Summit Ministries

Hey! I'm at the Ohio Summit as the only student from Washington. I've lived in Seattle since last year, and I came to the Cedarville Summit because I knew that they'd be likely to have a practice piano, since it's at a university. Music is a big part of my life, but I also like to read about philosophy and ideas, which makes Summit a fun place for me. Recently I've begun to seek a foundation for my faith in order make it my own. I realize that my faith cannot be a hand–me–down, but must be my choice. I have to really choose to believe in God. The sessions have been useful in realizing the intellectual completeness of Christianity.

After breakfast today, we began the lectures with a talk by John Stonestreet on Postmodernism. If Christianity is a worldview that offers intellectually solid answers and a certain view of life, then Postmodernism is a fragmented melancholy, a way of viewing that says we cannot really see. Reality is just what we think it is, which means that morality and meaning are only social constructs or personal phenomenon, not subject to an absolute or ultimate significance. Postmodernism leaves us with no way to discern how to really live or how to really understand anything. Life is random, and we are subject to its whims. This talk reminded me that although truth can sometimes be obscured by the way we see it, it does not follow that truth does not exist.

After Postmodernism, we transitioned into talks about our government, laws, and history. Debbie Brezina talked about the necessity of treating laws as they were originally meant to be treated, not interpreting them any way we want to in order to serve our own purposes. Dr. Kevin Sims, a professor here at Cedarville, then outlined the general views of history that we can hold—: some believe it is a wheel turning in endless cycles; others that it is the constant, linear progress of humankind; others still believe history cannot really be known; and finally some believe that history has a definite direction because of the biblical God. After lunch, Dr. Sims described what he believed to be the general view of our founding fathers: America was to be based on Christian principles and morals.

The long afternoon breaks are always a fun time, and today we went to John Bryan Park to play sports and climb trees. Upon our return to campus, I played a game of chess which I left unfinished so I could make it to dinner.

We had worship as usual before a wonderful talk by John Stonestreet on the Problem of Evil and Suffering. Having had many encounters with real suffering in people's lives, Mr. Stonestreet did not mince words or feelings in stating the reality of evil. After dealing with some logical conundrums in the existence of evil and describing some moving instances of people who have suffered, he brought the issue back to the biblical fact of God’s willingness to suffer for us to redeem us.

Summit is amazing! The people here are all wonderful, not only the speakers, but the counselors and students. All the blog entries in the world wouldn't do it justice. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in worldviews and Christianity.