional strategic plan on an annual basis.

James Davison Hunter defines faithful, love-inspired civic engagement as a “faithful presence,” saying in a 2010 interview with Christianity Today, “If there is a possibility for human flourishing in our world, it does not begin when we win the culture wars, but when God’s word of love becomes flesh in us, reaching every sphere of social life.” May we all love and learn in such a generous way that our faithful presence as Christ followers leads to excellence and knowledge; faith and understanding; service and reconciliation; and, ultimately, to human flourishing for all people.